North to Alaska: Week 2 (June 2026)

Day 8

The previous night our flight was delayed 2 hours and after getting our Uber we arrived at our hotel, Clarion Suites, around 11:30 pm. We got to bed around 12:30 am (yes, it was still light outside) and woke up this day around 5:00 am. We were picked up outside our hotel at 6:45 am and were transferred to the airport by Rust’s Flying Service. We got on another 10-passenger plane for a 90-minute flight to our 49th park, Lake Clark National Park. The plane had headphones for each passenger and our pilot talked with us throughout the flight pointing out various mountain peaks, rivers, lakes, and villages. He even threw in a little Alaska history. He flew us around and close to two mountain peaks (Mt. Redoubt and Mt. Iliamna) inside Lake Clark National Park. We landed inside the park at Chinitna Bay where we were to join a Bear Watching Tour. We saw our first bear just off the airstrip before we exited the plane.

We then boarded a 4-wheel drive minibus and were transported to where the bears are the most active. We got off the bus and hiked to three sites where bears were active. Our guide told us that Alaska had a late spring and the number of active bears were lower than normal. We did see about a dozen bears. One was close (maybe 75 feet away) but most were up to ½ mile away from us. After about 3 hours of riding, hiking, and observing we flew back to Anchorage. Instead of returning us to our hotel, the driver delivered us to our car rental location where we picked up the vehicle we would be using for the remainder of our trip.

The following video is our first and best encounter with a bear in Lake Clark National Park.

After flying back to Anchorage, we walked the Coastal Trail to the Captain James Cook monument at Resolution Park.

We finished our busy day by eating dinner at Sami's City Diner. It was a long and busy day.

Day 9

After breakfast and exercise we began our day by driving on the Seward Highway to Seward, Alaska. Although it is a 2.5 hour drive, we stopped many times along the way including a stop for a sack lunch we packed. Our first stop soon after leaving Anchorage was the half-mile boardwalk at Potter Marsh. There were a number of turn outs where we stopped to view Turnagain Arm. Eventually we stopped in the town of Girdwood to ride the Alyeska Tram. After riding the Tram to the top of the mountain we were able to spend some time hiking and playing in the snow. We also stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Center to see bears, musk oxen, caribou, and wolves.

Finally, later in the afternoon we made it to our 50th park, Kenai Fjords National Park. After checking out the Visitor’s Center we hiked to Exit Glacier. Ending our day, we drove to our motel in Seward, Alaska.

Day 10

Early the next morning we took a transfer shuttle to Major Marine Tours office about ½ mile from our motel. We boarded a boat for an 8-hour glacier wildlife cruise to explore Kenai Fjords National Park via water. We saw a total of 5 glaciers and observed one of the glaciers calving multiple times. We also saw fin whales, humpback whales, an orca, sea lions, harbor seals, otters, and bald eagles. It was very cold on board even though we were wearing layers of clothing.

After our glacier and wildlife tour we spent some time looking around at downtown Seward, Alaska. It is definitely a tourist town and the population doubles during the summer.

Day 11

This was another travel day. We got in our morning exercise including an early morning walk through downtown Seward then we travelled north on the Seward Highway back to Anchorage and continued north to our lodging for the night, Sheep Mountain Lodge. Before we got to the Lodge we made several sightseeing stops.

Alyeska Resort: We stopped here on the way to Seward but this time we took a short tour around the hotel and grounds and took some pictures with some of the interesting statues located at the resort.

Alaska Wild Berry Products: This store is located near Anchorage and has the world’s largest chocolate waterfall. We bought some chocolate and looked at some of the interesting displays.

Anchorage Botanical Garden: This garden is located near Anchorage and has some nice plants and displays. We however started walking it without our backpacks which contained our bug spray. The mosquitoes were really bad here and it was our fault for not using spray. We didn’t stay long.

Musk Oxen Farm: Located near Palmer, we arrived just in time to join a tour with about 8 other people. As it turned out, our tour guide was a former English professor. She did a fantastic job, and it was easy to see that she was a teacher at heart. We also got to watch one of the momma musk oxen charge towards the fence in protection of her calf. We did get to see all five calves that were born this year.

After an 8-hour travel day, we arrived at our lodging for the night, Sheep Mountain Lodge. We stayed here only one night. We enjoyed eating dinner at the lodge and hiked one of their trails. It was a very rustic location and I enjoyed sitting on the porch and watching the sun get lower on the horizon. I never did actually see the sun set while we were in Alaska.

Day 12

We began our day preparing for our next adventure. We were going to drive a couple of hours to the Chitina Airstrip were we would be flown to the town of McCarthy and then driven by van to Kennicott Glacier Lodge. This was going to be a really small plane and we were limited to 25 pounds of luggage for each of us. The rest of our luggage would remain in our rental car at the parking space at the Chitina Airstrip.

On the way to Chitina, we stopped at the Visitor’s Center for our 51st national park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. We looked at the displays and hiked two of the trails.

As we continued driving towards the Chitina Airstrip we saw a moose on the side of the road and stopped at the Liberty Falls State Recreation Area for a quick view of the falls.

We finally made it to the very small Chitina Airstrip where we parked our car and waited for our plane to arrive. The only people at the airstrip were the seven people who were going to fly to McCarthy with us. Two small planes arrived and several people got out of the planes and went to their cars. Two pilots came up to us and sent four passengers to the first plane and Tammie and I with a single lady to the second plane. We put on headphones and the pilot talked to us as we flew 30 minutes into McCarthy.

After we arrived in McCarthy, the transfer van drove 20 minutes to take us to the Kennicott Glacier Lodge. Kennicott is an old mining town that has many of the mining buildings still standing. We just had enough time to get our luggage to our room and that get to the dining room for dinner. We had our dinner out on the veranda. During our trip there were two lodging situations where we had shared bathrooms. Kennicott Glacier Lodge was the first of these. We were in a wing of the lodge where there were only two rooms in use. We had no issues with the shared bathrooms and never saw anyone in the hall on our way to the bathrooms.

Day 13

After breakfast we walked across the street to St. Elias Alpine Guides office. Met with our tour guide, got our crampons tied to our backpack, and started our 3 mile hike to the Root Glacier. We began by walking through the mining town of Kennicott then walked the trail through a spruce forest, across small creeks via footbridges, and several lateral moraines before reaching the glacier. At the end of the trail, we descended several hundred feet to get to the base of the glacier. We put on our crampons and began our ascent of the Root Glacier.

After a fun climb, we made it to the top of the glacier. There are no set trails on the glacier. The Root Glacier is constantly changing, which is part of its beauty, and its danger.

Our guide led our small group of four around the glacier for 2 1/2 hours. We hiked past blue pools of water, crevasses, and small canyons made of blue ice. We also got to see several moulins, giant holes in the glacier that have been formed by the flowing water. Finally, we sat and ate our lunch while marveling at the landscape around us.

Not too far off in the distance we saw the Stairway Icefall, the second largest icefall in the world. Only the Khumbu Icefall in Nepal is the world’s largest. This was the best and most challenging experience of our trip to Alaska.

After lunch we began our hike back to our lodge. Suddenly we were face to face with what we had descended on our way to the glacier and now had to ascend a very steep 450 feet. It was a challenge and our hardest hike, but it was well worth it. On the way back we stopped and took a few pictures of the mining town.

Day 14

In the morning we took the shuttle to McCarthy and flew back to Chitina where we picked up our rental car. We then drove 6 hours to Fairbanks. Just before we got to Fairbanks, we stopped at North Pole, Alaska.