Kenai Fjords, Wrangell St-Elias and Denali National Parks, Alaska – 2023
The phrase “trains, planes and automobiles” comes to mind as we review the itinerary for our upcoming National Parks trip in Alaska. These three parks in Alaska will be #55-57 for us on our quest to visit all 63 National Parks. Alaska (AK) is nearly three times the size of Texas so traveling distances between parks are long – all these modes of transportation will be utilized on our trip.
After having canceled this Alaskan adventure twice (injury and Covid) we are happy to finally be on our way in July of 2023 as we head to Sea-Tac Airport for our three-and-a-half-hour flight to Anchorage.
Landing in Anchorage
After an uneventful flight (always good), our approach to Anchorage affords us incredible views of seemingly endless snow and glacially covered tall peaks, including Mt Denali – a fantastic welcome to this massive mountainous state!
Day One and Two – Kenai Fjords National Park, Seward, Ak
We learn that rental cars in AK are generally trucks. Ours is a new bright red Tacoma! As we begin our two-and-a-half-hour drive south toward the small town of Seward on Resurrection Bay, we follow the lovely shore of the Turnagain Arm, off the Cook Inlet, on this beautiful day.
View across Resurrection Bay from Seward
Kenai Fjords National Park, founded in 1980, is inland and to the west of Seward. The Fjords and tidewater glaciers flowing into them are accessed via boat from Resurrection Bay. The Harding Icefield, a relic of the last ice-age, covers over half of the 670,000-acre park and feeds all 38 glaciers in the park!
We luck into The Cookery for dinner after visiting Seward and the in-town Visitor Center (movie and stamp). The local oysters are fab and so is the service and space!
After dinner we take the only road (eight miles) into the park and then walk a couple of miles to Exit Glacier. The yearly signs, which begin in 1889 and end at the glacier, show its substantial retreat - impactful! Wish we had time to hike the 8.5-mile hike out/back to Harding Icefield.
Exit Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Seward, AK
Our home for tonight and tomorrow is the Windsong Lodge, slightly out of town. It’s comfortable but everything seems much pricier in AK than Europe!
Day two is the big day – kayaking! After a good breakfast at the Resurrection Café, we take the Kenai Fjords tour boat from Seward out to Fox Island in the middle of Resurrection Bay and meet guide, Jen, with Sunny Cove Kayaking.
Artist Rockwell Kent painted Kenai Fjords while living on Fox Island in the early 1900’s bringing the area national attention.
It’s a cloudy and drizzly day but we are happy to see that the water is calm around the island. The forecast is for bumpy conditions on the tour boats as they head to the Northwestern tidewater glacier.
We launch and head north then east around to the other side of the island where we land in a beautiful cove and walk up to the “ghost forest”. Back in 1964 there was a massive 9.2 magnitude earthquake that rocked AK. The shoreline dropped six feet as the Pacific Plate slipped under the North American plate killing these trees. Today is creates an eerily beautiful sight!
“Ghost Forest” Fox Island, Seward, AK
On the return paddle a Horned Puffin entertains us popping in and out of the water.
There is a lodge on Fox Island where we have a salmon feast before our Resurrection Bay tour and return.
Oh, my goodness, the bay crossing is as bumpy as it gets – needless to say, the tour boats didn’t make it out to the glacier today. But once to calmer waters we get to see two humpback whales one with an active calf who keeps breaching and two cutie sea otters!
Day Three and Four – Wrangell St Elias National Park and Preserve, Kennecott, AK
Today is a nine-hour drive, so we have another early departure – it’s not feeling like a vacation!
We retrace our drive north to Anchorage (should have taken the train) and then head northeast to Kennecott, the only lodging in the park. Several hours into the drive we are among a unique forest – lots of low-lying greenery with only stunted spruce trees spaced throughout - due to growth inhibiting permafrost, common in Alaska.
Finally, we turn onto the 60-mile dirt McCarthy Road into the park. At the end we get to Base Camp, a surprisingly busy and eclectic place, where the Kennecott Lodge Van picks us up.
Kennecott, Wrangell St Elias National Park, AK
Kennecott was the center of Alaskan Copper Mining in the early 1920’s. Many of the buildings remain and are being renovated as a National Historic Site.
