Alaska - What to do on 1-2 week August trip to Alaska

Friend just asked me if we could burn some miles on a trip to Alaska in a couple of weeks.

I assume (but don't know) that the interesting stuff in the State is not in Anchorage but in seeing the wilderness.

Suggestions for one to two weeks in Alaska. We don't hunt and hardly ever fish. I've that there are some great cruises.

August is fair month. The State Fair is going on in Palmer, and you can see 95-pound cabbages, three-foot squash, and other huge vegetables.

For the rest of the itinerary, there are great things to see and do around the state (you are correct that most of it is outside of Anchorage), but to save time, I'm going to point you back to the main Alaska forum, where you should go down to the bottom of the screen and widen the dates of forums to display (go back three months or so, maybe more). Skim through the listed topics (there will only be 15-20 or so) and that will give you a feel for what to see.

One thing not covered in any of those threads that I've been investigating doing myself lately: a trip to Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park. That and Kodiak. Expensive to get there, but if you are into seeing bears, it'll be worth it.

That and Kodiak. Expensive to get there, but if you are into seeing bears, it'll be worth it.
If you're into bear voyeurism on the cheap, check out the live grizzlies from the McNeil River Falls by way of the Pratt Museum's Bear Cam (co-sponsored by the ADF&G, NPS and National Geographic):

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamgrizzlies/index.html


As for Kodiak, getting there is seldom cheap, however good deals from ANC ( ~ $159 rt) can sometimes be found as "Flyaway Fares" on the ERA website.

http://www.flyera.com/

As for Kodiak, getting there is seldom cheap, however good deals from ANC ( ~ $159 rt) can sometimes be found as "Flyaway Fares" on the ERA website.

http://www.flyera.com/
A couple of years ago, I saw some $99rt ANC-ADQ fares in Era's weekly emails (which I still get). So far, I haven't seen that again, and I'm waiting for one to appear. Soon as it does, I'll go.

(I know it's a far fetched hope in this day and age of high fuel costs, but if fares can dip below $350 for ANC-CLT or ANC-YYG, it's not impossible...)

One thing not covered in any of those threads that I've been investigating doing myself lately: a trip to Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park. That and Kodiak. Expensive to get there, but if you are into seeing bears, it'll be worth it.

Altho the situation varies from year to year, usually the Brooks bears visit the falls less frequently in August than in July. From what I gather, Sept seems to be touted as better bear viewing than August. Fwiw, I was there in late July 2004 (the 27th I think) and there were typically about 10 bears at the falls. The next day, there were only 1 or 2. It was a drastic dropoff in the number of bears. In 2002, I was there in mid July, and often saw about 15 bears at any given time at the falls. Last year I showed up about June 26th or so IIRC, and generally saw about 5-7 bears at the falls.

A call to the Park HQ in King Salmon could help you get some better detail on when Brooks typically has the best bear viewing. Last year there was no room at the cabins on our available dates, so we stayed overnight in King Salmon and flew in on a day trip. I liked that better than a daytrip from Anchorage, as it maximized our time at the falls for that one day.

riftime

Highly recommend the Brooks bear viewing -- but as an overnight from King Salmon. The number of bears at any one time can vary and there is often no way to predict (having fished the Brooks River many times). We did two days, one for bears and the other to take the tour of the "Valley of the 10,000 Smokes" to view the old volcanic eruption lava fields.
Visiting Nome and the Alaska pipeline - Prudoe Bay (at mile zero) is somewhat more "touristy". Airfares are not cheap (but a tour might bring down the cost) -- are the Aluetian Islands for bird viewing and visitng the old WWII sites.

Thanks for the information. After looking at this forum, I see that much of the info I sought was available in older threads I found via the search function.

It is amazing how much FTers know. :)

Just to make sure you're fully informed and hit the best things to do, here are the threads that I have found to have good information:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=700290

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=575852

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=407366

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=611263

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=623019

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=615374

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=576861

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=559223

Hope this helps!

August is fair month. The State Fair is going on in Palmer...

I am planning a trip to Alaska in August of 2008...does the State Fair run all month?

jackal...thanks for all the links. Great Info!

I am planning a trip to Alaska in August of 2008...does the State Fair run all month?

jackal...thanks for all the links. Great Info!

It's late August through early September. Don't know if it'll help much for next year, but the Web site is http://www.alaskastatefair.org/ .

Thanks again Jackal....if next year's fair is around the same time, we could stop by. I have always loved going to State Fairs. I have signed up for their newsletter so I will get the info.
Sheri

LadySheri....as we're neighbors (here in Kirkland, WA), here are some of my favorite things to do in Alaska (2 trips in the last 2 years--and I'm bummed that I didn't make it this summer):
--drive to Homer--the scenery is magnificent, and the town itself is a little artsy outpost with some GREAT food (we seriously didn't have a bad meal there). Things to do include flightseeing over the glaciers (check out the remodeled 1924 floatplane), fishing (even if you're not big fishing people, there's nothing like a trip out on the water with an old salt--our favorite was www.a-wardcharters.com--we LOVED Captain Bob), boat trip over to Seldovia, where we took an ATV ride up the mountain (http://www.atventures-alaska.com/) . No cruise ships stop here, so it's a nice outpost, although definitely has its touristy sections.
--drive to Seward--again, scenery is spectacular, the town itself has some fun attractions (the Seavey family and their Iditarod dogs were a highlight http://www.ididaride.com/, and the Alaska SeaLife Center was nice), along with some good day-long cruises to watch glaciers calving. Great hiking just outside of town.
--Denali--definitely worth seeing. We took a monster truck tour into the park (http://www.denalisights.com/) that was really fun. It's off the beaten path, in areas of the park that are otherwise inaccessible. We stopped on a hilltop for lunch and literally could see for 50 miles all the way around us and there was nothing but wilderness--just breathtaking. We also did the flightseeing tour--also worth it. I swear we got to within 50 feet of the mountain (but I'm a nervous flyer, so that's probably an exaggeration).

