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I am sure you will get a dozen different opinions if you ask a dozen different people.

You have to first figure out what you want to do/see before you begin to plan an itinerary. Do you want to see glaciers? Then Prince William Sound or Seward/Kenai Fjords should be included. Do you just want a lot of scenic driving? Then the route suggested above might be a good option, though it is a lot of driving for a week-long trip. I did that drive in June but my entire trip was two weeks long. And do you really want to be driving 90mph, rushing around on your vacation? It sounds like it fits perfectly for some people. I prefer to slow down and smell the roses. And yes, there are highway patrols even on those roads.

Do you want to be "tourists", seeing as much as you can in a week, or do you want to "experience" Alaska. I would never recommend Seward for a day trip, for example. The highlight of Seward is a 6-hour or 9-hour Kenai Fjords National Park boat tour. You can do that on a day trip on the train, but then you miss everything else Seward has to offer. The arctic circle is more to say you have "been there, done that" than to see a whole lot, especially on a quick day trip. Since you said you don't want touristy things, I think you are far better off skipping this.

With hiking, outdoors and scenery, I think that Denali fits your bill perfectly.

If it were me, I would do something like this:

As soon as your flights are confirmed, book a car rental. Rental car prices skyrocket in Anchorage the longer you wait to book. This is absolutely number one. The past three summers I have paid under $100/week plus taxes for an economy car in Anchorage. Compare both "on airport" and "city" locations - city locations often have far less taxes and can be substantially cheaper than on-airport locations. But sometimes their base rates are higher so compare both. The Enterprise location on E. International Airport Blvd. is very convenient to the airport ($15 including tip cab ride each way).

Day 1 Spend your first night in Anchorage.

Day 2 Drive to Seward your second day. Stop along the way - extremely scenic drive along Turnagain Arm, maybe see beluga whales or moose, stop at the Portage Glacier visitor center, Wildlife Conservation Center, other photo ops. Arrive in Seward in mid afternoon, 4pm ranger-led walk to Exit Glacier

Day 3 Six hour or 9-hour Kenai Fjords boat tour. Sealife Center before or after? Several very good restaurants in Seward.

Day 4 Drive to Talkeetna with stops in Matsu Valley along the way (Palmer, Musk Ox farm, Eagle River, Independence Mine, Wasilla - Iditarod HQ, etc). If you are interested in flightseeing, this is the place to do it. The 7pm flight with Talkeetena Air Taxi usually has a 2-for-1 coupon in the Toursaver book. The Talkeetna Roadhouse is an iconic restaurant in Talkeetna but usually only open for breakfast and lunch.

Day 5 to Denali, pick up your shuttle bus tickets for the next day at the Wilderness Access Center (WAC), afternoon white water rafting trip. Denali Outdoor Center has the best reputation on the river and has very good prices. Even without any coupons, they offered prepay and early booking discounts that got the price for three of us to within $10 of another company that offered a 2-for-1 coupon. After that, see the film and exhibits in the visitor center. Maybe stop at Byers Lake on the way from Talkeetna to Denali for a nice hike around all or part of the lake. There are some cabins on Byers Lake, but you need sleeping bags so probably not an option, depending on how you are traveling. No great restaurant near Denali, though 229 Parks is probably the nicest and McKinley Creekside Cafe has really good food at very reasonable prices.

Day 6 all-day shuttle bus trip into the park. Buy your tickets to Wonder Lake. Yes, it is an 11 hour bus ride. But it goes VERY quickly. Rest and potty stops every 90 minutes or so, and the bus also stops whenever someone spots wildlife. You can get off anywhere you want to hike then hop on another bus. My suggestion is to stay on your bus until Wonder Lake and do your hiking on the way back. If Mt. McKinley is "out" you will want to go as far as Wonder Lake. If the Mountain is not "out" you can get off at Eielson Visitor Center and take a different bus to the entrance. But it is easier to do this than to book only to Eielson and want to extend to Wonder Lake (fewer buses go that far). There are mosquito issues near Wonder Lake in June so you need to be prepared with DEET and/or mosquito headnets. The bus only stops here for 30-45 minutes but it is the best and closest vantage point to view Denali from the park road, so well worth dealing with mosquitoes if the Mountain is out.

Day 7 any entrance area activities you might have missed earlier, maybe the Savage River loop hike, drive to Anchorage. Most flights are red eyes so you can arrive about 2 hours before departure for your flight.

Unfortunately that was your fault for not realizing how things operate. As someone on a cruise travel bulletin board posts, going to Denali and seeing only the first 15 miles of the park road by car is like going to Disney World and only getting as far as the parking lot. It is very unfortunate since Denali is such a gem.

I often spend 3-6 nights at Denali when I go to Alaska. I have been to Denali three times this year alone. Just incredible hiking, scenery and wildlife viewing ops. You can peruse some of my Alaska photos through this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnn.photos

You should definitely look at the two coupon books - Toursaver (www.toursaver.com) and Northern Lights (http://www.alaska-discounts.com/). Toursaver costs twice as much as Northern Lights but you need to look at what each book would save you then buy the book that saves you the most. Last year I bought the Northern Lights book, this year I bought the Toursaver book. You can sell them on EBay after your trip. Many 2-for-1 coupons. It might be wise to buy two books with the size of your group - just depends on what you plan to do, if the vendors take two coupons for the same tour, etc.

You also might want to go to the Alaska forum on Trip Advisor - extremely knowledgeable and helpful people there who will help with any questions, itineraries, etc. (you will find me there too under the same screen name).

John