RV trip in Alaska
 

We are a family of five (kids age; 9, 6, and 3)planning our first trip(10day) to Alaska in August. I have a tentative itinerary but need a help to complete it. Here is our itinerary:Fly into Anchorage, spend a night at Lakeshore Motor Inn.
Day 1: Pick up R.V. and drive to Denali Park. Stay at Riley Creek Campground.
Day 2: Take a shuttle bus to Toklat and do a day hike.Day 3: Do some activities around the park; watch dog sled demo, ranger program, etc.Day 4: Drive to Seward. (7.5 hr drive?)On the way to Seward, stop at Girdwood for gold panning at Crow Creek Mine and Tram Ride at Mr. Alyeska. Stay at Miller's Landing Campground in Seward.
Day 5: Take an all-day Kenai Fjords Cruise.
Day 6: Explore the town of Seward ( Sealife Center), and maybe go charter fishing?
Day 7: Drive to Kenai with stops in Soldotna. Any good R.V. campground?
Day 8: Drive to Homer and sightsee. Drive back to Cooper Landing and stay at Russian River Campground.Day 9: Drive back to Anchorage.Explore Anchorage. Question:Is there a good place to break our long trip to stay on our way from Denali to Seward other than Anchorage? or any good place to stay between Homer and Anchorage other than Russian River? Any other suggestions? I would really appreciate the help.

Driving from Kenai/Soldotna to Homer and back to Cooper Landing is too much for one day. Consider driving to Russian River on the end of Day 6, stay in Homer on Day 7 and either stay in Homer on Day 8 or return to Russian River.

I agree with repete that Day 8 is too long. In the Kenai area we just did a looksee at Captain Cook State Park. Nice wooded sites but no hookups. You should have no trouble with one night on battery and propane but it will add some extra miles to your trip. No camp store or anything nearby. We noticed some long term RVs parked in school yards and were told there was a program to decrease vandalism during the summer by having people camp there. You might check to see if an overnight is allowed since this would be a good place (proximity to playground) for your kids. Possibly check with the Kenai Visitors Center. I would drive to Homer from Seward, spend the night there and do the Kenai/Soldotna stop on the way back.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I would take the advice of going to Seward to Homer and spend the night there before heading back. Is there a good place to stop between Denali and Seward other than Anchorage?

Just a suggestion, but you might enjoy camping at the waterfront city RV park in Seward. We enjoyed being able to walk to boat dock for the Kenai Fjords tour,shops,restaurants, etc. and still had a lovely view, as we parked right at the waterfront,facing the bay. You can also walk to the Sea Life Center. There is a nice path along the waterfront and we enjoyed walking, watching people fish, visiting with other campers,watching the seals and birds, etc. We did not have children with us, but the children we saw seemed to being having a great time! In general we were more impressed with the public campgrounds than with the private.(I had read mixed reviews of Miller's Landing)We also enjoyed Russian River, and hiked to the falls (saw bears!).Another pretty place to camp is Williwaw, near the Portage Visitor Center. Have fun...wish I was going back this year!

I would also suggest that a drive from Denali Park to Seward in a day is too much. You are looking at 8-9 hours with brief stops- and add a least a couple hours with your touring choices.
I think and have been there- Miller's Landing is a dump. Better is the city "parking lot", but there are some other camp ground to consider.
Go with the above routing advice, it is a better option.

We loved staying in the Seward city RV park. If you get there by mid day you can get a spot right on the water. If not, you can just move when one opens the next day.

We enjoyed the fabulous view of the mountains, watching the small boats and large ships come and go and spotting sea otters close to shore. You will be close enough to walk everywhere in town--marina, shops, restaurants, internet store, Sea Life Center, etc.

We loved the Russian River national forest campground. It felt more like a campground than most "campgrounds" we saw in Alaska which were just parking lots. Fishing is great there as is the hike to the falls. You can make reservations which is nice and necessary because it stays full.

You might think about using the Great Alaskan Toursaver for some of your activities. I used it last summer with my party of six and bought three books.
we used the 2-for-1 vouchers for a Kenai Fjords cruise (all day), Miller's Landing and Alaska Sealife center. At the website (www.toursaver.com) they have descriptions of all of the tours and activities in the book. They have a Homer sightseeing trip on Kachemak Bay as well. We saved a good deal of money using the TourSaver.

Considering the ages of your kids I think they might enjoy the dog sled kennel tour out of Sewerd rather than sport fishing. Also, think about the 6 hour Kenai Fjords tour over the all day one, we saw tons on it and would not have wanted a longer tour. In Homer be sure to walk along the Spit beach as there are usually many eagles there.

Barblab makes a good point. The 9-year-old might be able to enjoy the fishing trip, but it might be too much for the 6 and 3 year olds.

If you charter a whole boat, you could tailor the experience. Check at the Fish House across from the Small Boat Harbor.
There are many ``six-pack''boats -- referring to the number of passengers, not beer. The downside is they are smaller boats.

But if you get on a general charter they will be pursuing fish that are too big (halibut) or too powerful (silver salmon) for young kids to comfortably handle.

You could split up for the day and send the eldest with one parent for silver salmon and do the dogsled/Sealife with the others.

A fun freebie for kids those ages is to prowl around the small boat harbor. There is a great variety of boats and you can often spot otters and other sealife from the floats. Plus it's fun to watch the anglers pull their varied catches up to the cleaning areas.

We just got back from a RV trip in alaska. We stayed at the water front park in Seward and really enjoyed it. You can walk to almost everywhere in town from there. In the evening we saw otters and sea lions swin by. We drove out to Millers landing and the road was in bad shape and it was quite a ways from town. There is a dump station and water right near the water front. Have you considered stopping at portage glacier? there are two nice campgrounds there and a real nice visitors center. There is a good mile hike to Byron Glacier where we got to walk on the snow from the glacier. Of course I don't know how the trail will be in August glaciers change so much over the summer.Also If you need water or a dump station the Tesoro gas station at the Portage turn off has both. I hope you have as great a time as we did. Eileen