yk - I find that if I follow you along on Google Maps I get a better sense of your trip. Add that in with your great pictures and I am truly an armchair traveler!

Nelson I looked but did not see you post a TR on your Alaska trip. Yikes it must have been super stressful to have to scramble like that! What was the issue with the boat? Is the lodge one of those wilderness lodges in Seward area where it is only reachable by boat?

dfrostnh I didn't realize there are sled dog races in NH. My Alaska friend said it snowed so little last year they had to cancel a lot of events.

Tdiddy12 The google map of where we visited was inspired by Melnq8 's trip reports! She goes to all these small towns in the Alps that I have never heard of, and it was so helpful to be able to visualize with the aid of the map.

There is a facebook page for New England sled dog club and it looks like lack of snow and properties have changed what we knew back in the 1990s. Our friends had Siberian Huskies and their property almost abutted federal flood control property in NH so friends could do training runs. The big race was in Sandwich Notch, maybe early February for mid distance racing. Not the sprint races held in Laconia. We also traveled one year to Marmora Canada for a 50 mile race. They had moved to NH from CT for better snow after running the Idtarod in AK. Their NH friends ran the Yukon Quest and wrote a book about their adventure, Running North.

August 17, Sunday, Day 5
☁️🏔️☀️

We woke up to cloudy skies still but the rain had stopped. Either way, we are checking out from our Healy AirBnB this morning as we have a long drive ahead. We really enjoyed the rental; very comfortable, quiet and private, excellent communications. 1 point off for being 30 minutes north of Denali, another point off for having no W/D (they haul water to the house so they try to minimize water usage).

We left around 10am; I had expected clear skies based on the sunset we saw last night, but nope, mountains were still shrouded in low clouds. I don't think I truly appreciated the following fact until we were driving south: Denali NP where the entrance is, is situated NE of the mountain. Denali State Park, OTOH, is to the south east, and the 2 parks are almost 100 miles apart. As we continue to head south, the skies became progressively clear. When we reached Cantwell, the highway turns southwestward, and BAM you suddenly get a full view of Denali in the distance with clear blue skies! That was quite a sight to behold!!! There are a number of pull-outs on that stretch of Parks Hwy. Many tour buses (and passenger cars) pulled over for the view. Hard to believe but finally after 72 hours we got to see Denali, just as we were leaving that part of the State.

When we finally reached Denali State Park, we pulled into both ViewPoints. There is a Denali North View Point (mile 162.7) and a Denali South View Point (Mile 135.2). The South ViewPoint wins hands down even though it's farther away. The North viewpoint angle isn't as great as it's partially obstructed by a mountain in front.

With the several stops we made, it took us 4h15m to reach Wasilla, where we stopped for lunch. I had googled and found a Hawaiian poke place (3 poke bowls $56). Service was fast, and a nice change from our homemade turkey cheese sandwiches. Next stop is (45 mins drive) back in Anchorage where we stopped at Carrs to stock up on groceries ($64) for the next 2 days while we are in Girdwood, as the town does not have a big supermarket. Another 35 minutes on the Seward Hwy along Turnagain Arm brought us into this ski resort town Girdwood.

Girdwood technically is part of Anchorage, but it has its very distinctive flair. Many of the houses are built like ski chalets. We quickly checked into our Airbnb, unloaded our suitcases and groceries, then hurried back into the car and drove 1 mile to Alyeska Resort. I didn't want to give up such a beautiful sunny day — our first sunny day since we arrived 5 days ago — esp when weather forecast for tomorrow is clouds again.

Alyeska Resort operates an Aerial Tram up Mt Alyeska — for skiing in winter and for mountain biking in summer. They also have hiking trails in the summer; in fact, you can hike 2 miles up the mountain (2200ft elev) if you wish. The tram is pretty pricey ($48 adults; $38 youth); I wouldn't have done it if the weather wasn't great.

We arrived at the top just after 5:30pm, and the last tram departs just after 7pm. With our limited time, there isn't much hiking we could do (hiking map here). We went on the Mighty Mite Trail, which is hard to judge the difficulty based on the map. It's a pretty short trail (maybe 0.5 mile?) but it's actually very steep and towards the top has pretty steep drop-offs. But you do get a really amazing view of the Turnagain Arm, and on the mountain side you can see a couple of cirque glaciers among snow-capped mountains.

We headed back down the tram around 6:30pm and stayed in to cook dinner that evening. Since there is no W/D at the Healy AirBnB, we did laundry this evening.

~ End of Day 5 ~

Pulled over on the side of Parks Hwy just past Cantwell. Our first time seeing Denali. Also, did you notice the blue sky?

