The peak season is from the middle of June till the end of August. During this time you will enjoy clear daylight till around 10:00pm and the sun rises before you wake up. So you have all the hours you are awake at your disposal, limited by energy and sometimes restricted by showers.

The fringe seasons are a month on either side of the peak, the hotel and day cruise rates are lower, but so are the available hours and the warm and clearer weather.

Why is it so expensive in Alaska? - Their tourist season is limited and they have to make all the money in that time to keep the business viable.

You can take George Parks Highway to drive to Denali National Park from Anchorage. On the way to Denali, you can choose to take short diversions to view Mt McKinley from the south side.

There are two places near Denali National Park where you can find affordable hotels / inns. Carlo Creek, 13 miles south of Denali National Park entrance, and Healy, 10 miles north of the park entrance on George Parks Highway. We stayed at The Perch in Carlo Creek and would recommend it. Its affordable and a great place to stay. Try the fresh baked bread from the bakery.

The other affordable places are White Moose Lodge , Denali Mountain Morning Hostel, Denali River Cabins

Denali National Park at the break of dawn

From the Shuttle bus in Denali National Park

The park is open to private traffic only for the first 13 miles up to the Turnaround arm. To visit the park interiors, you need to take the park shuttle bus. The shuttle bus has to be booked at least 3 weeks in advance to ensure that you get a seat. 30% of the tickets are reserved for walk in tourists - but you may get tickets only for buses traveling two days later.

You have four destinations to choose from. The most popular ones are the Eilson Visitor center (8hrs round trip) and the Wonder Lake (11 hrs round trip) which goes further into the park and closer to Mt McKinley. You have only limited rest stops on the way. But you may choose to get down from the bus at the place of your choice and take some later bus to continue your journey. The wait may be from half an hour to much more, depending on seat availability in the next bus.

You need to carry your own food and water supply for the day. You should see bears, moose, caribou, wolf, arctic fox, dal sheep and other wild life. Carrying binocular is a must. Try to get into the earliest shuttle (starting at 5:15 AM) to see more wild life.

For shuttle bus reservation and campgrounds call 800-622-7275 or 907-272-7275.

Grizzly on the river bed

Author Soumyendu with Anjana, taking the Caribou training

Caribou passing the bus

Denali Highway leads you through a even more picturesque landscape south of the Alaska range. Its more scenic than the National Park itself, with the added advantage of all the freedom of mobility that you get by driving on your own.

It starts from Cantwell, 27 miles to the south of the Park entrance on George Parks Highway. Its 133 miles long and runs east to Paxson on the Richardson Highway. Just driving through the highway itself is a great experience, though you can choose to bike or hike at places.

view from Denali Highway

view from Denali Highway

Before you get onto the highway, stop at the store in Cantwell to pick up a brochure of the highway, which lists all the points of interests and provides useful information. Around 110 miles of the highway is gravel road. If you are driving a car, to avoid flat tire do not exceed 35 mph. To see the pot holes clearly, polarized glasses or add-ons are recommended. You can also carry a Fix-a-Flat bottle from any auto store.

Peaks of Wrangell from Denali Highway

sunset from Richardson Highway

At the eastern end of the highway, you will hit the Richardson highway in Paxson. Richardson highway is very scenic and it winds its way past the beautiful alpine lakes and through the Alaska range.

If you choose to go north towards Anchorage, you can choose spend the night at Delta Junction, about 80 miles north of Paxson. It will make the day less taxing and will cost less. Alaska 7 Motel and Kelly’s Country Inn are both affordable and offers clean accommodation.

Its about two hours drive north west of Delta Junction. Just north of Delta Junction, you see peculiar stuff like the Alaska Pipeline bridge over a river.

Alaska Pipeline bridge

Moose at the outskirts of Fairbanks

On the Richardson highway moose often come on to the road.

You drive past a place named North Pole before Fairbanks.

Fairbanks is well documented in many literature. The University of Alaska Museum is worth visiting. The campus is striking. One day is more than enough for visiting Fairbanks.

People often feel tempted to drive along Dalton highway northwards to touch the Arctic circle. But north of Fairbanks the landscape is boring.

Fairbanks

Take the Seward highway from Anchorage to Portage Glacier and then take the tunnel to Whittier. The Seward highway between Potter Marsh and Portage is one of the most scenic roads on the world. The gorgeous fjords and the mountains rising to great heights from the water, and the shimmer of the sun, and the blue of the ice coming down the slope, makes it so wonderful.

My dad at a look over on Seward Highway

View from Prince William Sound

The best cruise from Whittier to the Western Prince William Sound is the 26 Glaciers Cruise offered by the Phillip’s Cruises and Tours. They have the fastest catamaran, which gives you no motion sickness. The cruise departs at 1:00 pm and returns by 5:30 pm. It visits the glaciers on the College fjord.

Make sure you request for binoculars. That way you can see the distant glaciers and otters and other sea life better.

The Whittier tunnel is open in one direction at a time and switches every half hour. So you need to reach the tunnel by 11:30 am to catch the cruise.

Whittier is about 60 miles from Anchorage. So you can start early from Anchorage to spend time at the stopovers in Seward highway, before heading for Whittier.

On the deck of the cruise

As we were speeding through the College Ford

A Glacier Stop

Surprise Glacier

Anjana with an ice berg from the Portage Glacier

Anjana next to the Exit Glacier

Exit Glacier

Exit Glacier

Exit Glacier

But the greatest experience here is hike to the Harding Ice Field, the source of the glaciers of the Kenai Fjords National park.

It’s a very steep 4 mile trail with sharp ascent which takes you upstream along the Exit glacier to the ice field. The trail goes through the different layers of vegetation, the woods, the bushes, the tundra and the bare rocks next to ice.

Be aware that there are black bears in the bushes with berries which may get very close to you. The bears do not like surprises and you can consider carrying bells tied to your day pack and bear sprays just as a precaution. But bears generally avoid humans. We passed a bear in the bushes on the way up. On the way down, though there was a bear near the trail, it avoided us.

Marmot on the trail

Exit Glacier

Exit Glacier coming down from the Harding Ice Field

Harding Ice Field

Harding Ice Field the source of glaciers

Kenai peninsula is a nice place to relax. The road from Seward leads through Coopers Landing. It’s a fishing heaven, with red salmon swarming in the creeks.

If you carry a binocular, you will see the dal sheep and mountain goat, up on the high slopes. It has nice lakes with strange copper blue and greenish blue colors.

Vivid colors

Salmon swarming in the creeks

Cooper Landing

The beach at Kenai with the mountains rising across the water is a strange spectacle. Soldotna is the most developed town with Fred Meyer superstore, food chains and other shopping facilities.

Beach at Kenai

Sunset from the Kenai peninsula

Outskirts of Homer