Trip review -- June 5 to June 22 -- long

[shaydoll]

Loving the reviews! We leave in a week on HAL inside passage, and I am gobbling up all the info I can. Thanks for taking such time to post.

[bbjaspan]

Hi bbjaspan,

 

Excellent Review!!!

 

Really enjoy reading it. Can't wait for more. :)

 

I went with my sister on the week of May, 7 this year and the weather was better than expected. Wish yours could be better.

 

I went with my husband in sept 2003 in Mercury, and really enjoyed it. We decided to go again on the labor-day week of this year, that means I'm go to Alaska cruise twice this year. :)

 

Your review gave me good ideas what to do and better prepare, Free walk with ranger in Skayway before driving the rental car to Yuko is a very good suggestion, we haven't decided if we will rent a car for the day in Skagway since my may trip already be there, but all lakes were covered with ice at the time we visited.

 

I am still organizing my pictures for this year, you are welcome to take a look if you have time:

 

http://community.webshots.com/user/nancy_s_leong

 

Thanks lot for sharing your experience of Alaska Cruise,

 

Nancy

 

Hi Nancy,

It's good to hear that my reviews are helpful. I got so much help from this board in preparing for our trip that I feel it's time to pay back. Many of the lakes we saw on our Skagway drive still had a lot of ice, but not all. Thank you for your picture link -- I will try to check them out when I finish my review and organize our pictures. So much to do to prepare, then so much to do afterwards!

 

Enjoy your next Alaska cruise,

Barbara

[bbjaspan]

Loving the reviews! We leave in a week on HAL inside passage, and I am gobbling up all the info I can. Thanks for taking such time to post.

 

Have a great trip! Barbara

[RCCLismyfav]

Love your review and after reading manyyyy posts, threads, and reviews we know that Alaska can and probably will be unpredictable.

 

We know that we will make the best out of any situation the weather may bring to us.

 

Keep the reviews coming.

[codyody]

"Oh yes, we did see one live wildlife specimen, albeit not a mammal. A young boy on the tour noticed a black-speckled, green slug on the boardwalk, and I took a picture of it. I also took a picture of a bear’s head nicely carved into a tree stump alongside a viewing platform. Do not waste opportunities!"

Alright, this is the funniest thing I have read in forever:D :D :D Please understand I am very sorry for your disappointments, but your attitude, at least in hindsight, is priceless. As I read of your mammal hunt, I was glad DH says he doesn't care if he sees bears or whales. What is he, crazy? That leaves scenery and, because we're going in September, I can only cross my fingers.

Thank you for this detailed review. We are also staying at the Pinnacle on our Marriott points; I appreciate you sharing the taxi price; more info is good info.

 

I'm hoping the land portion of your trip was better.

[maren91]

Which walking tour -- Vancouver, Skagway with the ranger, ???

 

Sorry, that would help. The Skagway tour with the Ranger, sounds interesting. Thanks :)

[bbjaspan]

"Oh yes, we did see one live wildlife specimen, albeit not a mammal. A young boy on the tour noticed a black-speckled, green slug on the boardwalk, and I took a picture of it. I also took a picture of a bear’s head nicely carved into a tree stump alongside a viewing platform. Do not waste opportunities!"

 

Alright, this is the funniest thing I have read in forever:D :D :D Please understand I am very sorry for your disappointments, but your attitude, at least in hindsight, is priceless. As I read of your mammal hunt, I was glad DH says he doesn't care if he sees bears or whales. What is he, crazy? That leaves scenery and, because we're going in September, I can only cross my fingers.

 

Thank you for this detailed review. We are also staying at the Pinnacle on our Marriott points; I appreciate you sharing the taxi price; more info is good info.

 

I'm hoping the land portion of your trip was better.

 

The scenery was always beautiful, whatever part of it we could see. It's just that we began to long for a glimpse of the mountain tops. I know the weather in Alaska is unpredictable but of all our friends who have already been, none had a continuous 10-day siege like we had.

 

The sun came out, finally, after dinner on the last night of our cruise. The next week, on land, was like a whole different trip. I will write more about that.

