Ever been to Alaska?

[Danskman]

Considering some back country travel in Alaska this year. Ever been? Where and what did you do and see?

[JTO]

Mike,
I lived there for eight years and went almost everywhere. What are you interests? Hiking, hunting, fishing, photography? The state is so big and varies so much in terrain, wildlife, climate, that you may need to decide what you want to see then determine a destination.

Its awesome and I love it dearly.
Troy

[id10t]

Wife and I did a cruise up the coast from Vancouver for our honeymoon - it was FANTASTIC. Can't wait to go back.

Strongly recommend doing some salmon fishing, we did a raft trip down a river to see eagles (see lots here in Fl. anyway), did some gold mining (found a nugget!) and took a helicopter ride up to the Mendenhall glacier from downtown Juneau. All great.

[gr8fl4porsche]

Mike,
I spent a few weeks traveling around Alaska in the past. Did a bunch of backpacking and kayaking. My friend who has lived in Skagway for the last 12 years or so is in town visiting right now - he is a guide and I'm sure he can recommend an entire itinerary for you. PM me and I will get you two in touch.

[ckissick]

I spent 3 weeks up there with my Westfalia camper, driving all over the place. The best guide book is Alaska Milepost. What's fun is driving down the long, unpaved back roads to places like Eagle and McCarthy. Because it was always light (it was June) our sleep schedule got way off.

One highlight was pulling into a road house on the road to Eagle, on the Yukon River, for gas at 1 AM. (it was still sunny out) We ended up staying there until about 4AM, as they asked us to stay for a birthday party. We drank free beer and ate moose with mashed potatos. It's those little things with the nice folks that one remembers. I have many other memories like that.

[NoLift911]

Alaska truly is the last frontier...I spent two 2 week trips up there. Seward, Denali all amazing. Drove the haul road to the Artic Circle - very interesting. Plan on spending at least 3 weeks - there are only three main roads for the whole state but oyu can spend days on them and not get anywhere - BIG state.

Summer is good but I found fall the best - if you camp mosquitos are everywher and there is no real way to get away from them aside from an RV - they are big and you can turn into a big bloody mess in a matter of minutes in a large swarm.

Fall is the best time IMO - Sep-Oct. Still take advantage of the entended daylight (we pitched our tents around 2am everynight with full light and sun was up again at 6.

Good times...

-Jeff

[garyr911]

Mike,
My wife and I were in alaska this last summer. We went in late August. The weather was mild in the high 50s and low 60s with a little rain. We spent time on the Kenai peninsula down in seward and homer. I love the kenai penisula. If you are into fly fishing there are plenty of guides along the kenai.
I would go again in a second.

[Danskman]

Wow. Thanks for the great replies. Things of interest to us are things such asovernight back country (backpacking) trips, wildlife and scenic photography.

I'm mostly interested in seeing the land and the wildlife. Fishing and other sport activities will probably fall into place too, but I just want to experience the territory. There seem to be clusters of National Parks that are in [relative] proximity, and I am sure they are spectacular. Sounds like time of year is critical.

[JTO]

Mike,
Denali is awesome and pretty back pack friendly except for the bears. They are a problem at times.

Gates of the Arctic will forever warp your sense of beauty and landscape scale. You can raft portions and walk portions of your trip. The light, the stark nature of the landscape, etc. make it a photographers paradise. Access is tough.

Wrangell-St Elias also is grand. Better access than G of A. Great hiking and climbing.

The options are endless so I recommend deciding top priorities like you did and research the various parks.

There are state parks that offer nice short (1-3 day) hikes that are easy access. I recommend the one just outside of Anchorage called Chugach State Park. Beautiful mountains with lots of wildlife. You'll be hiking in great country within an hour of leaving your hotel. You could walk for seventy miles (if you were a mountain goat) and reach Valdez from Eagle River.

Have fun!
Troy

[Dantilla]

I was on a gillnetter out of Dillingham several years ago. Got paid to experience Alaska. And what an experience it was....

[einreb]

Our last trip there was divided into two main 'off the path' trips.

First, we did 5 days in the back-country in Denali. Yes, there are bears. The rangers are much more concerned about the safety of the bears than the hikers. I like it that way, since most hikers are idiots. You have to go through a 30 minute training to be allowed in the back country. You have to reserve where you are going based on the section of the park. There are no trails that are man made. Each section is limited as to the number of people that can be in it. I.E. 7 people per HUGE section. so, days 1,2,3 we reserved 3 spots in section #6 (Polychrome Glacier) and days 4,5 we were in #9.

Here's a Mangelsen shot likely from the access road looking to Polychrome Pass where we hiked into...



We had a phenomenal campsite view of migration trails. We saw Grizzlies 'frolicking' up hills, fox, caribou, varmints, etcetera. Expect to ford rivers, get rained on, freaked out by huge bear prints, bushwhack, and possibly get carried away by mosquitoes. Fishing is lousy in Denali... grayling, maybe.

Next main stop was the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and we rented canoes and took the Swan Lake canoe trails to the beginnings of the moose river (maps locatedhere ) and then canoe down the moose river.

we also spent an evening in a rowdy bar in Homer where we heard a guy do sex pistols songs on a banjo. We also took a small charter out in Seward for silver salmon. The fishing was cool, but it was almost worth it just for the scenery.

I loved Alaska and I look forward to returning.

One thing to note... its not a Hotel kind of traveling. There are lots of state and local park campgrounds. hotels are ungodly expensive. We rented a car and carcamped when we weren't hiking. Lots of folks rent RV's.

[austin552]

Everyone wants to go to Alaska. My argument is that I would rather fly there and spend the whole time doing all I can rather than taking a cruise. Except for a Pelican cruise maybe.
We will get there eventually one way or another...

[Joeaksa]

If you want to fly into the bush, PM me. Have a friend who owns a flying service up there and takes people everywhere.

Talk with people who live there or who know the area. Its still a wild country up there and in many cases you are the hunted, not the hunter. Have several pics of a good friend who goes salmon fishing there all the time. Funny to see him in the "fish jail" cleaning the fish, while the bears are trying to get in and "relieve him" of the fish!

JoeA

[onewhippedpuppy]

What Joe just said is my dream vacation. Bush flying, or a float plane, from place to place, experiencing the state. My grandfather has been probably four times, only makes me want to go more.

[Z-man]

Originally posted by nolift911
Fall is the best time IMO - Sep-Oct.

I disagree - if you travel in the fall, you might as well save $$ and go to Colorodo instead! (Just kidding)

I went to Alaska for two weeks in December a few years back. Now THAT's when you should go to really get a taste of what the last frontier is about.

One of my "life's goals" happened then: I went for a dog sled ride. It was exhilerating - a mind blowing experience! It was night, it was cold. But all you heard was the panting of the dogs and the swoosh of the sled.

My friend (who lives in Glennallen) drove me to Valez one day - you have to go over Thompson pass. While travelling through this mountain pass, I noticed there were L-shaped poles about 20 feet high on either side of the road. I asked Sandy if they were putting in street lights. She laughed and said, "No. When it snows here, they can get huge amounts of snow in a short time. Those poles are markers for the road so when the snow blowing trucks come through here, they don't vere off the road." Now THAT's a snowfall!

-Z.

[Dantilla]

Flying over glaciers in a Cessna Skymaster is an unforgetable experience.

Circling over a mama bear and her cubs in a Piper Super Cub on floats is another unforgetable experience.

Having a gill net tear open as it comes over the stern because is is too full of fish is an unforgetable experience.