If you’re not following us on Instagram, you might’ve missed the news that we’ve moved! We received a new assignment with the military and had to say a bitter sweet goodbye to the Alaska life we have come to know and love. We’ve been trying to get our bearings in our new home in South Carolina for exactly 2 months now! We finally moved into our house a few weeks ago and felt like it was time to start writing about our cross country continent road trip! That’s right. On September 30, we packed up our truck and our travel trailer and set off on a grand road trip adventure (and lived to tell about it :) We took 31 days of slow traveling and saw some amazing things and made incredible memories. We’ve even had a few people asking about our trip in our instagram messages who are setting off to do the same thing very soon! So I hope this proves helpful! The first leg of our trip was the most intimidating, by far. We were driving the ~1500 miles of the Alaska Highway through the Yukon, on the cusp of winter no less. This meant that the already limited services and population was even more so. We had extra gas cans and extra tires. Winter regulations in Canada were in affect, which meant it was the law to have chains. Spoiler alert: we were incredibly lucky to have the experience we did because it is not for the faint of heart and for every good experience you hear, there are multiple bad ones. Fun facts: The Alaska Highway is incredibly historical. It was built during WWII to connect Alaska to the rest of the contiguous United States. Originally, it was built by American troops, which is why it has “mile” markers, as well as kilometers. Because it was a military road, it wasn’t open to civilians for some time after it was built. Now, it is a regularly used route that is maintained by Canada. Day 1Due to some military rules, we weren’t allowed to cross the border into Canada until Oct 1 so our drive on Sept 30 started in North Pole, Alaska and ended in Tok, Alaska. Starting off with a short 3 hour drive and putting us about 90 miles from the Canadian Border. Tok (pronounced like toke) has a population of 1214 and was put on the map during the construction of the Alaska Highway in the early 1940s. Historically (and today) it has been a trade center for the Athabaskan villages of Northway, Tetlin, Tanacross, Mestasta, Eagle, and Dot Lake. It’s a great jumping off point for many backcountry Alaskan adventures since it’s the gateway to Alaska for those driving (and for bush pilots). For one of our favorite adventures near Tok, check out our post about our trip to Chicken! This trip was obviously just for a stop over - it was also outside of tourist season so much was closed down - so we didn’t do any sight seeing. We stayed at Tundra RV Park, which was very pretty and well maintained. Again, since we were visiting in what is considered the winter season, some amenities weren’t available, namely water hookups had been shut off due to below freezing temperatures creeping in at night. We were prepared though, with our trailer fully stocked. We had a beautiful drive, temperatures in the 40s and bluebird skies. We did see some snow on the ground outside of Delta Junction, which we were happy to wave goodbye too :D. Day 2Our second day was another pleasant drive, though I do want to put in a little disclaimer here: when we bought our trailer, we bought it from a couple that had done this drive a few times. He recommended to take off the plastic fender wells off the trailer due to the rough roads. While the road is technically maintained, it’s not easy driving - though not much different than other roads we were used to driving in Alaska ;) This is because of the frost heaves. Because of the extreme temperatures, the ground freezes and thaws throughout the year causing the roads to sink and rise frequently in many places. All that to say, what google said was a 6 hour drive to our next stop in Haines Junction, ended up being 8. It was fun to spot all the trumpeter swans and we also saw a grizzly bear on the side of the road! A couple roadside attractions during the drive included stopping for a few pictures at the Canadian Border. If you notice, in the picture behind my girls, you can see a wide clearing of trees - this is the maintained border that Canada and the US keeps clear. Pretty crazy to see such a distinct line in what is otherwise regarded as untouched wilderness. Another quick stop was Burwash Landing to see the world’s largest gold pan. Burwash Landing is a small community on the shore of Kluane Lake. It is one of the oldest settlements in Yukon, established in 1904 as a supply center for local miners. The Kluane Museum of Natural History is here, though it was closed for the season in October. There’s also Our Lady of the the Holy Rosary Mission, built in 1944, the first church on the Alcan Highway. We stayed the night at the campground behind Kluane Park Inn in Haines Junction. They were very nice and accommodating though we did kind of regret not listening to others advice to hold out until Whitehorse and just camp there haha. Haines Junction itself might be a little run down but I will say, it has some gorgeous views being just outside of Kluane National Park. Again we had no water hookups at the campground due to the season. One thing of note: we asked at the border if we could exchange US money to Canadian and they told us the closest place to exchange money was in Whitehorse. The showers at the campground in Haines Junction only took “loonies” but they were happy to exchange quarters for us at the front desk. day 3Our first highlight of day 3 was a big bull moose crossing the road right in front of us just outside of