Trip 18: Alaska -- Kenai Fjords, Wrangell-St. Elias, Denali and Katmai National Parks

Sunrise in Denali National Park

Our most recent trip took us to Alaska, where we visited four of the eight national parks in the state as well as a dozen brew pubs during our travels. Alaska is an amazingly beautiful place, with stunning mountain ranges, scenic waterways, and vast forests and tundras. Getting to these parks is not necessarily easy, but they are very much worth seeing.

Kenai Fjords: 

Our first stop at Kenai Fjords National Park was the Exit Glacier area near the town of Seward, the only part of the park accessible by road. From the visitor center, there are several hikes that take you near the glacier. A series of markers that start on the road to the park show how the glacier has receded over the years, with the most recent marker showing where the edge of the glacier was in 2005. In order to see more of the park, we took a wonderful day-long boat tour from Seward through Resurrection Bay to explore the fjords and see wildlife. We especially enjoyed seeing the Ailik and Holgate glaciers, where we saw several ice bergs calve off the glaciers. We also saw a lot of wildlife...orcas (including a baby orca), humpback whales, sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters, bald eagles, puffins (both horned and tufted), and Dall's porpoises. The boat tours are very popular, so advance reservations are a must! It's also essential to dress in layers for the boat tour and have a water-/wind-proof outer layer, as the best views are from the open deck and the wind on the water (and flowing off the glaciers) can cause very cold conditions.

Wrangell-St. Elias:

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is by far the largest national park in the United States, encompassing over 13 million acres. (By comparison, Yellowstone National Park--the 2nd largest in the continental U.S.--is 2.2 million acres.) It is possible to drive into Wrangell-St. Elias by the McCarthy Road on the southern side or the Nabesna Road on the northern side. The McCarthy Road leads to the old mining town of Kennecott, which includes a rustic lodge for overnight stays. We chose to fly into Kennecott from Chitina, about a 30-minute flight by bush plane. The plane ride was a great way to see the vastness of this park and get a good look at the Kennicott and Root glaciers. (The difference in the Kennecott and Kennicott spellings is due to a mistake by the company that owned the copper mines in the area.) We enjoyed doing a tour of the copper mill (one of the tallest wooden structures in the U.S.) and learned a lot about the history of the area. The mines produced $200 million in copper between 1911 and 1938 when the mines were depleted, worth over $3 billion dollars in today's money. Many of the original structures of the mining town are still there. There are also several hiking trails from the town. We did the popular hike to Root Glacier (about 4 miles to the toe of the glacier) and saw a black bear along the way. Root Glacier is a moraine glacier; much of the glacier's ice is covered by rocks and dirt eroded from the surrounding valley rock as the glacier grinds its way through the mountains.

Denali:

Arguably the most famous of the national parks in Alaska, Denali National Park and Preserve is well known as the home of Mount McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America, as well as for its wildlife. There is only a single road, 92-miles long, that runs about halfway into the park. Only the first 14 miles of road are accessible by private vehicle; to access the remainder requires using a park shuttle or a tour bus. Unfortunately, at this time the road is only accessible up to mile 43 even by shuttle or tour bus due to a landslide; a bridge is being put in place, but the closure is expected to run through summer 2026. This also means that opportunities to view Mount McKinley are limited. We were able to glimpse the lower part of the mountain several times, but the upper part of the mountain remained obscured by clouds. We were successful in spotting wildlife during our early morning bus tour, including moose, grizzly bears, caribou, Dall sheep and foxes. We did two short hikes in the park: Mountain Vista Trail and Horseshoe Lake Trail. There are several other trails near the visitors center as well as sled dog kennels, where demonstrations are conducted several times each day during the summer season. (We had visited a sled dog kennel in Fairbanks the previous day, so did not stop at the kennels here.)

Katmai:

Katmai National Park and Preserve is another Alaskan national park that is not accessible by road but rather requires access by plane or boat. There are daily flights between Anchorage and King Salmon airport, about 6 miles from the park's west boundary, and float plane charters are available from King Salmon to Brooks Camp, which is the center of the park's activity. Brown bears congregate at Brooks Falls during the annual run of sockeye salmon in the summer. There is a viewing platform next to the falls that is about a mile hike from the lodge and visitor center. Only 40 people are allowed on the platform at one time and viewing time is limited to 30 minutes each session. A ranger manages a waiting list and will let you know when your viewing time is. There is a further viewing platform down river that can be accessed without limitations. When we arrived in the morning, we were able to go to the platform right away; in the afternoon, we had to wait about 10 minutes for a spot. Bears were plentiful and we saw as many as 14 at one time in the falls area. We also spotted bears at other points along the trail, including a pair that we carefully followed at a safe distance down the trail itself! The lodge does have overnight accommodations and, due to high demand, conducts a lottery each year to determine who will get to reserve a room. Fishing is also popular in the area (carefully away from the bears). The park service also offers a day-long bus tour that travels to the Valley of 10,000 Smokes, the site of the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century (10 times stronger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens).

As for brew pubs, there are plenty in Alaska although they are not necessarily close to the national parks. We managed to visit 12 different brew pubs, and I'll just mention the highlights. Our first and last brew pub visit in Alaska was 49th State Brewing in Anchorage (and we also visited their location near Denali). Mike really liked their Solstice IPA and I loved their Tiger's Blood Sour and the Arnold Palmer Sour. They also had really good food and were worth the return visits! Midnight Sun Brewing Co. in Anchorage was also very good. I did a sampler that included Snow Went Down to Georgia White Golden Stout (yum! a blond-colored stout with great coffee and chocolate notes), Leche Robusta Milk Stout (really good with a little spiciness), Little Slice Sour, and Sun Thief Porter. Mike found their Pleasure Town American IPA to be really good as well. At Lat 65 Brewing Co. in Fairbanks, I tried the Up North Cream Ale, Vanilla Coffee Oatmeal Stout, Untamed Imperial Stout (really good), and Moose Camp Oatmeal Stout (tasty), and Mike had their New Sun NW IPA, which he really liked. We also made sure we went to the northernmost brewery in the U.S.: Silver Gulch Brewing & Bottling Co. in Fox, Alaska, just north of Fairbanks.