[bbjaspan]

Sorry, that would help. The Skagway tour with the Ranger, sounds interesting. Thanks :)

 

Absolutely, I recommend the walking tour with the ranger. As I said in the piece of my review about Skagway:

 

"The walking tour was superb. The ranger (I wish I had written down her name) was energetic and exuberant. She explained some things in the Visitor Center and then we walked with her all over town. We never would have noticed the things she pointed out to us. There are 5 ranger-led walking tours each day and they are not all the same. If you are spending more time in town I would recommend more than one."

[NancyIL]

Barbara - I'm enjoying reading your trip report, and I'm especially looking forward to reading about your land trip! I'm sorry your week to cruise was so unlucky weather-wise. The glacier hike in Juneau sounded especially disappointing. I guess after anyone writes a glowing review of an excursion, they should insert a disclaimer that "your experience may NOT be this great - depending on a number of factors - particularly weather." I'm glad your whale watching trip with Harv & Marv salvaged the rest of your day in Juneau.

 

We also had overcast days in our 3 port towns, although it rained only in Juneau. I envied all the folks who reported they had beautiful, sunny skies and actually saw Misty Fjords from the plane - because we had to turn back due to the low clouds. We were fortunate in that the weather got better while we were in Skagway, and was perfect for our last 2 days - which were both glacier days.

[sph7]

Hi bbjaspan.

 

Good job!

I love reading your review so much that I made a bookmark so that my DH can read it later. We are going to Alaska at the end of August on NCL and your review gives me lots of ideas. By the way, did Becky email you back? Thank you for your review. :)

[bbjaspan]

Barbara - I'm enjoying reading your trip report, and I'm especially looking forward to reading about your land trip! I'm sorry your week to cruise was so unlucky weather-wise. The glacier hike in Juneau sounded especially disappointing. I guess after anyone writes a glowing review of an excursion, they should insert a disclaimer that "your experience may NOT be this great - depending on a number of factors - particularly weather." I'm glad your whale watching trip with Harv & Marv salvaged the rest of your day in Juneau.

 

We also had overcast days in our 3 port towns, although it rained only in Juneau. I envied all the folks who reported they had beautiful, sunny skies and actually saw Misty Fjords from the plane - because we had to turn back due to the low clouds. We were fortunate in that the weather got better while we were in Skagway, and was perfect for our last 2 days - which were both glacier days.

 

Hi Nancy!!

 

I am so glad to hear from you and know that you are reading my review. (Please send me a link to your review.) My DH and I were hiking overnight this week and that has interrupted my response and review process. As I am sure you know, it takes a lot of time.

 

I'm sorry you missed Misty Fjords. I guess anyone who has a perfect trip weatherwise is quite lucky indeed.

 

As you will see, our land week, while not weather-perfect, was just fine. I am so glad we did not do a cruise-only trip.

 

Will try to continue my review over the weekend.

 

Barbara

[bbjaspan]

Becky responded to my e-mail and has given us a partial credit, which we think is fair. Of course, we would have preferred to have had a better experience...

 

Here is the major part of her message to us:

 

============================================

 

"Thanks for your feedback on our trip. I'm very sorry the trip did not meet your expectations and I understand your disappointment. We strive for the best customer service and quality with our company. It's rare we get a negative response about our glacier trip, however, I understand your situation. Your trip seemed to have been cut short due to your other tour schedule. I would be happy to give you a partial refund...

 

 

"I'm sorry you were under the impression I was going to be your guide. I just had a baby, so obviously I can't be doing any guiding this summer. We have a staff of 4-6 guides, and we always alternate different guides on trips. I can assure you that Kevin is a very experienced guide and knows his ropes well. He has guided this glacier route many times. You must understand, every day and trip is different. When it rains, the trip can be more challenging to lead for a guide and can take longer. The trail looks different and the terrain can be more difficult to move over. Kevin is director of the Outdoor Backcountry Program at the University of Alaska and has been guiding in this area for years. Based on the rainy conditions that day and how long it took you to get to the glacier, Kevin probably decided there wasn't time to set up ropes for ice climbing because he wanted to get you back to your tour on time.

