Alaska trip

[Battis]

We're planning a trip to Alaska this August.
That's about the extent of our plans so far - we're going.
No idea where to go, where to fly into, where to stay, what to see (well, I gotta see the Northern Lights).
Any suggestions?

[cwtebay]

Where are you going?

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[Markopolo]

Well, august is not the best month to see northern lights. But it is typically a GREAT month for fishing silvers. I would highly suggest you stay away from the tourist places…. I would love to suggest coming to my island.. if you come in august, there will be tons of fishing, and no crowds… and I could actually take you to a couple places off the beaten path to the Real Alaska wilderness.

You could take a cruise up the inside passage to Ketchikan, and then hop on a float plane to klawock. You could stay at the Fireweed Lodge, they are friends of mine and it’s a real nice family place. They take folks out on the salt water for salmon, and you will see whales sea otters, and be a part of some awesome fishing adventure. Good food too for our part of the world. The Cook Robbi is awesome!!!
Here is a link to the lodge…

https://alaskafishingkingsalmon.com

I can personally take you out to a land adventure that you won’t soon forget.

I would advise you against trying to do a whole bunch of different things. No matter where you do choose, don’t make it one of those 22 towns in 3 days sorta things. Pick a place, enjoy it. There is no other place in North America like the rainforest of SE Alaska.

PM me if you are interested.

Marko

[Battis]

I live 5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean and I don't fish, not since I was a kid.
I agree with not trying to see as much as possible.
Rain forest of SE Alaska, Ketchikan, float plane to Klawock...all sound great.
My wife loves trip planning. I told her that having her plan a trip is like putting peanut butter in a hollow dog toy - she'll stay with it for days. But, I think she might be overwhelmed with Alaska planning.
At this point, we truly have no ideas, though she mentioned flying over a glacier.

[Half Dog]

My wife and I took the Princess cruise to visit Alaska. It was a great trip and I highly recommend it. I’m sure there are other ways to visit but we had no worries about eating and where to stay. The boat had everything.

It sounds like Markopolo has a very generous offer and insight needed for a wonderful trip.

Go more than once.

I too have the Northern Lights on my bucket list but I’m not sure an Alaska cruise will get me there. Perhaps someone else can help with that.

[Markopolo]

299398
299399

northern lights is a winter thing in Alaska. Hard to see them when it is barely ever dark in the summer.

[.429&H110]

I am a refugee Yankee. I retired to Arizona from North Pole 99705 a couple years ago. You can have very independent adventures in Alaska. Several friends and family got the idea of renting six motorcycles and two cars and making a figure eight of Alaska. They picked the last week of August, first week of September. That's winter, rain changing to snow, all the bridges frozen. I had a blast in my Tacoma as the bike ambulance. Three days at my favorite place on earth, Alpine Creek Lodge. Fishing in Valdez, Chitna to McCarthy, from Tok down Tok cutoff, Princess Wilderness Lodge. They wanted to do the Haul road, but not in snow. No troopers gave any tickets, had some serious talks though. Those BMWs would fly.

May, brown bear is open, no leaves on the bush so you can see them. It doesn't rain much, May and June can be hot. Fairbanks for the solstice June 21 is a three day drunk, no rooms available. Midnight baseball. Fairbanks switches from a sleepy army town to a tourist destination. It's amazing.

If you threw a dart at the map, the dead center is Alpine Creek Lodge on the Denali Highway in the Clearwater mountains under the Alaska range, by the Susitna river, the middle of really nowhere. Heaven. I spent my vacations there, if I wasn't up a river.

Hard to know how big Alaska is. Two Texas or four Arizonas with few roads few people. You could map out my native New Hampshire between cities. No fun for old folks, those long cold winters.

Could I mention Usibelli coal mine?
That mine has enough coal to last America 100 years, then they get down to the hard coal.

[Gator 45/70]

Go combat fishing where the Deska meets the Yetna river, Game wardens will stand right there fishing shoulder to shoulder with you...and you'll never know it until it's to late.
So go by the rules at all times.
A moose is as dumb as a box of rocks and will even charge a train.
Glaciers are everywhere, Bring an icepick and good whisky.

[farmbif]

sounds super fantastic , wish I had traveled more when I was young and able.

[farmerjim]

Fly into Anchorage and rent a motor home. Provision up at the local stores. Then go wherever your desires take you. I did it about 10 years ago and it was fantastic.