Haines Junction. You may think we would get used to seeing moose after living in Alaska for 4 years, but it never gets old seeing these majestic creatures. Also, in the 4 years of living in Alaska, this was really my only good view of a big bull moose! So that was exciting to finally see. We also stopped at this little picturesque spot at the historic Canyon Creek Bridge. In 1904, a year after the Kluane gold strike, a log bridge was built across the Aishihik River, or Canyon Creek. It became a very important link on the wagon road connecting Whitehorse to Silver City. It survived heavy traffic and high spring floods until the 1920s when the government contracted it to be rebuilt. Then, again, during the construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942, the bridge was dismantled and a new one was hand-built in 18 days and then abandoned when the road was rerouted the next year. The old pioneer bridge was left in place and reconstructed in 1986 with 10% of the original bridge and 85% of the cribbing. We stopped in Whitehorse for a few hours, which is the capital of Yukon. Whitehorse is a beautiful city on the banks of the Yukon River. It’s a very historical city as it was a major stop for prospectors in the Yukon Gold Rush. Fun fact: Right outside of town were some pretty heavy rapids that were so dangerous, the mounties made it illegal for women to stay in the boat for the ride. Men would build a raft and attempt the rapids with all their supplies while the women would have to get out and walk around - though there are a few women of note who braved the rapids at risk of life/a hefty fine. The rapids are now covered by a power plant but there are many historical sites around town, though a lot, again, were closed for the season which was disappointing because I am super into history! It was fun to walk along the river though, and try to imagine what it might’ve looked like 100 years ago. We stayed in Whitehorse a little longer than we planned because we had discovered an issue with the electric brakes on the trailer. It was a holiday in Canada though, so all the RV service centers were closed. We ended up having to move on and hope to get it fixed later. We didn’t have cell service once we made it to our stop for the night in Watson Lake though we did have water hookups! We stayed the night at Nugget City RV Park, which was technically closed for the winter but they did have a few spots to hook up next to the store/cafe. They prefer to take cash and they did take US dollars - since we forgot to exchange while we were in Whitehorse :/ We had been enjoying the increasingly warmer fall weather especially after seeing that we missed the first snow storm to hit North Pole. After 3 days, we officially hit the halfway point of the Alaska Highway! day 4Day 4 was a bit of a doozy of a drive since we were dealing with brake issues, but we also had a few fun pit stops! We started off wandering the Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake. The Sign Post Forest is one of the top attractions along the Alaska Highway. It began in 1942 when a soldier was asked to repair some directional signposts, and while he did, he decided to add a sign for the direction and mileage to his hometown in Illinois. Others followed suit and the rest is history! Today, there are over 77,000 signs and growing. The town of Watson Lake continuously adds more sign posts as they fill up. We didn’t bring a sign to add to the forest but we did a little scavenger hunt to find licenses plates from all 50 states and all Canadian Provinces. We would’ve been successful except that we were missing one state!! And of course the only state we couldn’t find was South Carolina - the place we were moving too :D Our next stop was a quick dip in the Liard Hot Springs. At mile marker 475 - almost 100 miles from the closest amenities, travelers will find the beautiful Liard River Hot Springs. Originally used as a traditional cleansing spot by the Athapaskan and Kaska people as early as 10,000 years ago, these hot springs are the second largest in Canada and are ranked among the top 5 hot springs in the country. We entered the park and paid for parking, walked through the electric fenced - gated off for bears that like to frequent the area - and walked the scenic boardwalk all the way to the springs. It is a beautifully maintained area equipped with dressing rooms. Definitely a required stop along the Alaska Highway. That night, we stopped in Fort Nelson, BC. You can tell when you pass into British Columbia because you immediately start seeing bison on the side of the road! We counted 26 bison on our drive, as well as 2 black bears and 1 elk! Which was fun because it’s too cold for elk in Fairbanks/North Pole. We stayed at Triple G Hideaway Campground, which was an amazing campground and quite honestly, the nicest campground bathrooms I have EVER seen, haha. The kids enjoyed the little swings while we set up and took down camp. day 5We completed the Alaska Highway portion of our drive!! We definitely had to stop and hang out in Dawson Creek to mark the momentous occasion! Right at the sign, there’s a cool little train/history museum that we walked through just before closing time. We also stopped for some burgers and poutine at Post & Row for dinner. Poutine is a classic Canadian comfort food dish made of French fries covered in brown gravy and cheese. It is very delicious! That night, we stopped in Grande Prairie, AB. On our drive we noted the extremely improved driving conditions compared to the last few days and made good time. We also noticed that towns and cities are getting bigger and closer together - we were a little blown away to pull