Anchorage: Anchorage is by far Alaska’s largest city. Our hotel is in the downtown area. Here the state has its office building and courthouse. The city has its museum, convention center, and performing arts center. A number of major companies have their office buildings here. So the downtown is a vibrant area. Because most of the major hotels are also here, the downtown is also oriented toward the visitor.

The Anchorage Museum of History and Art has a wonderful Alaska history gallery upstairs, and a collection of dramatic paintings of Alaska downstairs. The Alaska Public Lands Information Center is a couple of blocks from our hotel. It’s a collaboration of federal and state land and wildlife control agencies. Inside you’ll find information on all of the national parks and forests in Alaska as well as all of the state parks. There are maps, mounted wildlife displays, and the Alaska Natural History Association has one of its excellent bookstores here.

In addition, also a few blocks from our hotel, is a professional photography store, and access to the portion of Anchorage’s bike trails that wind along its muddy shoreline and Westchester Lagoon. There’s great birding to be found along its course. You can hike for miles on this trail system.

The delights of downtown Anchorage can be enjoyed if you arrive early on the first day, leave late on the last day, and/or for a few hours as we take a midday break here when traveling between the Kenai Penninsula and Denali National Park.

Homer: This artsy community is located at the mouth of Kachemak Bay on the western shore of the Kenai Peninsula. Jutting south several miles into the bay is the Homer Spit. Our hotel is at the end of the spit looking across the bay at fantastic mountain peaks and glaciers. Stay up late and marvel at the fading twilight; the show lasts an hour or two this close to solstice.

The mountainous south shore of the bay is rugged with inlets, tide pools and islands. The 18-foot tides create a complex combination of currents that create upwellings of nutrients that attract marine fowl and whales. It’s a dramatic landscape that we‘ll kayak through.

We’ll also fly, from Homer, south and west to the far side of Cook Inlet. While in the air, weather permitting, we'll be able to view awe-inspiring landcapes of rugged mountains and glaciers. The views take the breath of even those who have seen them on a regular basis. Our plane lands on the beach along the coastal boundary of Katmai National Park and Preserve. Here our guides take us to where Alaska brown bear forage for food, seek mates, and take care of their young. This will be a full day of viewing bears engaged in a wide variety of activities.

Homer is also home to the Islands and Ocean Center, which is the visitor information center for the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. In addition, in Homer, there are a number of small, independent art galleries and shops to enjoy. Beach combing and bird watching are, of course, popular activities in Homer as well. For more about the local natural history, there's the Pratt Museum.

Seward: On the east side of the Kenai Peninsula is the port and fishing town of Seward. This is the main access point for Kenai Fjords National Park and several islands that are part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Our full day here will be spent on one of the smaller, more intimate wildlife viewing vessels. Its itinerary is set by the captain according to the interests of the passengers and where he/she thinks a wide variety of marine wildlife will be found.

While in Seward, there will also be time to visit the Alaska Sealife Center, which is Alaska’s small, but state of the art aquarium and research facility. It’s also possible to journey a few miles farther up the road our hotel is on, to visit Exit Glacier. This valley glacier ends about a mile from a convenient parking lot. A short hike will take you to, literally, a stone’s throw from the terminus of this icy relic of the last ice age. Its melt waters flow as a braided river just across the road from our hotel.

Talkeetna: Talkeetna is the modern access point for Mt. McKinley. A number of flight services that specialize in flying climbers to the lower slopes of the great mountain are based here. These flight services are also available to take flightseers around the mountain and/or land on one of its glaciers. We’ll use Talkeetna as a stop-over on our way to Denali National Park. Our lodge sits on a rise above the town, and has, barring clouds, an unobstructed view of the south side of Mt. McKinley from base to summit.

Talkeetna is said to be the town that the TV show Northern Exposure was based on. Its rustic charm makes apparent the comparison. President Harding stopped here on his way south after driving the golden spike marking the completion of the Alaska Railroad. Later, on his way back to Washington, he died in San Francisco. Some Talkeetna locals like to believe he was poisoned in a popular watering hole here.

In addition to pleasant strolls about the town or along the Talkeetna and Susitna Rivers, there’s a room-sized 3-D model of Mount McKinley that was made by computer-guided laser. You can walk around the model to view the mountain's topography. Articles about climbers and climbing The Great One adorn the walls around the model.

Denali National Park: We will spend one night in the populated area along the park’s eastern boundary. Our accommodations will be on the banks of the Nenana River which forms the eastern boundary of the park. There will be time to enjoy the park’s visitor center, and for optional activities such as flightseeing, rafting on the Nenana, horseback riding, or spending more time in the park by riding in on the park shuttle bus system. We will enjoy an evening dinner theater while here.

Camp Denali: Camp Denali was created in 1951, by two ladies who wanted the facilities to function not just as accommodations with a view of Mount McKinley, but more as a base for guests to operate from as they explored and learned about the taiga and tundra realms at their doorsteps.

When first established, Camp Denali was just beyond the park's north boundary. At that time the park still had its original name, Mt. McKinley National Park. With an expansion in 1981 that more than doubled the park's size, Camp Denali found itself in the heart of the new park.
To get to Camp Denali, we will travel almost the full length of the park’s sole road. For most of its length, the park road is gravel and dirt. Because of the nature of the road and the wildlife encountered along it, there are driving restrictions. As a result, we will ride on a Camp Denali bus with one of their naturalists certified to drive this most memorable thoroughfare. The trip through what has been called the Serengeti of the North will last about 6 hours and include several rest stops and, more importantly, stops for wildlife sightings. One of the rest stops features a picnic style dinner set up for us by the drivers.

The lodge is at the far end of the road, almost 90 miles from the park entrance. The view to the south, from the lodge, is of Wonder Lake just below, and Mt. McKinley rising beyond, its summit just 29 air miles away.

Camp Denali’s current owners, the Cole family, have been continuing the tradition of operating a world class lodge and providing excellent naturalist guides since the baton was passed to them over 30 years ago. Their business is a labor of love, which is apparent in the way the lodge is maintained, and every aspect of the experiences they make possible for their guests. There are natural history hikes from the lodge and from venues along the park's road. In addition, there are evening presentations by the staff and invited guest naturalists. The guest naturalists lead hikes and present evening programs during their stay at the lodge. Subjects for these presentations range beyond the expected flora and fauna material, to geology, tundra ecology and the dramatic effects that a warming climate is having on the tundra and arctic regions in general.

While the cabins are cozy and well-appointed, the camp is in too remote a location for each cabin to have indoor plumbing. Each cabin does have its own outhouse and the shower building is large with plenty of hot water. Dining is in the new dining facility, and the food has a well-deserved reputation for its excellence. It's often in the dining room that you will find out just how international the clientele is and how many guests are return visitors as the lodge has a devoted alumni. Our stay at Camp Denali is a special experience that will give you substantial bragging rights among your better-informed acquaintances. The itinerary gives us two full days and 3 nights at the lodge. The nights are important because Mt. McKinley is often seen during the twilight and morning hours. All the cabins have views of the mountain from their front porches.