[Jsm180]

Fly into Anchorage and rent a motor home. Provision up at the local stores. Then go wherever your desires take you. I did it about 10 years ago and it was fantastic.

I've done the same, twice. We had a great time. First trip was a week on the road, second was 2 weeks. August is a great time for sightseeing but not for northern lights.

[warren5421]

I have went 5 times taking a cruise (Holand America Lines) dienbarking at Seward (think most ships now go to Whittier or Anchorage). The ship is the easiest way to see Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway which has a great Train ride, as you can only get there by plane or ship. Take the train from Anchorage ( do your flying over a glacier here) to Fairbanks with a short stay in Denali (take the bus trip into the park).

It is one wild and beautiful country! Stay away from Moose they can kill.

I like Holland America Lines as they have few kids and seem to cater to the 50 plus age group.

[Alasgun]

This all sounds wonderful, enjoy your trip. Be sure to visit some of our MANY weed stores, probably more of them than you have espresso stands where your from! And notice all the trashed vehicles along our roadways, on a trip to Chitna last year i commented to my buddies; “ i been to Viet Nam and didnt see this many burned out vehicles along the road AND This isn’t a war zone.
Notice how many run down places you’ll see as you drive about, and that’s along the road where you can see. Take a side road for a real look at how our general population lives and ask your self; how do these people make a living clear out here? Bingo; we’re a welfare state!

Please drop a dime in some homeless persons cup too or on second thought maybe not. There’s enough panhandlers in some areas to severely diminish your vacation savings account.

Keep looking up, it’s pretty where folks haven’t screwed it up.

[memtb]

Enjoy the hell out of the trip, give an extensive report back to us…..so I can enjoy Alaska vicariously! memtb

[Jim22]

Instead of a cruise ship consider taking your car on the ferry - the Alaska Marine Highway. You can get off at any stop.

https://dot.alaska.gov/amhs/index.shtml

Then when you get to Seward you will have wheels.

Jim

[.429&H110]

Northern Lights go by the solar max cycle, you are in luck, next max is 2023.

Every (dark) night in North Pole the Spirit River would be lit, a baby blue river across the sky from east to west, slowly undulating, a display is a curtain falling from it, blues greens reds. You mustn't watch it when driving, it's distracting when it moves because we expect the sky to hold still... Christmas Eve, driving home late from church, past -40, the sky was alive so wife and I drove a half hour out the Steese to Cleary summit to watch from a mountaintop where there were no city lights at all. Glad we did. The whole sky was dancing for joy.

SWMBO wants to move back to Alaska, she says this old folks home is boring. The old Swede wants a Viking funeral on the Salcha river, then shoot her ashes out of the cannon at Chicken. What a good idea.

[Gator 45/70]

Go on down to the Kenia and get in a halibut trip, Plenty of bald eagles down there to and maybe you'll get to see a volcano huffing and a puffing.
Plenty puffins down that way, The halibuts between 35/50 lbs are the best for eating.
I blackened some halibut up there for the family and friends, They loved it!

[rbuck351]

Ak is BIG. If you don't mind lots of people then driving a motor home around AK will get you to a lot of beautiful scenery with lots of other folks. If you are not into crowds and like the ocean and fishing, Markopolo has made a wonderful offer. His offer to personally take you on an inland adventure is worth more than you can imagine. That is unless you are a city slicker in which case the motor home is a better idea.

I lived 32 years in AK starting with 6 years in Nome. It was a 32 year adventure and worth every minute.

[Battis]

City slicker? Nope. Daniel Boone? Nope. I don't fish. My favorite place to visit is South Dakota but I should branch out (says the wife, though she said No to a girlfriend). I don't like guided tours unless there's no options.
Markopolo has sent me some really good info and videos, and his offer is amazing (and generous). I'd like to spend a year on his island.
My wife does the planning but I still hold veto power. This will be interesting. Bottom line - I want to see Alaska.

[reddog81]

299445299446299447I visited Juneau last year. We wanted to go see brown bears on admiralty island. Mid-July is supposed to be the best time to visit but the salmon were running late so we didn’t get to see the bears swiping up the salmon out of the stream at Pack Creek but we did see a momma bear and her 2 cubs both days. We took a sea plane out to Swan Island and camped there over night. You can kayak over to Pack Creek from there. On Swan Island we saw bald eagles, seals, humpback whales, Sitka deer, and star fish before even getting the tent setup.