into Grande Prairie and see all the city lights :D Almost 1500 miles under our belt marks about 1/3 of our whole trip and we’re not even through Canada yet. I was very intimidated planning this portion of our trip. How was I going to entertain my 3 young kids and keep everyone happy during a long, boring trip through Yukon backcountry? But I purchased the Milepost 2023 and immediately was so excited. It was actually a very interesting read and was fun to follow along as we drove. It lists each mile post, each stop for services, it even list all the pull outs, which is very helpful when you don’t have cell service. It has a little write up about the historical spots and little maps of each town you pass through. It was incredibly helpful and interesting and I highly recommend it. Though, side note: if you are using it to get from Alaska to the lower 48, you do have to read it backwards, which makes things a little more interesting, haha. That concludes the first leg of our trip! You can read part 2 here. Our visit to Grande Prairie was not uneventful in the least (insert sly face emoji). Have questions about driving the Alaska Highway? We’re always happy to answer! Or if you’ve done this route, is there anything you would add that we might’ve missed?? If you’re interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to (or from) Alaska, check out our options here! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live!
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After four years of living in Alaska, we have crossed off some pretty incredible bucket list items. This is a pretty incredible state with no shortage of pretty incredible adventures! We often get asked for tour recommendations throughout the state. You are always welcome to browse our Alaskan adventures, but in this post we thought we’d round up out top 6 tours that are completely worth the money. In no particular order, let’s get started! 1 - Knik Glacier Helicopter TourFirst up, we have the Knik Glacier Helicopter Tour with Alaska Helicopter Tours. Okay, I fully admit that I’m pretty fascinated by glaciers so if you are anything like me, this tour is a unique way to get well acquainted with these beautiful natural features. In this tour, you’ll climb aboard a helicopter in one of our favorite places, Palmer, Alaska. In the grand tour, we flew up to the stunning Lake George where we could hear the calving and cracking of the glacier that feeds the lake. We spent a little time taking it all in and then we flew to an incredible scenic viewpoint to take in the view of the massive 25 miles long and 5 miles wide Knik Glacier. Then we flew over some breathtaking views where our pilot found a spot to land right on the glacier. We were given crampons to put over our shoes so we could safely explore the ice. It was here where we actually drank some of the bluest, freshest glacier water we’ll ever find. I was bummed that I forgot a water bottle to bottle some up for the road so consider this your reminder! This tour was absolutely unforgettable. Bonus tip: you can stay right at the lodge where the tour company is based in a cute little cabin overlooking the Knik River, called Knik River Lodge. Such a special little spot. 2 - Matanuska Glacier TourNext we have Matanuska Glacier Tour. Okay, listen. I know I seem to be all about glaciers but hear me out. This guided tour takes visitors right up to the impressive 250 foot face of the incredible Matanuska Glacier for a truly unrivaled experience. These tours run year round, though in the summer you’ll be donned with a hard hat. We went at the end of March when it wasn’t uncomfortably cold weather but the ice was cold enough to be a little less hazardous. This tour will live in my memory forever! If you’re military, they offer an awesome military discount so take advantage! 3 - Kenai Fjords Wildlife CruiseOkay, leaving the glaciers for a second, the next tour on our list is the Kenai Fjords Wildlife Cruise out of Seward. We had kind of a unique experience on this tour but I’m positive that any experience with Kenai Fjords Tours is top notch. We chose the Fox Island cruise where we stopped at a private island for lunch and a little exploring. I’ve talked to many people who have done this tour and we’re able to see every single animal on the list including humpback whales, orcas, sea lions, otters, puffins and more. Also part of the tour are views of Kenai Fjords National Park with the iconic sea spires. Our experience was unique because the weather that day was gorgeous and our boat was able to go deeper into open waters than normal due to the calm seas. The highlight of our tour was suddenly being surrounded by multiple pods of orcas - including both resident pods and migrating pods - where our boat just sat in awe by what unfolded in front of our eyes. They were all so playful and breaching the water. There was even a baby copying all the moves of her mama. It was all just amazing. One pod even swam right under our boat! It was unbelievable. Somehow we saw no other wildlife, haha. Even when we visited the rock where the puffins basically live, it was completely empty. But we had no complaints! I’ve never talked to anyone who was disappointed by this tour. 4 - Katmai National ParkNext up is a trip to Katmai National Park. This one is by far the most pricey tour on our list but it is a truly unique Alaskan bucket list experience that, if you can hack it and have any sort of interest, we highly encourage it! Our main goal, along with most others when visiting Katmai National Park, was seeing Brooks Falls. Brooks Falls is a summer fishing hole for some of the biggest brown bears in the world. Bears gather here to