Our trip has come and gone and I just wanted to say thanks to all the folks who weighed in with helpful advice during the planning stages.

If I may quote Robert Burns, "“The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.”

In our case what went awry was our plan to spend five nights at Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge, the heart of the trip. We were on the boat headed for the lodge when the captain made the decision to turn around and return to Seward due to rough Gulf of Alaska sea conditions. We were told it was the second time in nine years that they had scrubbed a trip already in progress.

They were going to try again then next day, but the sea forecast still looked bad, and, as expected, my wife had gotten sick on the boat. The scopolamine patch moderated the effects, but it was still not enjoyable. In any case we later heard that no one got in or out for several days.

I quickly and miraculously was able to change the remainder of our hotel and car rental reservations to accommodate the new schedule which now was, in order, Seward, Girdwood, Denali State Park, Talkeetna, and Anchorage.

The weather can be summed up as "rainy", with at least some rain on all 18 days we were there, though we did have a couple hours of real sun at the Alaska State Fair and the Wildlife Conservation Center. But we pretty much lived in our rain gear.

Denail did make a very brief appearance when we were at the McKinley Princess Lodge, and I got a decent photo, otherwise we never saw it from the ground in 7 days in the region. However, I did get some great views on my glacier landing flight from Talkeetna.

We finally saw the northern lights on the flight home when we were above the clouds.

All in all it was a good trip if not a perfect one, and we are already considering a return some day.

A few photos. The weather at our first stop, the lodge in Cooper Landing, a taste of things to come ...



A shot of Denali taken from my flight. The North Peak is visible but the true summit South Peak is obscured in clouds to the left. The prominent ridge in the center is Karstens Ridge, route of the first ascent in 1913.



The northern lights as seen from our flight, taken by my wife with her iPhone.



Thanks again for all the help!

Thanks for the update. So sorry the weather didn't cooperate. If it's any consolation, it's still raining and wet off and on! Typically, June is sunnier, but you never know. Glad you had a good flight around Denali.

Thanks christy. Well, we went to Alaska and got Alaska weather. I guess that's how it works.

BTW, since we had a few days in Seward after we didn't get to the lodge, we did a Major Marine day tour and at least got to see some glaciers. That was spectacular.


Holgate Glacier

Aialik Glacier put on quite a calving show. You can see the large wave this is generating which got out to our boat a few minutes later. These were the first tidewater glaciers I've ever seen.


Aialik Glacier

Nice pictures Nelson. i am glad you got to take the trip and that the cancelled part was not a deal breaker. Thanks for coming back and posting the results.

Thanks for the great photos.
Amazing you got to see the northern lights from the plane!

Thanks schmerl, glad you liked the photos. Yes, we were lucky on the lights from the plane! It went on for about half an hour. We kept thinking the show was over then it came back even better a couple of times.

Those are great pictures. and calving is always stunning, I think. the benefit of the cloudy day is that the blue of the glaciers really comes through. I'm glad you got to see some of the greatness of the "great land" !!