The sun didn’t set until 10 PM and it was light until 11 so the chance of seeing the northern lights was about same as finding Big Foot. The sea plane flight was about $800 round trip for a half hour flight each way.

We also did a Mendenhall glacier hike out of Juneau. There was an ice cave there last year so we got to go inside of that.

[rbuck351]

I lived in Ak for 32 years, the first six in Nome and although I saw a lot of Ak, I didn't see it all. There is just too much. We left about 6 years ago and although there are some things I miss about Ak, what I miss most is the people especially the bush folks. Some of the finest folks I have ever met.

[Shawlerbrook]

Markopolo’s offer is amazing. I been to Alaska twice. Both times flew into to Anchorage. Once in 2009 flew up to Kotz then out to the Noatak to hunt caribou. Then in 2017 in July with my wife and adult daughter. To Talkeetna, Seward and Homer. Both trips were amazing. I truly believe you could spend a lifetime trying to see and do Alaska and never get close to finishing. Truly an amazing place !!!

[thxmrgarand]

I really like the state ferries. I never tire of the Inside Passage. However, fares for vehicles have gone up so much that alternatives to bringing your own vehicle must be considered. Few of the ferry ports have any road to speak of so don't bring a vehicle unless you have a specific requirement. When I was young and single I seldom rented a cabin, never in the summer. There are showers for those who sleep on deck. I find the food great, as does my wife who has higher standards, and it's a good value by AK price levels. The cabins are nice; Spartan but clean and comfortable. If you board in Bellingham to come to Alaska you avoid the Canuck 4th Reich with your guns, and that is worth a lot. Alaska is constitutional carry. Coming up the Inside Passage you will want some books to read and some binoculars. Some people bring bicycles for staying in some of the port towns. Bring real rain gear like you buy in a commercial fishing supply house rather than REI.

Years ago my brother and his wife came up, their first time to AK. They had limited time and I wanted them to see as much as anyone can in not much more than a week, all the time they had. We met them in ANC one evening. We took the train to Denali the next day. I have driven the road countless times but with the train my brother and I could sit and watch the scenery, drinking lots of beer, and the wives could sit in the other end of the car to not worry we would embarrass them. The next day in Denali we took a bus into the park. I took them there because AK isn't Africa and therefore seeing wildlife is hit and miss except in Denali. They saw sheep, wolves, caribou, grizzlies, etc., and Denali is the only place you can do that in one day every time. The next day they went to Barrow and Prudhoe for the day - the three of them. I spent the day in the Fairbanks gun shops and pawn shops as I have been on the North Slope a lot. That was where I wanted my brother to see the arctic and a bush village without having to spend the night in one.

Then we flew to southeast where I had rented a small sport boat, a 32 foot boat shaped like a tug. It was like moving in your living room at 7 knots. The first night we pulled into a very protected bay to catch silvers and put out a crab pot. Then we went into Glacier Bay, taking showers at the national park lodge, and took the little boat up into Glacier Bay. We saw the usual, whales, seal pups on ice flows, brown bear, calving glaciers, etc. We caught more crab. About two days later I took them to the outer coast so they could see the big rollers, sea birds like puffins, and sea otters. We anchored in small bays. Then the women said they were tired of the boat. It seemed big enough for 4 people by my lights but I was maybe too cautious so far as keeping watch at night to make sure we didn't drag anchor; it was a rented boat and unfamiliar to me after all. I guess the ladies thought there was danger, which there wasn't. So I called a bush plane outfit on the marine radio and asked that the next time they had a floatplane in the area they come and find us. The wing fit right over the bow so the ladies could jump on to a float. My brother and I waved good bye as the plane headed to town, and for the next 3 days we had a wonderful time fishing and exhausting the beer supply. Dragging herring around one point that looked good some small sea lions grabbed our downrigger balls to raise Hell, and then they did something I had never seen or heard of; they pushed a humpback whale calf into the shallows where the cow whale couldn't follow. She sounded like an elephant caught in quick sand. My brother filmed it all. At the arranged time we brought the boat back to town where the ladies were pleased with the shopping, restaurants, etc., and may have even been happy to see us. They helped us clean the boat anyway. My brother and his wife caught the jet on time. It was a great way to see some of Alaska in a short amount of time and really for not a lot of cost for four people. I should have foreseen that the ladies would quickly tire of the boat but otherwise I would not have changed anything. If they had been able to spend a second week I would have taken them to Kodiak and then out the Aleutian Chain.