bulk up for winter hibernation, and boy do they bulk up! They come for the salmon run which occurs between June-August. It’s just an amazing thing to witness. There are so many ways to get to Katmai National Park. There’s even a lottery to enter if you want a coveted spot in the lodge there or even the campground. You can fly in commercially from Anchorage to King Salmon and charter a flight into Katmai or take a ferry. We opted for a day tour out of Homer with Northwind Aviation and, to be honest, the flight from Homer just added to the experience. We saw bears on the ground before we even landed. We had views of volcanoes, glaciers, and breathtaking, remote, Alaskan landscapes. Even on the flight back we flew over a pod of humpback whales! On the whole, it was a once in a lifetime experience that couldn’t have been replicated. Bonus tip: we opted to fly out of Homer because weather in this part of Alaska is extremely unpredictable. If anything were to delay our flight, we knew we’d rather explore Homer a bit for a day instead of be stuck in Anchorage or King Salmon, but that’s just personal preference. We didn’t have any issues with this particular tour but we have experienced issues on a different tour when the flight wasn’t just delayed, it was outright canceled. Thankfully, we were able to rebook for the next day, but if you do choose to do this tour or something similar, we definitely recommend allowing yourself an extra day or two in the area to avoid missing out completely. 5 - Valdez Glacier LakeIs this another glacier tour? Okay, yes, yes it is. But this is also a unique way to visit a glacier. This tour, as the name suggests, is in Valdez. To be completely honest, I haven’t actually done a tour here, per se, unless you count “self guided”. I have kayaked Valdez Glacier Lake 3 times and each time has been breathtaking. I’ve always brought my own kayak but one time, my friend joined me and rented a kayak from Valdez Stay and Play. They delivered the kayak right to the lake and even gave us a map to find the best photo ops - it can change daily. There are also guided tour companies in town that will hook you up with all the gear and will give you a unforgettable experience in kayaking around giant icebergs that have calved off of a glacier. Please be aware that this can be a very dangerous activity due to the instability of the ice. People have died here. So if you feel inexperienced at all, we highly recommend booking a tour. Tour guides are always scouting the lake and know all the best places for a photo op. They also know the safest and easiest routes. I’ll admit to following tours before when I’ve gone. 6 - Riverboat DiscoveryThe last tour in our lineup is the Riverboat Discovery cruise in Fairbanks. This tour is completely worth the money for anyone visiting Fairbanks who is interested in learning about the local history. The tour covers things like the aviation history in Alaska when a float plane takes off and lands right next to the stern wheeler. It also covers dog sledding and gold rush history but most noteworthy is the native history when the tour visits a living museum of a native summer fishing camp it is fascinating to learn about the way of life of the incredible people who have thrived here for 10,000 years. BonusA few bonus tours that we think are worth the money… If you find yourself in Palmer (for the helicopter tour or Matanuska) we always live a visit to the reindeer farm. Also in Palmer is the musk ox farm where you can learn about these incredibly unique arctic creatures. Another bonus tour is the Kennecott Mine Tour. Full disclosure, it is NOT an east tour to get to. You can read all about our experience here. Have questions about any other tours that have caught your eye? We’re always happy to help! If you're interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to Alaska, check out our options here! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Follow us on Instagram for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live! Early on in my husband’s military career, he got super into watching all the “Alaska” shows. You know the ones I’m talking about: Alaskan Gold Rush, Alaska: The Last Frontier, Alaska State Troopers, etc…. I remember he was watching Gold Rush one night and he said, “You know, we could put in to be stationed in Alaska.” I immediately said, “No way. I never want to live in Alaska! It’s cold and dark and looks like the worst.” Well, fast forward about 7 years and, surprise! We got orders to Alaska. Not just Alaska….to Fairbanks, Alaska. When we told people we were moving to Fairbanks, their eyes would get real big and say “Ooh, that’s the cold one.” Of course we knew that. And of course we were, well, terrified, haha. We had 9 months to prepare for life in Alaska. We started watching all the documentaries and reading all the blogs. We were following all the Facebook pages and watching the weather. But nothing can prepare you for life in Alaska. Let’s face it. Nothing can prepare you for even visiting Alaska. And it’s not because it’s cold and dark and scary. (I mean, if we’re being honest, all of those things can be true sometimes.) But Alaska is such a raw and majestic place that is truly hard to explain to those who haven’t experienced it. It took us a minute to get our bearings but once we figure out what life here is all about - being connected to the land around us, embracing the wildness and understanding that we are all visitors here - Alaska has truly grabbed a hold of our hearts. When we first got here, someone told us that Alaska will be what we compare everything else to for the rest of our lives and now that we’re getting ready to close