 

"As for our trip description, I have it posted on our website, along with video footage of the trip. I'm open to suggestions from you on how to better describe the trail conditions…

 

"I allowed you to book another tour back to back with ours. In the future, I'm no longer going to allow clients to book trips so close to ours.

 

"I don't want a similar situation to happen again. Again, I'm very sorry that your experience with us was not up to par. I greatly appreciate the feedback you have given me, as we are always looking at how we can make our trips better…

 

"Thanks again for your kindness to respond. "

 

=============================================

 

I viewed the video on her website, which I had not seen before (was it there and I missed it?). It is an accurate depiction. If we had not been under such time pressure, we would have been more comfortable with it.

 

It is good that Becky is no longer allowing such a close scheduling of a following excursion. She should allow for the "worst case" scenario, and rain is certainly common enough to factor in every time.

 

I will try to find time to begin my land review in the next few days.

 

Barbara

[NancyIL]

Barbara - I'm glad Becky responded to your e-mail and gave you a partial refund. While it doesn't make up for your less-than-ideal experience, it helps to take some of the sting out of paying so much to be miserable!

 

Here's the link to my review: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=10565150#post10565150 The cruise part is in my first post and the land trip is in post #20. It isn't a terribly detailed review, simply because I don't have the patience to write that much at one time!

[abslhs]

We are booked on the Summit 8/30 and have two of the same excursions booked, Island Wings and Harv & Marv. Thanks so much for your time to give such a detailed review, I am certainly going to try to do the same. I have learned so much and appreciated all I have read from everyone. I just can't wait for this trip, because after it's over I know I need to plan to go again to get in all the things I'll miss!!!!

 

Thanks!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking the time to write the good and bad of your cruise. I always like to read everything no matter what.

[bettyonboard]

We are going for the first time in Sept. I may be the ONLY one here to state, that I don't mind the rain. We are from the PNW and we get rain. I happen to like the rain more than the 90 degree days. (Which we have been having) But I know I am in the minority, so sorry it wasn't more pleasant for you.

We too are renting a car from Avis in Skagway, and just yesterday booked with Michelle with Island Wings. I talked with her on the phone, and she was very pleasant.

Keep up with the review.

[bbjaspan]

We are going for the first time in Sept. I may be the ONLY one here to state, that I don't mind the rain. We are from the PNW and we get rain. I happen to like the rain more than the 90 degree days. (Which we have been having) But I know I am in the minority, so sorry it wasn't more pleasant for you.

We too are renting a car from Avis in Skagway, and just yesterday booked with Michelle with Island Wings. I talked with her on the phone, and she was very pleasant.

Keep up with the review.

 

It wasn't so much that we minded the rain as that the fog prevented us from seeing so much of what we understand is fabulous scenery. We expected some rain, either some of the days, or for part of a lot of the days, but we weren't prepared for cloudy/foggy/misty/rainy weather all day for the first 10 days of our trip. Thankfully, the weather improved for our week of land touring.

[bbjaspan]

Friday, June 15 – Seward – day 1

 

We woke up docked in Seward and it was a whole new day! The sun was shining on the mountaintops!

 

We disembarked, collected our luggage, and hopped in a taxi to the Holiday Inn Express ($7 including tip). We were close enough to walk, but not with all that luggage. We observed what a great location our hotel was in – right at the small boat harbor, the train station, and the Train Wreck. (More about those later.) Too early to check into our room, we checked our luggage with the front desk and set out. We had escaped from that cruise-ship-in-the-fog; we were in a PLACE not on a BOAT and that place was ALASKA! The water was beautiful, reflecting the sun on the snow-covered mountains, and the weather was perfect!

 

We walked from the Holiday Inn down Fourth Ave. toward the Alaska SeaLife Center. On the way, we stopped into the Kenai Fjords National Park Visitor Center where we picked up a nice map of Seward and chatted with a ranger who recommended we walk along the Bike Path, right along the water. We continued on Fourth…

 

We liked the SeaLife Center. My favorite part was the tall tank that allowed us to view the puffins and other diving birds. I never realized birds dove so deep into the water! Outside the SeaLife Center I took a picture of… DANDELIONS! They were so big and bright, due to the long daylight hours.