Enjoy your trip--you'll love it!

Chuppi, I have been perusing my Milepost and Rough Guide Alaska for a few weeks in preparation for a trip next summer. I had definitely identified Homer and Seward as places I wanted to drive to, particular to hit the Kenai fjords for kayaking.

BUT: the one big negative that struck me was the need to basically re-trace your steps from Homer to get the (rental) car back to Anchorage. Then it struck me that we could drive first from Anchorage to Seward, then across and down to Homer, and then take a ferry from Homer to Kodiak. From Kodiak, there's another ferry that goes to Whittier. We could drive back to ANC from there.

This sounds like a lot of fun, but is visiting Kodiak worth what would effectively be a full night and a full day on a ferry, plus the expense of getting the car on there? (The ferry would be fun in and of itself, but that's a lot of time to spend on a boat.)

Also, doing this would probably mean that we would not have time to take the Alaska Railway or see Denali. Is Kodiak as cool as Denali? Cooler? It certainly sounds less touristy.

travelmad478 I had the same thoughts originally as you--and you're right, it is somewhat duplicative to do the drives both down to Homer and Seward and then back to ANC. We chose to do it, though, so we could fit a trip into Denali during our vacation. I looked at doing the exact same thing as you (ferry around a little for something different), but given the amount of time we had on the trip, we opted not to. I'm still not convinced it wouldn't be the coolest thing ever to do it, though, and may do it at some point in the future.

In the end, we just resigned ourselves to one long day in the car (we did Seward to Denali) and dealt with it. The scenery going back up the Kenai Peninsula is still as spectular as going down, and then you drive through one big suburb once you're near Anchorage. (It did let us stop at the Wal-Mart, though, and stock up on some more bottled water and wine!)

If you do the ferry route, I for one will be anxiously awaiting a trip report to see how it goes!

Thanks. I think I will put this question to my travel partner and see what she has to say about it. Kodiak sounds very neat, but then again, we're probably not going to be set up for camping or 4WD, and that might make it less thrilling. The idea of fishing for salmon there is very thrilling, though. (I'm no fisherman, but my friend and I have something of a fishing theme on our travels that needs to be continued!)

--Denali--definitely worth seeing. We took a monster truck tour into the park (http://www.denalisights.com/) that was really fun. It's off the beaten path, in areas of the park that are otherwise inaccessible.

Chuppi...thanks--I've actually gotten a little further along in my planning. We are defnitely going to spend time at Denali on this trip. I believe we are going to stay inside the park at the Teklanika campground. I know my husband would love this monster truck tour, though and I was looking for something unique to do. Since we are going to have 3-4 days there, we could easily do this on either the first or last day. Wow, Kirkland too...it's such a small world, isn't it?

Sheri

Chuppi...thanks--I've actually gotten a little further along in my planning. We are defnitely going to spend time at Denali on this trip. I believe we are going to stay inside the park at the Teklanika campground. I know my husband would love this monster truck tour, though and I was looking for something unique to do. Since we are going to have 3-4 days there, we could easily do this on either the first or last day. Wow, Kirkland too...it's such a small world, isn't it?

Sheri
Huh. I've lived here 12 years and have worked in the tourist industry for four and have never heard of this tour. Sounds cool! I'm a little surprised the NPS lets monster trucks tear across the tundra, but hey (I'm exaggerating: I'm sure it's nothing like that and that it's perfectly safe for the environment)...

Just in case you were wondering in case you need to phone and ask anyone something: Teklanika is pronounced "tech-luh-NEE-kuh." For that matter, Kenai is pronounced "KEEN-eye," Seward is like sewer with a D, Soldotna "soul-DOT-nuh," Wasilla "wah-SILL-uh," Kotzebue "COTS-ub-you" (or Kotz for short), Tok "Toke," and Talkeetna "talk-EAT-nuh." (Working in the tourism industry, I hear every variation on these names you could possibly imagine. Makes Hawaiian street names look easy to pronounce!)

Interesting information. I've never visit Alaska. Who knows maybe I will visit those places one day too. Now I know what to visit there. Thanks.

Talkeetna "talk-EAT-nuh." (Working in the tourism industry, I hear every variation on these names you could possibly imagine. Makes Hawaiian street names look easy to pronounce!) No, it's "Tal-KEET-nuh". The "K" sound is start of the second syllable, not the end of the first, at least for the modern English version of the place and river name.

No, it's "Tal-KEET-nuh". The "K" sound is start of the second syllable, not the end of the first, at least for the modern English version of the place and river name.
There's a difference? :rolleyes: Whatever... :p