this chapter, we can’t help but agree. Last year, we visited Chicken, Alaska. Chicken is a quirky little town, 100 miles from the nearest services. It has less than 20 year-round residents and it still an active gold mining town. If anyone wants to visit true, rugged, Alaska, I would definitely add Chicken onto the list of must-visit places. Once we got home and posted about our experience on social media, I had a few comments from followers saying that their favorite book is about Chicken! I was immediately intrigued and had to read this book myself. I visited our local library and realized that there’s a whole wall dedicated to “Alaskana” books and I was hooked. Now, I’m not an avid reader in this era in my life, but over the next year I would be reading books about Alaska just to connect more with the culture and history of this amazing place. And that brings us to this list that I’ve put together: 6 books to read about Alaska if you really want to get a sense of the culture, the lifestyle, and the people who live here. 1 - TishaNumber one on the list, I’ve already kind of touched on, is called Tisha as told to Robert Specht. This book was published in 1976 and is based on the true story of Anne Hobbs. She was 19-years-old when we accepted a teaching position in the gold rush town of Chicken, Alaska. The book follows her experience of teaching the children of the area for a year. It talks about the struggles she went through in her travels to such a remote area. It talks about the issues she faced when trying to integrate the native children into her classroom. It explains how she arrived as a “cheechako” or newcomer “greenie” and left as a “sourdough” or an experienced Alaskan. It even brings in a sweet love interest. It’s such a good story and gives great insight into how life was like during the gold rush. Although, that can be interpreted loosely because Chicken is still like how it is described in the book - with no electricity (other than what can be sourced from a generator, no running water unless you can ship it in from the nearest town, the local cafe/saloon/other businesses take payment in cash, credit, and gold, and mail is still delivered only once a week, but not by sled dog. It’s flown in on a mail plane. There are many people who still live the rural life all over Alaska, and “Tisha” is a great book to read to gain a little more understanding on what that looks like for those living in interior Alaska. 2 - Searching for Fannie QuigleyThe next book I read that makes this list is called Searching for Fannie Quigley by Jane G. Haigh. This book is another book that highlights life during the gold rush but it is more of a historical text than a story to read. Fannie Quigley was a true, rugged, pioneer woman in the early gold rush days of Alaska. She ended up building a homestead in what is now Denali National Park and was visited by many notable people whom she always treated to a full and hearty meal. My favorite part of the book was her recipe for blueberry pie, for which she was famous. It explains her process from start to finish: Pick five-gallons of blueberries in August. Pan for gold before the creeks run dry. Shoot a bear in early fall. Hitch up the sled-dogs for a 15 mile run into the valley for firewood before the snow comes. Render the bear fat. Make another sled dog run 125 miles into town to get flour, sugar, and supplies for the year. Be careful not to get it wet on the way home or it will all by ruined. Use the bear lard to make a dozen pie crusts. Make the pie filling with your blueberries, sugar, and a little flour. Store them frozen in the permafrost behind the cabin. “When company comes, go out and get a pie out of the tunnel. It will taste as good as fresh and astonish your guests.” There are many legends about Fannie Quigley and the author of this book set out to get to know more about the facts of who Fannie was and where she came from. One thing is for sure, she was a special woman and is the epitome of strength and grit that people need to survive here, even to this day (though we do have access to more amenities if we so choose ;) A fun side note, Fannie is buried in Fairbanks in the Birch Hill Cemetery. We definitely had to visit her grave after I read this book. 3 - Braving ItAfter reading a few more books, the next book that makes this list is called Braving It by James Campbell. This is a true story about a father and a daughter who have some epic Alaskan experiences starting in the early 2000s. James Campbell has written for many publications including National Geographic Adventure. In this book, he shares about taking his daughter to visit his friend who lives in the Alaskan bush with his family and needs help rebuilding their cabin during the quick Alaskan summer. James and his daughter decide to visit again in the winter and they end up helping on the trap lines and learning even more about survival in the dangerous and beautiful wilderness. The book ends with yet another trip to Alaska when James and Aiden embark on an amazing rafting trip through interior Alaska. 4 - If You Live Here, I'd know your nameI did read a few more books about Alaska but the next book that makes this list is called “If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name” by Heather Lende. Heather Lende writes the obituaries and the social column for the local newspaper in Haines, Alaska. Haines is a tiny coastal town, 45 miles from the Canadian Border. Haines was actually one of the first places we visited in Alaska when we took the ferry here in 2019 so it was fun to have the connection when reading this book. Heather does a beautiful job painting the picture of modern life in small town Alaska. Living in such rural areas can be so incredibly isolating from family and even modern comforts sometimes but what is sacrificed in those ways is made up for with the strong sense of community and “family” connections that are built here. This book gives an incredible insight into the issues and struggles that Alaskans deal with that are unique to most other parts of the world. 