In August 2018, we flew up to Anchorage, Alaska, and rented an RV for a 14-day trip around Alaska. This was the most fantastic way for us to travel through Alaska! Alaska is built with RVs in mind, and we were able to pull over to “camp out” for the night along the many pull-out spots along the highways.
We split up our itinerary into two sections, the Denali-Wrangell St Elias Loop pictured above, and the whoops-let’s-start-at-Kenai-Pensinsula-instead route pictured below.
The backstory? We originally drove up towards Denali but after considering the weather forecast, we drove back down to the Kenai Peninsula and later backtracked up to Denali. It was worth it, because we actually got to see Denali when we returned. (We happened to be in Denali on the only clear day in the two weeks we were in Alaska!) We’ll provide further details soon, but here are the places we visited on this trip in the order we visited them (hence, the backtracking through Anchorage):
- Thunderbird Falls. Anchorage, AK.
- Matanuska Glacier. Anchorage, AK.
- Independence Mine State Historical Park. Wasilla, AK.
- Iditarod Headquarters. Wasilla, AK.
- Eklutna Village, Anchorage, AK.
- Talkeetna Historic District. Talkeetna, AK. (We recommend dropping this unless you like shopping.)
- Denali Viewpoint South. Trapper Creek, AK. (Our turn-around point.)
- Lake Hood Seaplane Base. Anchorage, AK (Watched seaplanes taking off and landing.)
- Potter Marsh Bird Sanctuary. Anchorage, AK.
- Bore Tide in Turnagain Arm. Anchorage, AK.
- Turnagain Arm Pit BBQ. Hope, AK. (With a name like that, we couldn’t pass it up.)
- Byron Glacier.
- Portage Glacier.
- Chugach State Park, Moose Pass, AK.
- Exit Glacier.
- Kena Fjords National Park. Seward, AK.
- Lowell Point.
- Harding Icefield.
- Kenai River.
- Homer Spit. Homer, AK. (Turn around to go back to Denali.)
- Denali State Park. Trapper Creek, AK.
- Denali Viewpoint North.
- Hurricane Gulch Bridge.
- Denali National Park.
- Nenana River.
- Pioneer Park. Fairbanks, AK.
- Sanat Claus House. North Pole, AK.
- Wrangell-St Elias National Park. Chitina, AK.
- Worthington Glacier, Valdez, AK.
- Thompson Pass towards Valdez, AK.
- Bridal Veil Falls.
- Horsetail Falls.
Surprisingly, the most amazing part of our journey was not seeing Denali. It was touring the Kenai Peninsula and traveling through Thompson Pass to Valdez. We almost skipped Valdez altogether, but I’m so glad we squeezed it in at the last minute. If I had it to do all over again, we would have not taken the full loop up to Fairbanks but would have spent more time exploring the Valdez area and the Kenia Peninsula. Breathtakingly beautiful!
Stay tuned for more details and photos!