Intro and Itinerary

View along Denali Highway

The following is a journal of our 12-day trip to Alaska. Instead of going on a tour, we flew into Anchorage, rented a car, and then drove to a few key towns, taking boat or kayaking trips from those places. We chose to make home bases in Homer and then Seward (both in the South-central coastal area), and then took a few days to drive into the Interior to the east and south of Denali. We especially liked Homer, and had a wonderful time on an all-day kayaking trip across Kachemak Bay from Homer, where we saw some wildlife and learned a lot about Alaksa from our guide, Don (Day 3). Another highlight was our boat trip in the Kenai Fjords out of Seward. We were lucky enough to see a pod of killer whales, a humpback whale, bald eagles, porpoises, otters, seals, a bear, and a huge "smack" of jellyfish. We also saw the Northwestern Glacier as big chunks of it calved into the Bay, which was very impressive (Day 6). Perhaps the biggest highlight of the trip was our drive along the Denali Highway, which was ablaze in the most spectacular fall colors we'd ever seen. Denali Highway is not in the park itself, but instead runs east of it. It's a well maintained dirt road and it is rarely travelled but we're told it's at least as beautiful as the Park. We were extremelly lucky to hit the peak of the short fall foliage season. We couldn't believe our eyes for the entire 133 mile trip (Day 10). Overall, we had a wonderful time on our trip and fell in love with the landscape.

The following is our itinerary:

Our travel route (click for larger image)

Day 1: Drive from Anchorage to Homer
Day 2: Boat trip to Seldovia
Day 3: Kayaking in Kachemak Bay
Day 4: Exploring Homer
Day 5: Drive from Homer to Seward
Day 6: Kenai Fjords wildlife boat tour
Day 7: Kayaking in Resurrection Bay
Day 8: Drive from Seward to Palmer
Day 9: Drive from Palmer to Denali Highway
Day 10: Drive on Denali Highway
Day 11: Drive to Anchorage
Day 12: Exploring Anchorage

Next   (Drive to Homer)