 

We walked back along the Bike Path. What a beautiful walk – views of the little beach, the small boat harbor, the snowcapped mountains across the water and more.

 

We walked to the Train Wreck, a group of four old rail cars across from the railroad station, now housing The Smoke Shack Restaurant in one and Exit Glacier Guides in another. Exit Glacier Guides provides a van shuttle service to and from Exit Glacier ($9pp round trip) as well as tours of the glacier. We stopped in and arranged for a shuttle ride departing at 1:30pm and returning at 5pm. You must determine your return time in advance because there are no phones at the Exit Glacier Visitor Center and cell phone service is unreliable. We were lucky that there was still space in the van at the times we wanted (we got the last 2 seats in one of the directions), so I recommend you do this early.

 

We had a delicious lunch at the Smoke Shack, then hopped in the van for the 20-minute ride that got us to the Exit Glacier Visitor Center in time for the 2pm ranger-led walk to the glacier, which was excellent. The walk took a couple of hours, taking us right up to the glacier, and the ranger provided a lot of interesting information. At the end of the ranger walk, we walked by ourselves part way up the steep Harding Ice Field Trail, but we couldn’t get far enough to see anything interesting in the time we had.

 

That evening we ate at Ray’s Waterfront Restaurant, just down the street from the Holiday Inn, seated at a table overlooking the small boat harbor – delicious! ($62 for two including tip)

 

Saturday, June 16 – Seward – day 2

 

We got up early, ate at the Holiday Inn Express breakfast buffet (included), and handed our luggage over to the Holiday Inn for them to deliver to the railroad ($2 per bag) for our trip to Anchorage that evening. The Holiday Inn was all set up with the baggage check tags from the railroad. What a convenience!

 

We then walked a couple of blocks to the Bakery in the Harbor for our 7:45am rendezvous with Captain Tonya and her crew-person, Laurel, for our 8½ hour Alaska Saltwater Lodge Small Group Whale Watching, Wildlife, Natural History, & Glacier Tour on the Steller Sunrise. It was all of that and more. There were only 6 passengers (MiamiMama, who was on the Summit with us, and her DH were booked for the cruise with us but Tonya told us that she had called to say she wasn’t feeling well and rebooked for the next day). We had so much room – we could all be inside or out, port or starboard, bow or stern. What a pleasure! We saw everything – Orcas, a humpback, sea otters, sea lions, harbor seals, puffins and many other sea birds, goats, red starfish, an eagle and an eagle nest, a beautiful glacier and spectacular scenery! I think we were at Holgate Glacier, but it might have been Aialik. I highly recommend this tour.

 

After the cruise, we returned to the Bakery in the Harbor and bought sandwiches there for our 6:00pm train ride to Anchorage. We knew we could eat in the train dining car but we wanted to be ready for picture-taking opportunities at any moment. I’m glad we did that because they invited only one train car at a time to the dining room and we were hungry way before it was our turn.

 

The train ride was great. We were able to sit in the domed car as much as we liked and took pictures from there. The engineer got on the loudspeaker and announced, "Folks, we have a little problem and will have to slow down… There is a moose on the tracks ahead of us!" Sure enough, as the train turned, we were able to see the moose, walking along between the tracks with the train in slow pursuit. This went on for longer than I would have expected before the moose took off into the woods.

 

We arrived in Anchorage at 10:15pm, in bright daylight, collected our luggage and took a taxi ($18 including tip) to the Anchorage Airport Courtyard by Marriott. Yes, it was sort of inconvenient to arrive downtown and stay by the airport, especially since we had to return downtown the next morning to pick up our Avis rental (Avis downtown was significantly less costly than an airport pickup), but we had booked a good rate ($84) at the hotel and were too lazy to look for something else.

[travellover3]

Barbara...what a wonderfully detailed journal. I, too appreciate the effort you have taken to give us neophytes some good advice. I hope that you, like me, have the selective memory to only remember the wonderful parts of a trip. When it is not so fresh from a recent trip, you will long remember the outstanding events!