Wrangell St Elias is bigger than the whole country of Switzerland and the peaks are higher, 8,000-20,000 feet. There are three mountain ranges in the park Wrangell, St Elias and Alaska. The Copper River, home of the famous Copper River Salmon, forms the western boundary while Kluane National Park, Canda is the eastern boundary!
The rooms at Kennicott Glacier Lodge are modest with the bathroom down the hall. The best part is that all three meals come with the room – not a bad place to be for the 4th of July!
On our second day in Kennecott, we finally get to go on a hike after all the car travel. We begin at the lodge and walk through town admiring all the historic red mining buildings. We continue walking on flat terrain surrounded by wildflowers and low shrubs.
Root Glacier, Wrangell St Elias National Park, AK
After a couple of miles we gain some elevation and walk on more rocky terrain as we near the glacier’s moraine. We’ve been staring at the terminal moraine of the Root Glacier from the front porch - hard to imagine that the bumpy brown mass is a glacier. So, we are excited when we finally reach a fabulous view of the beautiful white glacier! It’s chilly but that keeps the mosquitos at bay. We have a snack before turning around happy as heck that we got to the glacier on foot!
On the return we add on a visit to the impressive waterfall making the whole enjoyable hike 8 miles, 1,000 feet!
Day Five and Six Anchorage, AK
Up and out early again, on a glorious bluebird day we are startled to see Massive Mt Blackburn (16,390 feet) towering over the lodge! Then a couple hours into our a six-and-a-half-hour drive back to Anchorage, we feast our eyes while feasting on our picnic lunch on Mt Wrangel at the Visitor Center in Copper Center.
Mt Blackburn from Kennecott, Wrangell St Elias National Park, AK
Near the end of our drive we enjoy a special visit to see my cousin and his wife in Wasilla – a favorite perk of our quest!
We find our hotel, The Lakefront Anchorage - a seaplane mecca with marginal food and regular rooms.
With only six hours of darkness this time of year, we always close the blackout curtains. As we open the curtains today, we see rain! I had hoped to walk on the 12-mile Coastal Trail along Cook Inlet but the Anchorage Museum, downtown, is a great second choice.
The awesome Alaska exhibit holds our attention for a couple of hours after being initially being impressed with the building itself. We stay for a good lunch and continue our exploration. I just love the Seymore Laurence mountain oil paintings!
Native fur coat, Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, AK
Little do we know it’s the Alaskan Train’s centennial per the exhibit. Originally built by the Feds in the early 1900’s for commerce, the State purchased it in 1985 and has a passenger service from Seward all the way north past Fairbanks. Tomorrow, we get to ride the train from Anchorage to Denali.
What a wonderful day – Tom had to feed the meter twice!
Dinner at Orso downtown could not be better – tasty crabcakes and crab stuffed shrimp, nice service, pleasant atmosphere and reasonable prices!
Day Seven, Eight and Nine - Denali National Park via Alaska train, Denali, AK
Up early once again, we catch the Alaskan Train to Denali just minutes from our hotel. Adventure Class (aka coach) gets us two seats, a big window, access to two dome cars and the café car (limited food).
The trip is seven hours of relaxation with the best scenery near the end! As we slowly approach Hurricane Gulch, I can’t help but exclaim, “oh my gosh” out loud. We are looking 300 feet down to Hurricane Creek from a narrow train bridge.
Alaskan Train on the way to Denali National Park, AK
We disembark at the Denali train station and shuttle to the Grand Denali Lodge, just outside the park. It’s quite the sight perched up on a steep hillside and the view from the lobby is ‘grand’. Unfortunately, even a “view room” is quite modest and the hotel restaurant is sub-par this year.
Denali, established in 1917, to preserve Dall’s sheep, is six million acres! The road into the park, built in 1923, is 92 miles long. However, it had major slides caused by melting permafrost in 2021 and is still closed past mile 42. The earliest date for re-opening is July of 2026 - they must engineer and build a bridge!
(We usually like to stay inside the parks, but Camp Denali Lodge is only accessed by helicopter while the road is closed and is exorbitantly expensive.)
After checking out the lovely Visitor Center Campus and movie, we walk the 4-mile Horseshoe Lake Loop trail – a nice introduction!
