EOS up North
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 p.1 #4 · Your opinions on my full Itenerary and please Advice me | |
Hi Ashish,
Wow, sounds like you did some research! You definitely have a lot of driving planned! FWIW, here are some of my thoughts:
5/22 – What time do you arrive in Anchorage? Any way to get the RV that night?
5/23 – Yes, leave more time for your drive up to Denali. At least you'll be going the opposite direction of rush hour traffic on the Glenn hwy. Any way to purchase your RV space ahead of time, I would imagine they fill up fast. Are you sure you want to start out on the Rafting trip that late? I don’t know if the shuttles pick up from the RV parks, but they do leave from the various lodges.
5/24 – Hard to say what the “best” hikes in Denali are, there are so many! Impossible to see all of Denali in one day. Since your time there is limited, I would say a flight seeing trip is DEFINITELY worth the money. I don’t know about shuttle service to the various flight seeing operations, but there is a good one (Denali Air I think) just a few minutes south of the park entrance off of the highway.
5/25 – I can see you are debating on whether to go down to Valdez or not. All I can say is I was just out there a couple of weeks ago and the drive through Thompson Pass was fantastic. There will still be plenty of snow up there when you are here. IMO, short of driving the Dalton hwy through Atigun pass up to Prudhoe, driving to Valdez through Thompson Pass or to Seward from Anchorage are the best drives in the State.
5-26 – As you mentioned, if you take some time to drive to Valdez, you’ll have less time in Seward. But I just went down there Saturday and like you said, the road to exit glacier is still closed – I would imagine it will be open in a couple of weeks but who’s to say for sure. Ditto about the comments on the city RV Park. See if you can find a better place. The Sea Life Center is pretty cool, but it may be packed with people by the time you get there (it wasn’t too bad on Saturday – that was free admission day for AK residents), but people are starting to show up fast.
Actually, I’ve never been to Homer so I can’t comment on that. But if you decide to go to Valdez instead of Homer, I don’t think you will regret it.
You definitely mention all of the good stops on the drive from Anchorage to Seward, but plan on making a few more. There are several turnouts along the way that are my favorite photo spots of Turnagain-Arm and the Mountains.
Also, don’t bother with the “Conservation Center” (used to be called "Big Game Alaska" or something before they got PC), just a tourist trap along the road (more like a funky zoo really). Although, it might be worth stopping if you need to snap a few pictures of wildlife that you didn't catch along the rest of the trip since they are captive and can't get away - you just have to shoot thru the fences. You might want to take a quick trip out to Portage glacier on the other side of the hwy while your there.
5/31 – If you have the time in Anchorage, I would HIGHLY recommend a quick trip up the hillside to the Glen Alps / Flattop trail head. If the weather is clear, you’ll get an absolutely drop-dead beautiful panorama of Anchorage and the Cook Inlet with the Alaska Range and Mts Susitna, Forraker, and McKinley in the background. There is a viewing area with easy access from the parking lot; or you can also hike higher up Flattop mountain if you want to. My house sits on the west slope of Flattop. Be sure to waive if you are up there!
Finally, treat your family to a good dinner at Simon and Seaforts or the Crows Nest. I would make reservations today if I were you! PM me if you need their phone numbers.
A couple of other observations; bring plenty of gas money. Regular is around $3.80 here in Anchorage but over $4.00 in the more remote areas like Valdez and Seward. Bring plenty of bug spray too; I just swatted my first mosquito yesterday while working in the yard!
Let us know what you decide! Have a great trip. Is this your first time up here? It likely won’t be your last!
Regards
Edited on May 12, 2008 at 05:54 PM
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