Denali South viewpoint (mile 135.2) First time we see CLEAR BLUE SKIES in 5 days!!!

View of Turnagain Arm from Alyeska upper tram terminal (up near the top of Mighty Mike trail). Steep drop off on the right

Looking at surrounding mountains at Alyeska

Wow! Look at those blue skies and view of Denali!! I can sense the excitement you felt when you saw it. We got a (very) partial view of it when we were hiking on the Curry Ridge Trail, above the Denali South Viewpoint where you also stopped. Then we saw more of it at the viewpoint but always peaking out from the clouds. I did get fabulous views from the glacier flight out of Talkeetna.

Thanks for looking but I didn't do a TR.

The issue wasn't with the boat, it was with the Gulf of Alaska! The wind had shifted and was blowing strongly out of the southeast, seas were too rough, and the captain decided to turn the boat around when we were about only about an hour or so out of Seward. The lodge is Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge and is only accessible by boat. No one got in or out for a couple of days. My wife got really seasick and we decided to abandon any attempt to get there.

It was indeed a stressful couple of hours juggling the remainder of our trip, but somehow, amazingly, it all worked out.

Loving your report, thanks for posting!

When a friend from AK visited NH he said he got claustrophobia because of all the trees and hills hiding the sky. Glad you finally got blue skies and a terrific view of Denali.

Monday August 18, Day 6
Train ride and river float 🚂🛶

After early morning wake-ups the past few days, we were glad we could sleep in a bit today, and with clean clothes to wear. The sunny cloudless sky is gone as the low clouds have returned. I have booked us on a 7-hr excursion today through Chugach Adventures. They offer many different types of tours, and I booked one of the more popular ones — the Spencer Glacier Float. The front half of it is by train on Alaska Railroad, the back half of it is on a float down the Placer River. For the train part, one can board in Anchorage or in Girdwood (that's us). When you book the excursion, Chugach Adventures take care of the train booking for you.

We arrived at Girdwood station at 10:45am for the 11am train. "Station" is a bit of a stretch - it has a small hut/ shelter. Someone from the company met us there to check-in, and took down our rubber boots sizes. At 11am the train pulls into the station, this is part of their Glacier Discovery Route. The conductor calls out your name and gives you your tickets with seat assignments. The train then continues along the Turnagain Arm, pass Portage, then goes through the 2 tunnels to reach Whittier. The ride is quite pretty — first along the water, and once turning inland you have views of a number of glaciers on the mountains. The train goes fairly slow, about 30mph, and even slower inside the tunnels. The second tunnel known as the Anton Anderson Tunnel, is unique in that it is a combined railroad & vehicle tunnel, and the only "road" to reach Whittier. It's only 1 "lane" so cars and trains have to alternate, as well as each direction.

It took a little over 1 hour to go from Girdwood to Whittier station (a little after 12n), where we had time to disembark and walk around for a bit. Majority of the passengers on our train were cruise ship passengers who boarded in Anchorage to get to their cruise ship waiting at the Whittier port. There are multiple coaches waiting for them at the train station. The train is then scheduled to leave Whittier at 12:45pm, go through the tunnels and stop at Portage station to pick up new passengers.

We had about 30 minutes to walk around... Whittier is tiny but has a pretty harbor. We found a bench by the water and ate our packed lunch, then returned to the train. Between Whittier and Portage, there were very few passengers so the conductor let us sit in the double-decker panoramic car, but told us we should return to our regular car/seats before Portage because they are expecting >100 people to board. I believe many of these passengers booked the other excursion tour which includes the AWCC.

After the Portage stop, the Chugach staff found us and gave us our rubber boots to change into, and then we all got off at the Spencer Whistle stop for the rafting portion. I was told by our guide that the Chugach excursions brought in so many passengers for the Alaska Railroad that the trains added on an extra freight car for them to stow the floats.

Once we got off in Spencer, there are 2 old-style school buses waiting for us to take us down a dirt road towards the staging area by the water. There, we put on our PFDs (personal floating device) and listened to the safety instructions. Chugach really focuses on safety — one being the water is cold so if anyone goes overboard, you don't have much time to rescue before they get hypothermia. two, we are in the wilderness — there are no roads and the only transport is the train which isn't due to return for several hours. Therefore, if anyone has a medical emergency, it is a big deal.