We then board the 2pm green transit (vs tour) bus for a four-and-a-half-hour exploration of the park up to mile 42. We see Dall’s sheep and Caribou in the distance but no grizzlies. Tim, our driver, is very informative and entertaining! Mt Denali is in the clouds – only 30% ever see it.
Green transit busses at Denali National Park, AK
Now without a car we end our first full day in Denali with nine miles, per Google Fit!
We’ve read that the Savage Alpine trail, a short but steep (4-mile, 1,250 elevation gain) point to point trail, is one of the best in the park with potential views of Mt Denali, 70 miles away. So that’s our plan for day #2 in the park.
The green bus driver suggests we do the steep section as an ascent versus descent to save my bad knee. So, we immediately start walking straight up on some solid rock steps with switchbacks thrown in. We make it to the first ridge and low and behold Mt Denali is peaking out of the clouds - we are now in the 30% club!
Strong winds get our attention. A couple passes us on their descent and tell us that we might have to crawl - the wind gets much stronger ahead! We continue along to the next high point – they are correct, we can barely walk. A volunteer Ranger tries to walk toward us on his descent but 50 mph winds literally stops him in his tracks - he can’t move. He eventually makes it to us and says this spot is by far the worst.
Mt Denali from the Savage Ridge Trail, Denali National Park, AK
So, we proceed trying to get low and wide through two more saddles – never been in anything like it and hope I never am again! The views of Mt Denali and the Alaska Range are incredible from this rocky barren terrain, but I can hardly stand let alone hold my phone. As promised, we begin our descent through low shrubs and some wildflowers in the warmth of the sun without any wind. An incredible adventure for sure!
Happily, we find the Overlook Restaurant, a downhill walk from the Grand Denali Lodge, for dinner. It has a cute interior with Caribou Antlers for chandeliers, excellent service and delicious food!
Our time is limited on our third day in the park so we hire Sheep Shuttle to take us to the Triple Lakes trailhead for a quick out and back, to the third lake – 6 miles, 1,000 feet. It’s a nice walk but if we’d had more time the full 9-mile one way to the Visitor Center Campus would have been our choice.
After the hike, the Sheep Shuttle drops us off at the dog Kennels! Denali is a wilderness area which prohibits motorized vehicles so patrol of the park in the winter continues to be via dog sled as it has been since 1917. Oh, what beautiful Alaska Huskies they have bred! I got to pet three and say “hi” to most all of them.
Alaskan Husky at the Denal Kennels in Denali National Park, AK
We catch the four-hour 4pm train from Denali to Fairbanks but this time we try the Gold Star Class (aka first class). It includes a sit-down dinner in a dining car, an even nicer dome car and two drinks. I’d say it’s worth upgrading if the train is crowded and/or it’s dinnertime but otherwise Adventure Class is more than fine!
There are unique folks in Alaska but the shuttle driver to the Pike’s Waterfront Lodge in Fairbanks “takes the cake”. He manages to offend nearly everyone in the shuttle in less than 10 minutes!
On the other hand, we are simply amazed at the quality and quantity of seasonal workers we met on our travels. They are all so friendly, good at their jobs and ecstatic to be in Alaska – many come back year after year. No “worker shortage here”!
Day Ten – Fairbanks, AK to Seattle, WA
My cousin’s wife told us the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is worth a visit so that’s where we spend most of our time prior to our 4 pm departure, the only flight per day to Seattle.
Museum of the North, Fairbanks, AK
Our Uber driver asks us if we are happy or sad to be leaving and we reply “both” – it’s been quite an adventure. Alaska and its parks are enormous. It’s heartening to see so much precious land protected! However, these are non-bush plane accessible parks and they even felt inaccessible!
We can’t help but notice the sunset as we land in Seattle – haven’t seen the sun set in 10 days!
If you go:
1. Plan way ahead and book 6-12 months ahead of time!
2. Know that AK is very expensive.
3. Even in the summer it’s cool and rainy – I never wore my shorts.
4. Mosquitoes can be annoying. Wind and cool temperatures help. So do repellent and netting.
5. The Denali Road will open 7/26 at the earliest!
6. Public transportation is good.
7. The parks are enormous, but access is limited.
Click here to see what inspires our goal of visiting all 63 National Parks and to check our progress.
For another Alaskan Adventure click Glacier Bay National Park and Inside Passage via Ferry - Skip the Cruise Ship!
And check out the National Park Gallery!