 

I will go on my very first cruise in Sept., on Princess and for the sake of inexperience, will go with the Princess excursions. We are taking a cruisetour and an extended 3 nights in Vancouver (have been there before and love it!) Having traveled extensively on land trips, mostly independent, I have adopted an attitude about unpleasant weather. It just doesn't matter-everything you see and do is wonderful, and I am not noticing the weather!

 

Thanks again for the wonderful trip to look forward to.

[bbjaspan]

Barbara...what a wonderfully detailed journal. I, too appreciate the effort you have taken to give us neophytes some good advice. I hope that you, like me, have the selective memory to only remember the wonderful parts of a trip. When it is not so fresh from a recent trip, you will long remember the outstanding events!

 

I will go on my very first cruise in Sept., on Princess and for the sake of inexperience, will go with the Princess excursions. We are taking a cruisetour and an extended 3 nights in Vancouver (have been there before and love it!) Having traveled extensively on land trips, mostly independent, I have adopted an attitude about unpleasant weather. It just doesn't matter-everything you see and do is wonderful, and I am not noticing the weather!

 

Thanks again for the wonderful trip to look forward to.

 

So glad you are enjoying my review. It is taking so much time but it will be nice for us to have afterwards as well. We also did only cruise line excursions on our first (and only previous) cruise, through the Panama Canal. But this time, after spending time on this board, it seemed easy to do otherwise. It may also be that the independent excursions in Alaska are easier to consider -- it is the U.S., they speak English, it's easy to call and speak to the "owner" who is often the tour guide/pilot/escort as well, the same people do it from year to year, etc. If we were doing it again, we'd do the independent excursions again. The one cruise line excursion we did, in Icy Strait, was the most disappointing.

 

As for weather, I am always prepared with rain jacket and go wherever, rain or shine. But when you're there for the scenery, and day after day there is no scene to see, or the mountain you want to go up on (Grouse in Vancouver) is totally fogged in for the 3 days you are there, it is disappointing.

 

Have a great trip!

[NancyIL]

Barbara - I'm so glad the sun came out for you while you were in Seward! I'm looking forward to reading more about your land trip adventures. :)

[taxjam]

Thanks so much for your report segments which are both enlightening and entertaining although I would prefer reading about delights rather than disappointments. I am glad the land portion looks sunnier - at least I hope so . . . Ted

[bbjaspan]

Sunday, June 17 – Anchorage to Denali

 

We took a taxi from the Airport Courtyard to Avis Downtown ($16 including tip) for our 9am car pickup (Avis Downtown opens at 9am on weekends) and began our drive to Denali, again with The Milepost on my lap. Actually, I had torn the relevant sections out of The Milepost so we wouldn’t have so much weight to carry. As recommended by Budget Queen, we stopped in Wasilla for gas and groceries (Carr’s) – Denali lunch/snacks -- for the next 3 days.

 

Our plan was to have lunch in Talkeetna and we drove in that direction. On the Talkeetna Spur Road, we stopped at the Mount McKinley viewpoint. Although the sun was shining, there were many clouds. But we THINK that we saw a piece of the mountain through a small hole in the clouds. We later stopped at many other viewpoints for the mountain, but this was not our day for a view.

 

We continued into Talkeetna and drove around the town, passing hoards of folks walking around, filling the sidewalks. Figuring any place to eat would be overcrowded as well, we just drove out and back to the Parks Highway.

 

We arrived at the Denali Visitor Center mid-afternoon. Our plan was to sign up for a Discovery Hike with a park ranger for the day after next (Tuesday), since we had a reservation for the 5:30am Wonder Lake shuttle bus for the next day (Monday). The hike for Tuesday was to be a challenging one, with an elevation gain of 1700’ in the first hour. I would have signed up to be challenged; DH cast a veto. We considered switching our shuttle bus from Monday to Tuesday (if possible) but the Monday Discovery Hike was to be short and too easy AND required getting your feet wet, so we passed altogether on Discovery Hikes.

 

We saw the film, "Heartbeats of Denali," then drove our car 14 miles along the Denali Park Road to Savage River, which is as far as you can go with a private car. A nesting white bird was the only wildlife we saw.

 

Hungry and exhausted, we ignored our plan to have dinner at the recommended McKinley Creekside Restaurant, and stopped in the first place we saw outside Denali – the Salmon Bake. We sat by the window in this casual restaurant and had delicious halibut burritos while watching a huge downpour outside.