Finally our huge group gets divided into small groups - ours only have 6 people plus our guide - to get onto the float. Our starting point is the glacier lake at Spencer Glacier. In summer, ice chunks break off from the glacier and there are plenty of ice bergs floating around on the lake. Our guide rowed us around the lake for a bit - though keeping our distance from the bergs because you don't know how huge they really are below the water surface and there is always a risk they will flip over. We zigzagged through the bergs on the lake for about 20 minutes, before our guide found a safe route to the outlet of the lake down the Placer River. The rating of the rapids here is 2 at the highest, so it's pretty chill. My son and I sat at the front of the boat and we did get splashed a few times.

We then were on the river for another 1-1.5 hrs? It was pretty peaceful. Didn't see much wildlife but our guide was really good in keeping a rolling commentary. He's done this for 5 years now and in the winter months he is a backcountry skiing guide. We got off 7 miles down the river by the railroad track, and the train stopped here to pick all of us up and dropped most of us off at Portage Station, where a Chugach guide drives us back to Girdwood in a van. The train does eventually go back to Girdwood but it first heads back to Whittier first, so if you stayed on the train it would take an additional 2 hours before it arrives at Girdwood station.

It was almost 6pm when we returned to Girdwood, so we drove directly to the "town" for dinner. Girdwood's business district is tiny and only has a handful of restaurants. We picked Basecamp and had to wait about 15 minutes before we got seated. Husband ordered Grilled Halibut dinner, son had kids quesadilla, we shared a strawberry and goat cheese salad, and i ordered 1/2 lb dungeness crab. We shared a lemon berry cake for dessert. Dinner was $155

Thoughts on the excursion — the train part was nice, very scenic, and the train staff was excellent. They had lots of commentary on the scenery and history. The float part feels a bit long towards the end, but otherwise peaceful, and our guide telling us his life story was pretty engrossing. The whole excursion was pretty pricey - $299pp - though it does cover a lot (train, float, all the equipment, guide etc).

~ End of Day 6 ~

Alaska Railroad train — they have 4 passenger cars but only 1 car has upper observation deck

View from the train towards Whittier

This route is called Glacier Discovery. You see a number of glaciers near Whittier

Whittier harbor

Spencer Glacier Whistle stop

Floats on the ready; Spencer glacier in the distance, icebergs floating in the lake

Spencer glacier

On the float going between icebergs

My 1/2lb Dungeness crab dinner

Wonderful photos making Whittier look its best. It's the only town we didn't like but we visited in 2004 before it became a popular cruise ship spot. DH had to go thru the tunnel but one overnight was enough in what was a former secret military base with the gloomy concrete towers, next morning we were first in line to leave. When our local friends had spent a year in AK only trains could use the tunnel. Cars were loaded onto the train.

Girdwood was our only almost bear encounter. We were attending the Forest Fair. A bear was attracted bu the food smells. I heard yelling and saw the bushes move.

Your river ride sounds a little scary.

Excellent day 6 commentary and photos. You guys continue to pack a lot of action into one day. We didn't go to Whittier, but did spend some time at Portage Lake which is on the road before the tunnel. It was in the afternoon when we left the AWCC, a special day for us: about two hours of blue sky!! Finished off the evening seeing surfers on the bore tide in the Turnagain Arm.

I did a similar Class 2 raft trip down the Kenai River, where I saw the only wild grizzly of the trip.

BTW, your day 3 photo "Boot with Caribou Print", I have a very similar one "Boot with Bear Print"!

Oh wow, you went to watch bore tide! I checked the bore tide schedule and it really didn't work with our trip. The turnagain arm seems so shallow it's hard to imagine a tide high enough to surf. But of course it's also the second highest bore tide in the world. The funniest thing is that my roommate in Anchorage - she lives 15 minutes from Beluga Point and she has never bothered to go check out the Bore Tide ever (despite living there for 20 years).

Yes, the "road" part in the tunnel was a relatively new thing. The River float was not bad at all; it was a bit bumpy when we first went down the river. We only got a little wet and that's because we were sitting in the front of the craft. I think it is more like Class 1 but they had to call it class 2 because we were in the wilderness.

Tuesday, August 19, Day 7
To the westernmost point!

We have been in Alaska for a whole week now, and I've finally come to terms that we are not going to get sunny days. We had only 1 single day that was sunny; the other 6 days were all overcast. At this point I'm just thankful as long as it doesn't rain.

Originally I had hoped we could do some bicycling in Girdwood — there is a nice bike path along Turnagain Arm called Bird to Gird Trail. I was told it's pretty flat and very scenic as it goes along the water. My problem was finding a bike rental place. I even asked my Airbnb host and called around. There are only 2 places in Girdwood that rent bikes, and both places rent only e-bikes or mountain bikes. In the end, I gave up the idea; it would have taken too much time to bike the trail, and the weather wasn't great anyway (there was threat of rain).