5 - The Year of miss agnesThe next book I read that makes this list is a little different in that it’s a youth fiction. It’s called The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill. It’s about a unconventional and progressive teacher who actually comes to teach in a remote Alaskan native village. My daughter actually read this book (who was in 3rd grade at the time) and I had to take a peek since I was on an Alaskan reading kick ;) One of the things that stood out to me in this book was that the kids would learn from Miss Agnes and report back to their parents who were shocked to learn about WWII happening in a world that they were so isolated from! They had no idea, even though WWII had a lot of happenings in Alaska! It just goes to show how massive Alaska is and just how remote some of the towns and villages are. Miss Agnes changes the lives of everyone in the town and it’s just such a cute little book. 6 - Two Old WomenThe last book in this list is another easy read called Two Old Women by Velma Wallis. This story is actually inspired by an Athabaskan legend and is a survival story of two elder women in a tribe in Northeastern Alaska. Their tribe is suffering through a hard winter and make the heart wrenching decision to abandon these old women when they feel like they can’t take care of them anymore. The women have to lean on each other an their roots if they want to survive. It’s a riveting and empowering story, that again, brings readers more understanding of the strength and ruggedness that Alaska demands. There are so many books about Alaska, even more well-known ones that I read, but this short list are, in my opinion, the best. I think what I liked most about them all is that all the of the authors are either from Alaska, or they have a lot of experience here so instead of romanticizing the wilderness, the writing is real and raw and just…true! So take it from a local, whether you live here, or you’re visiting and want to know a little more, these books are must reads!! If you are are visiting and you’re interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to Alaska, check out our options here! Do you have an Alaska book you love? I wanna know! Let me know what it is in the comments. Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live! Homer, Alaska is a little coastal town at the end of the Kenai Peninsula. Right on the stunning Kachemak Bay, it is a beautiful town with a population of just under 6,000 people. We recently visited Homer for the second time and it quickly jumped to one of my personal favorite places we’ve explored in Alaska. And, much like most places we’ve visited in Alaska, both times we’ve left Homer, my list of things I want to do there got longer instead of shorter. Homer is a beautifully scenic 4 hour drive from Anchorage. Once we arrived, we checked into our adorable Airbnb and got started on dinner. We knew our kids would need a break from running around so we decided to grab some groceries on our way down so we could have an easy dinner and settle in for the next few days of adventures. So our first full day was actually our second day there and that’s where we’ll begin our itinerary: Day 1Last time we visited, we didn’t plan ahead for this particular adventure so we made it a priority for this trip. On our first day we booked the ferry to explore the tiny coastal town of Seldovia. Seldovia is 15 miles from Homer, across the Kachemak Bay and it is not on any road system so it is only accessible by plane or boat. It has 255 residents, according to the last census, and is just the epitome of authentic, Alaskan vibes. We were first greeted with the stunning harbor…who doesn’t love a small, moody harbor? Where my girls took awhile leaving the dock after spotting jelly fish and anemones along the walk. We sauntered over to the “Historic Boardwalk” and came up to a bridge with the beautiful scenes of houses built on stilts along the river. We also saw some kids fishing from the shore and the bridge and we sat and watched an otter feasting on mussels. We made our way into “downtown” and grabbed some delicious lunch at Jack and Aiva’s and afterwards, we rented a couple of golf carts to get around town before we had to get back on the ferry. We explored a few of the beach areas and had a good time racing each other along the dirt roads out of town. I do want to say that we really had no plans for what to do when we got to Seldovia. It was a pure exploration day and it was just so much fun. Tourist areas are what they are for obvious reasons but there’s just something about those little towns that help you appreciate the majesty of Alaska and the heartiness of the people who live here. After we got back into Homer, we grabbed dinner at Fat Olives! Always a hit with their pizzas. Day 2The next day was a grand adventure for me in particular. Both times we took my parents to Homer with us with the goal of doing a bear watching tour. Last year we went to Lake Clark National Park, which was such an awesome experience, but this year, we booked at flight with Northwind Aviation and had a once in a lifetime experience visiting Katmai National Park - specifically Brooks Falls. Brooks Falls is a popular annual fishing ground for the big brown bears living in this coastal region of Alaska. Think the