North to Alaska: Week 1 (June 2026)

Alaska National Park Trip

Ever since we retired, we have been planning our trip to Alaska. Because of the distance and the difficulty getting to some of the most remote national parks that are in Alaska, we knew this would likely be our longest and most expensive national park trip. Normally Don does site visit planning, and Tammie does the airfare and accommodation planning for our trip. Because of the difficulty in making arrangements for small planes, sea planes, boat excursions and specialty accommodations, we hired a travel agency, All Alaska Tours, to do the main planning and logistics for this trip.

Day 1

We arrived at the Greenville Spartanburg Airport (GSP) at around 7:00 am to catch our 8:52 am flight to Atlanta. From Atlanta we flew to Seattle. On the way to Seattle we flew by Mt. Rainier. From Seattle we flew to Juneau. We arrived at the Juneau Airport around 6:19 pm (ADT) that’s 10:19 pm EDT. We rented a car at the airport and drove to Aspen Suites Motel about ½ mile from the airport.

Day 2

Day 2 was planned to be a rest and recuperation day to help us adjust to the four-hour time change. We did try to sleep a little later, but we quickly found out that Alaska gets a lot of daylight this time of year. Juneau was experiencing about 21 ½ hours of daylight when we arrived so the sun rose around 3:30 am. We ended up driving to the Mendenhall Glacier and arriving around 7:00 am. We nearly had the place to ourselves. While there we also hiked to Nugget Falls and a few other short trails around the visitor’s center.

From there we drove to downtown Juneau. It is a lovely town and a bit of a tourist trap because it is a cruise ship stop. Juneau is surrounded by the Coast Mountains. It is located along the southeastern coast of the state, nestled between the Tongass National Forest and the waters of the Inside Passage. We visited several sites downtown including the cruise ship docks, a Russian Orthodox Church, and several shops. We stopped for a snack and joined a tour of the state capital building. We planned on riding the Mount Roberts Tram, but it was closed due to a recent accident.

Deciding what to wear can be a challenge in Alaska in the summertime. The temperature started in the upper 40s and got up to the lower 60s in the afternoon. Our research told us we were supposed to wear layers and always have rain gear either on us or nearby in a backpack. We started the day with our vest jackets and by afternoon we left the jackets in the car and had on long sleeve shirts. Walking the inclined streets of Juneau really warmed us up.

What we originally planned as a recuperation day was actually quite busy and we put on more than 21,000 steps. Well, we have another rest day built into our itinerary later in the week.

Day 3

We returned our rental car to the Juneau Airport and took a flight with Alaska Seaplanes to the Gustavus Airport. By the way we did not fly in a seaplane. The company operates both seaplanes and regular planes across southeast Alaska. This would be our first flight in a small airplane (less than 12 passengers) which would be our primary method of travel while in Alaska. The flight took about 25 minutes then we rode a shuttle bus from the airport (which took another 15 minutes) to our 48th national park, Glacier Bay National Park. We checked into Glacier Bay Lodge and then walked part of the Tlingit Trail and visited the Huna Tribal House and Totem Poles. They also have an interesting display of the skeleton of a humpback whale that died on the beach 20 years ago. Weather when we arrived was in the low 50s with intermittent drizzle. We had dinner in the lodge dining room and got to bed early for what was going to be a very busy day ahead.

Day 4

After a breakfast at the Lodge, we walked five minutes down to Bartlett Cove where we took an 8-hour cruise on a catamaran through Glacier Bay to see a glacier. On the way we saw beautiful scenery, otters, seals, sea lions, brown bears, and a bald eagle. The glacier was fun but really cold. We wore three layers of clothing which included a layer that was waterproof. We needed it because there was a light drizzle most of the morning. Also, we got to hold a piece of the glacier and later it became ice for my lemonade. When we returned, we had dinner at the Lodge and spent some time reading around the fireplace.

Day 5

When I was told we were going whale watching, I immediately thought of watching submarine races on the Detroit River. We took a taxi for a 10 minute ride to Gustavus Dock to catch a ride on a boat for a 3 ½ hour whale watching tour.

Whales are elusive but we spotted many on our outing. Each encounter lasted about 5 seconds. No good pictures since we were using our binoculars during the watching. Again, we dressed in layers and we needed each layer to stay warm. We did go back and forth between the outside deck and the warmer interior space.

Afterwards we returned to the dock, caught a taxi back to the Lodge, where we ate lunch then took a shuttle back to the Gustavus Airport and flew back to Juneau. We checked back into the Aspen Suites Motel after picking up our rental car.

Day 6

This was supposed to be a quiet rest day in Junea but we got a lot done. In the morning we exercised and did laundry. In the afternoon we visited The Alaska State Museum, walked the Treadwell Mine Historic Trail, and visited The Whale Project sculpture. For dinner we ate at the Pucker Wilson food truck. Tammie had the Cowboy Sundae (fries, BBQ, and cole slaw). I had a boring hamburger.

Day 7

On our final day in Juneau we went hiking at the Jensen-Olsen Arboretum, the Shrine of St. Theresa, and returned to Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls. Before going to the airport, we had an early dinner at McDonalds. We returned our rental car and had a 2-hour delay on our flight to Anchorage. We caught an Uber and didn’t get to our hotel (Clarion Suites) in Anchorage until midnight. Thus, ended our first week in Alaska.