So we packed up and drove straight to AWCC — Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (admission $76)— which is just 15 minutes outside of Girdwood. (I know we have to drive by AWCC on our way to Homer, so it makes sense for us to visit today, instead of yesterday as an add-on during our excursion.) AWCC mostly houses animals that were rescued and cannot be returned back to the wild. We spent a lot more time than I had expected there; one can either drive the 1-mile loop or walk. We opted to walk, and we paused quite often to watch the animals, and we saw everything (bears, Musk ox, wolves, elks, cayotes, bisons, porcupines, deer, reindeer etc) except for the fox and wolverine. It was lunchtime when we finished so we ate our homemade lunch at the picnic tables at AWCC.

Finally we were on our way to Homer. The Seward Hwy through the Chugach National Forest is very scenic, as well as Sterling Hwy through the Cooper Landing area. Eventually we got to Sterling and Soldotna, with Soldotna being the biggest town with shopping centers. We continued south on the Sterling Hwy until we arrived at Anchor Point, where we pulled into a smaller road to reach the Anchor Point State Recreation Area — the most westerly point on the U.S. Highway System. From Anchor Point you can also view the mountain range of Lake Clark NP across Cook Inlet (Mount Iliamna is the easiest to spot). While it wasn't exactly sunny, the cloud cover is definitely thinner down here on the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula.

We then continued on to Homer, and what an amazing sight when you pass the ridge and approach Homer! The Hwy goes down a long steep hill and in front of you is Kachemak Bay and the snow-capped mountains of Kachemak Bay State park across the water. There was a thick marine layer that afternoon. What a breathtaking view. There was no place to pull over so we continued down the hill into Homer. It was 4:30pm and I decided we would stop at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center before it closes at 5pm.

The Refuge HQ is in Homer, but the Refuge covers thousands of miles and the thousands of islands in the Aleutians and beyond. Most of the exhibits focus on the Aleutian Islands, which I knew very little about, and is so fascinating. I didn't realize it was heavily involved during WWII. We watched the film and quickly browsed the exhibits before they close at 5pm. I definitely recommend stopping there if you were in Homer.

We then stopped at the Safeway in Homer to pick up food supplies for our 3 days / 3 nights in Homer, before heading to our AirBnB which is about a 15-min drive East of town. For dinner that night, we drove to the Spit, which is this 4.5-mile narrow land the juts into Kachemat Bay. It reminds me a bit of Bearskin Neck here in Rockport, MA, except to multiply it by a lot. We chose Harbor Grill on the Spit for dinner that night. Son had Alaskan salmon, husband had "tour of Alaska" which has different seafoods including halibut, salmon, shrimp and scallops. I had a salad. That plus 3 drinks and one dessert, totaled dinner of $184.

After dinner we went for a walk on the Spit, went down to the beach area as well as checked out the shops/businesses. I wanted to look for where we're supposed to park and show up the next day for our excursion, before driving back to our AirBnb.

Our AirBnb is slightly up on the hill, and have an expansive view of the Bay and the mountains. Absolutely stunning.

~ End of Day 7 ~

Musk ox at AWCC

Anchor Point, AK. "North America's most westerly highway point"

You can see Mt Iliamna across Cook Inlet from Anchor Point

Very cute buildings on Homer spit

Beach along Homer Spit

View of Kachemak Bay and Kachemak mountains from our Airbnb (taken at 9:30pm)

Hope you don't mind, but since you are interested, here are a couple of bore tide shots.

Taken at Bird Point, which you mention in your Bird to Gird trail comments. The front edge of the bore tide. Note bald eagle sitting in the center tree.


This was taken from the moving car after leaving Bird Point and heading back to Girdwood. You catch up to the tide and can get to several other pullouts to watch it some more.

That's interesting about your roommate when has lived there for 20 years and never gone down to check it out!

Still loving your report. Thanks for posting.

"When a friend from AK visited NH he said he got claustrophobia because of all the trees and hills hiding the sky."...... Stopping mid-read, dfrostnh, to say folks from Oklahoma said the same thing about Maryland!

Another astounding TR, yk.

i've heard people from Kansas say New England is too humpty dumpty and the ocean stinks. Once I talked to two guys who said they preferred living in a tornado area over a place like NH that gets blizzards.

Having experienced both, I will take a blizzard.

yk, great report! Love the photos.

I find it hard to believe anyone would choose to live in Tornado alley instead of places that get blizzards. I take blizzards any day over tornado or earthquake or hurricane zones.

Nelson Thanks for sharing the photos, esp love the one with the bald eagle! I was able to find some YT vides of people surfing on the bore tide.