 

After dinner, rain stopping, we drove the 12 miles or so to Healy and checked into the Denali Lakeview Inn, Alpine Meadows room, for 3 nights. We were very satisfied with the accommodations there. The view from our private balcony – lake and mountains – was spectacular.

 

Monday, June 18 – Denali – day 2

 

When we awoke before 4am it was already light outside. We were having second thoughts about our early start -- it’s so easy to plan nine months in advance, more difficult to execute when the time comes – but when we arrived at the Denali Wilderness Access Center just after 5am, it was bustling. We boarded the 5:30am green shuttle bus for our 11-hour, 85 miles each way, ride to Wonder Lake.

 

Our driver, Darlene Huss, was absolutely fantastic!!!! I won’t say that she talked non-stop for the 11 hours because that sounds like a negative. But we welcomed all she said, explaining flora, fauna, geology and more. She was amazing at spotting wildlife! She must have known where to look for what. To help us with our sightings and photos, she maneuvered the bus as needed. We saw so much – bear, moose, caribou, Dall sheep, a red fox, a black wolf, an arctic ground squirrel, and so many birds: ptarmigan, falcon, magpie and more.

 

It was raining when we began our trip, which stopped soon afterwards. We had sunshine at times but the day was cloudy. At Wonder Lake, we had to ask Darlene where Mt. McKinley "would be" – there wasn’t a hint of it. That’s par for the course. But there WERE mosquitoes. Before we got off the bus, we applied insect repellent to our hands (the only exposed skin) and donned our head nets over baseball caps. That worked. When we reboarded the bus, it took some time for the group to swat all the unwelcome new trip companions. Darlene said, "You guys were lucky today. The mosquitoes weren’t bad at all."

 

We never left the bus to take off on our own. The ride was going to be long enough without adding to our day, Darlene was too good to give up, and, honestly, we were afraid to be out there on our own wondering if a particular wildlife encounter required us to "play dead" or "run!"

 

At the end of another long day, we looked at each other and knew… it would be the Salmon Bake again, not the drive to McKinley Creekside.

 

Another delicious dinner, halibut for me, salmon for DH.

 

After dinner, almost back to Denali Lakeview Inn, we had one of our favorite wildlife sightings – a mama moose and her 2 calves standing right in the middle of the road!

 

Tuesday, June 19 – Denali – day 3

 

Finally, a day we could sleep in and we needed it! We ate breakfast (provided by the Inn in our refrigerator) and ambled back to Denali. We took a short, guided hike with a ranger (no sign-up, just show up). Her emphasis (each ranger is different) was plants and we identified lots of flowers. The walk ended at a beaver pond (great beaver dam but no beaver) where folks coming toward us from the pond had just sighted moose (no longer in sight).

 

After the walk, we caught the free bus for the sled dog demo, an enjoyable experience. We walked around to meet and pet all the dogs, then we gathered for a ranger program that included the harnessing of five of the dogs to a sled and our watching them enthusiastically pull a ranger around a gravel loop.

 

Next, our plan was to hike one of several trails in the park entrance area on our own, but I had an unplanned idea – Why not take another shuttle bus ride? Yesterday’s ride was wonderful and we knew that "every ride is different." We had just missed the last bus to Fish Creek, so we bought tickets for the only bus ride left that day, the 6pm bus to Polychrome Pass. I was so pleased with myself for thinking of this!

 

As they say, "every ride is different." Driver Mark Anderson, who drives this route several times a week, was no Darleen. He explained right away, "My job is to drive the bus." That is about all he did. When one of the passengers shouted, "Stop!" Mark did stop the bus. Of course, a bus cannot stop short, so it stopped forward of the place where our man had spotted a "huge moose, between the trees, right off the road." Mark said, "I don’t back up the bus. Can anyone still see the moose?" With no positive response, he rode onward. We saw barely any wildlife on this 5-hour ride. The bus moved so fast ("Gotta keep on schedule") it was difficult to spot anything ("You guys are not doing your job," Mark said). When we did spot something far off, before we even had a chance to focus our binoculars or zoom our 12x cameras, Mark said, "That’s too far away," and drove on. We saw a couple of porcupines on the road. Mt. McKinley was again not visible.