Wednesday August 20, Day 8
Sea kayaking, hiking and glacier lake at Kachemat Bay State Park

Another day of overcast skies and lots of sea mist in Homer. We had to get up super early for our all-day excursion, arriving on Homer Spit by 7:30am. I have booked us the Ultimate Tour with True North Kayak Adventures. True North offers several kayaking trips, the other 2 are half-day or 3/4 day and only involves kayaking in the Yukon Island area. The Ultimate tour is 9 hours with morning kayaking in Halibut cove and afternoon hike to a glacier lake.

It turns out we were the only people who booked that tour today, which means we have a private tour. We started off with a water taxi ride with our guide and our kayaks to a secluded cove at Peterson Point across the Bay. I have to say, for a city person like me, this was unnerving after the boat left. We were basically in the wilderness, there is nothing there besides this little cove, the 4 of us, and 3 kayaks. Obviously our guide could call a water taxi back to get us but mostly we are left to our own devices.

While our guide was getting all the gear sorted, we explored the little cove. It was low tide so we got to see a number of sea stars clinging to the rocks in the intertidal zone. Then our guide got us geared up. While I have done kayaking on rivers and lakes, I've never gone sea kayaking so I was a bit nervous. But the sea was calm and we also have a "skirt" to protect us from any water splashes. In the shallow waters we saw sea anemones, sea urchins, jellyfishes. Soon we were off towards Halibut Cove.

Halibut Cove is this small community of about 200'ish residents and can only be reached by float plane or water taxi. My son says it's like a small version of Amity Island. Enroute we saw bald eagles and numerous sleeping sea otters. We docked our kayaks by the only coffee shop inside Halibut Cove where we got some hot cocoa. It actually was quite a pleasant day temperature-wise despite overcast skies. The coffee shop owner was from Anchorage and she comes down to Halibut Cove for several months a year to run the coffee shop. She no longer lives in Anchorage however, she spends the rest of the year in Northern Portugal these days. She said only 1-2 dozen residents stay year round in Halibut Cove. Up a path from the coffee shop is a public restroom with running water. After the coffee break we returned to our kayaks and paddled for close to 2 hours before we reached our destination on the other side of Halibut Cove inlet, a beach for the Saddle Trail. In total, we kayaked for about 3 hours and covered 7 miles.

It was lunch time so after taking off the kayaking gear, we ate our homemade sandwiches on the beach, while our guide secured the kayaks. He is born and bred in Homer and therefore really knows the place like the back of his hand. We set off on our hike around 1:15pm — the Saddle Trail is 4 miles out-and-back, the initial 0.5 mile is the steepest with many switchbacks. After you reach the top we entered an old-growth forest, until we got close to the glacier lake. Our guide pointed out lots of interesting things, different plants, the ecology, bear marks on trees, picked different berries for us to try. It took us close to an hour (with stops along the way) to get to our destination, the Grewingk Glacier & the Glacier Lake. Another fascinating fact about Grewlingk was that it was the site of a land-locked tsunami in 1967, where a huge landslide near the glacier triggered a tsunami of the lake.

While this is the 3rd glacier we've seen up close this trip (after Matanuska Glacier and Spencer Glacier), we still haven't gotten tired of them. The skies actually cleared some with bits of sunshine and we could see the blue hues so much better from the floating icebergs in the glacier lake. We have about an hour to kill by the lake (which has a pebbly beach). Our guide had carried a heavy backpack with him all day with snacks and hot water for hot cocoa, so we took up his offer for a snack break. I was absolutely surprised by the number of people we encountered on the trail and at the lake, considering you can on reach this state park by water taxi.

Around 3:15pm we started our 2-mile hike back to the Saddle Trail Beach and waited for our water taxi to take us back to Homer, arriving back close to 5pm. The excursion was definitely not cheap - $250pp plus tax and fees, totally $861 for the 3 of us. But considering that we had a private guide for 9 hours, 2 water taxi rides, all the gear and equipment, I think it's a pretty decent deal! I think this is my most favorite excursion on this trip given the variety of activities, and I'm glad I am still able to do this physically.

We went back to our Airbnb for a short rest, before deciding to return to the Spit for another seafood dinner, this time trying Captain Pattie's. Unsurprisingly there was a bit of a wait, so we walked around the Spit again while waiting for the beeper to go off. Considering how many RVs we saw camped along the Spit, the restaurants are all pretty overwhelmed during tourist season. Both husband and son got char grilled salmon, I had grilled alaskan weathervane scallops. No drinks, no dessert, dinner $150. We all felt our dinner at Harbor Grill the night before was better.

~ End of Day 8 ~