 

Driving back to the Inn, we took some pictures of the sun setting, at 11:45pm!

[bbjaspan]

Wednesday, June 20 – Denali to Palmer

 

We took so many pictures on this day. First, after 3 days at Denali, on this, our departure-from-Denali-day, the mountain was finally out! As we drove south from Denali, we stopped again at all the viewpoints we had visited on Sunday, taking full views of the mountain with no doubt this time that it was "the" mountain we were photographing.

 

Then, after we turned off the Parks Highway and headed east on Glenn Highway, we found ourselves in a world of different spectacular scenery! And perfect weather!! We could hardly round a bend without taking more pictures – of King Mountain, the Matanuska River and its Valley, the Chugach Mountains to the south, the Matanuska Glacier, the Sheep Mountains to the north (but we didn’t see any sheep).

 

We arrived at our destination for the night, the Majestic Valley Wilderness Lodge, just in time for our 7:30pm dinner reservation. I highly recommend this place – for its location, for its wonderful staff, and most of all, for its chef! We sat with another couple, also overnight guests, in the dining room of the new and lovely "blonde" log main building with beautiful mountain views, and were served the most gourmet, most delicious meal of the entire trip. If you want dinner and/or breakfast at the Lodge, you must arrange that, and make your food selections, in advance. We had salad, grilled halibut on orzo with vegetable, bread and dessert for $26 each, wine extra, but I cannot describe the superb seasoning and presentation. The other couple had chicken that they raved about. I wish this place were close enough to return to.

 

Our room, with private bath, was in a nearby building, the bunkhouse, I think they call it, surrounded by flowers. It had several rooms, all in a row, with a common room at the end. The common room had a refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot, sofas, books, games, etc.

 

Thursday, June 21 – Palmer to Anchorage

 

Our last day was long and full.

 

We awoke, had breakfast at the Lodge, and departed. We drove a bit further east for more scenic views, then turned around.

 

We stopped at the Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Area and walked the pretty, 1-mile interpretive nature trail that took us closer, but not really close, to the glacier. If the mosquitoes are as bad as they were that day, I would pass on this walk. We hadn’t seen mosquitoes the day before, and didn’t see any this day except for here, so we were not expecting them and had neither repellent nor head nets ready. There is closer, paying access and tours to the glacier, through a nearby operator, but we did not do that.

 

We drove further west on Glenn Highway and then turned north on Hatcher Pass Road, for a 35-mile roundtrip drive to Independence Mine, to find ourselves in yet another, different, spectacular world. How could the scenery change so quickly? The road mostly followed the Little Susitna River, an energetic, gurgling brook full of rocks and boulders. The hills were bright green – reminding me of Switzerland without cows. From one of them, a man was para-sailing. We drove up to the entrance of the mine but did not go inside. On our way down Hatcher Pass Road, we stopped for some of "The Best Ice Cream in the World," as the sign said. It was good.

 

Our next stop was the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage. We arrived 5 minutes before their 3pm guided tour. (We didn’t know about that in advance.) I took the tour -- through five sites, each depicting typical homes, clothes, boats and cultures of different Alaska native groups. At the same time, DH watched a native performance in the theatre and viewed two movies: "Stories Given, Stories Shared" and "Living from the Land and the Sea," introducing native cultures and traditions of Alaska. We both wished we had time to do both before the Center closed.

 

We didn’t want to stop. We set our GPS for Flattop Mountain. If we didn’t have enough time to climb it, at least we’d be able to take "a walk on a short, paved loop with incredible views and interpretive signs," as Frommer’s told us. And we would have, if Anchorage rush-hour traffic didn’t intervene. We had to abort, and head for the airport for our 8:30pm redeye flight home.

[NancyIL]

Barbara - other than your 2nd day on the Denali shuttle bus - it sounds like you had a wonderful land trip. We stopped at the Sheep Mountain Lodge - and I agree that the drive along the Glenn Highway is gorgeous.

 

Thanks again for posting your wonderful review!