Disney movie Brother Bear in real life ;) It was an indescribable experience. There are many ways to get to Brooks Falls but I’m going to argue that flying from Homer is the best way. We flew past volcanoes and around mountains in our float plane, following the rivers that lead the way around the vast landscape of untouched wilderness. All the while, hearing stories and chatting with our pilot/guide who is local to Homer and very knowledgable about the area and history. This trip was incredible and definitely something to look into when visiting Homer. You can read more about this particular experience here. Day 3This day was particularly fun because we put the kids in charge of the itinerary. Mom and the Grandparents had ditched them the day prior so I told them they got to choose the activities for the day. First stop, Wild Honey Bistro for the most delicious crepes for breakfast. Do not sleep on this one! Only open Wednesday-Sunday from 8-2 this is *the* place for a hearty breakfast that everyone will enjoy. True to form, my kids will always order the Nutella crepes. Last time I had their cinnamon roll crepe but this day I was craving something savory and the crepe madam hit the spot! And now that I’m drooling on my keyboard just thinking about it… After breakfast, the kids chose to head to the beach. Bishop’s beach is just down the road from Wild Honey Bistro and is a great place to explore when the tide is out. It is worth mentioning here that beach days in Alaska are much different than beach days in other places. It’s cold, for one, and commonly rainy, so everyone is geared up in rain boots and rain jackets. But the kids were in heaven looking for little sea creatures in the streams of water heading out with the tide. Last year we spotted so many sea stars but this time we saw clams and crabs and even a little halibut that had gotten stuck in the low tide. This spot is also a popular spot that the planes fly over for tours, which is especially exciting for a little 2 year old boy so it’s fair to say that we took our time here. Next we took the crew down to the “Spit”. The Homer Spit is a long, narrow, piece of land extending 4.5 miles into Kachemak Bay. It’s an extremely rare natural formation created from glacier deposits and tidal forces. In Homer, this is where the tourist shops and restaurants are located. But our main goal - or the goal of the kids - was to find the swings under the boardwalk. An obvious attraction. Exploring the spit is always fun with the eclectic shops along the way. Our pilot from the previous day had suggested the rock fish tacos from the Boardwalk fish and chips and my dad said they hit the spot. We also wandered over by the harbor and saw seals swimming and star fish waiting for the tide to come in. It was a very relaxed day of exploring and there’s not much better than that. We left the next day and slowly made our way back to Anchorage. We ended up staying the night in Cooper Landing, which is a great halfway mark. My Dad and Jon wanted to do a little fishing in the world class Russian River. Because it is such a great place for fishing, it draws in humans and creatures of all sizes. We didn’t see any bears but we saw lots of signs posted of recent bear activity. We saw bald eagles watching over their domain, which is always a fun sight. While this concluded our trip to Homer, it didn’t conclude my list of things to do there. As previously stated I always leave places like this with more things on my list that I’d like to do rather than shorter. For instance, our pilot and guide from our bear tour told us about a new tour they offer where guests are flown to a yacht in a scenic/remote location and are then taken on a jet ski tour to water falls and spot wildlife. He even shared a video of one of the guests getting a close up visit of a whale (smh in disbelief as I fight back my fomo). Guests are then treated to a dinner on the boat with a private chef and flown back to Homer. What an epic experience! As in any of the major coastal towns in Alaska, there are obviously many fishing charters to choose from. We haven’t taken any but we love watching them come in, bring in their catch and weigh every thing. We saw a few nice sized halibut! Homer is the halibut fishing capital of the world so if you’re into fishing, this is the place to do it! If you’ve been around our social media for any amount of time, you know my love of glaciers. So it tracks and another epic experience I think would be incredible is to explore Grewingk Glacier. Grewingk Glacier is located across the Bay from Homer is located in Kachemak Bay State Park and is accessible by a water taxi that drops visitors off at the trailhead and comes back at a designated pick-up point at the end of the day to take visitors back to Homer. The Glacier itself is 13 miles long and can be seen from Homer but as with other glaciers, nothing beats getting up close and personal with these incredible geological formations. Visitors can expect the hike to take about 2 hours each way. The view from the lake is supposed to be stunning, where you can watch icebergs calve, lounge on the beach, or even take a guided kayaking tour. There is so much to do in Homer and the surrounding areas! If you’re interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to Alaska, check out our options here! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live! Summer is the major tourist season in Alaska, and rightfully so. The midnight sun is a mind-blowing experience for people who aren't from here and there are so many outdoor activities to partake in while the temperatures are enjoyable and everything is green and lush. The seasonal salmon runs and wildlife viewing are also a huge draw. Tourist season in Alaska starts winding down in August and with things closing around Labor Day, September is probably considered part of the shoulder season. But there’s still so much to do during this month in Fairbanks and that makes it a great time to visit! Contrary to other parts of the world, Fairbanks is experiencing is fall season during this month, but it’s still light enough, and warm enough, to enjoy some of the activities that are lingering from summer! So here’s our list of 12 things to do in Fairbanks in September: 1 - Visit a Farmer's MarketFairbanks is home to the longest running Farmers Market in Alaska. The Tanana Valley Farmers Market brings growers and artists throughout the Tanana Valley - an area larger than the state of Indiana - to Fairbanks throughout the season. It’s truly the best places to get local produce and handicrafts. We love going to the Farmers Market for the kettle corn and shawarma among other favorites. The Farmers Market lasts from May to the end of September and is a great place to check out when visiting Fairbanks. 2 - Pan for GoldIf you know anything about Alaska, you know that gold quite literally put Fairbanks on the map (as well as most other places in this giant state). When the ground thaws and the rivers are flowing again, gold panning is a favorite past time still and is fun for all ages. There are a few different tourist locations to try your hand and learn the special techniques of gold panning in Faibanks, our favorite being Gold Daughters. The entrance fee includes a choose-your-own adventure if you will, where you'll choose the bag of pay dirt that is guaranteed to have gold inside, priced depending on the size of nuggets in each bag, as well as an unlimited amount of pay dirt from their pile for guests to practice (from which we have found our own gold flecks). Your group gets a personal guide who instructs, answers questions and offers help for the best success. Afterwards, they clean your gold for you to take home and you'll be catching gold fever in no time. Pro tip: if you feel you are ready to go out on your own, the knowledgeable guide can answer questions on where you can pan without a claim. Gold panning runs from Memorial Day to the middle of September. 3 - Rent some KayaksMinnesota may be "the land of 10,000 lakes" but Alaska is the land of over 3 million lakes! Only a little over 3,000 of these lakes are actually named due to the size of the state and the remote wilderness covering the majority of it. But because of all these bodies of water, there is an enormous opportunity for water sports - our favorite being kayaking, canoeing, paddle boarding, etc. Some of the larger, more popular lakes around Fairbanks are Tanana Lakes Recreation Area and the Chena Lakes Recreation area. Both lakes offer rentals into September and are easy access for anyone looking to get onto the water. 4 - Take a River CruiseWe are big fans of the Riverboat Discovery river cruise in Fairbanks. This is an activity we've talked about before as well and you can read all about our experience here. This tour is a great experience for locals and tourists alike as you cruise down the Chena river on a historic sternwheeler learning about the history of the locals and what put Fairbanks on the map. The cruise even includes a stopover at a living museum native fishing village and you might even get to sample some good old Alaskan smoked salmon on your way back :) Besides the amazing tour experience, the gift shop at the Riverboat Discovery is the best one in the area, in our opinion. Plus it’s home to the 40 below chamber, where visitors can get of taste of what locals experience every winter. 5 - Visit Santa ClausIf you are in Fairbanks, you can’t miss a little excursion out to North Pole - where the spirit of Christmas lives year round! Not only is this quaint little town bedecked with candy cane striped light posts, and not only can you find the famous “North Pole Pole” (on 5th Ave), you can also visit Santa Claus at his year round home. The Santa Claus House is open year round and you can even chat with Santa himself Wednesday-Sunday. After putting in a good word with Mr. Claus, get yourself a unique souvenir (and some delicious fudge) and then go visit with his reindeer, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen...(Cupid is our favorite). 6 - visit a DistilleryAlso in North Pole, you can visit a true farm-to-bottle distillery located on Arctic Harvest Farm. The distillery is a pretty cool place to get a drink if the tasting room is open, but it's the setting that keeps us coming back. In September, there's a fun corn maze with food trucks and sometimes a little petting zoo on the weekends, but as the weather turns snowy, they keep trails groomed for walking, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, and even kick-sledding! They also host local artist shows every once in awhile so we recommend checking out their social media for upcoming events. 7 - Dip into some Hot SpringsChena Hot Springs Resort is about an hour outside of Fairbanks and is a beautiful drive on an equally beautiful property, especially in the Fall! In all honesty, having spent some time here, we can't recommend the resort's accommodations or their restaurant, but the grounds, hot springs and extra activities are definitely worth the visit. Chena Hot Springs Resort hosts a great sled dog kennel where you can take a tour - or a ride! - and learn all about sled dog training. The resort is also home to the world's largest year-round ice environment, the Aurora Ice Museum. This museum stays a cool 25 degrees Fahrenheit while you roam around different ice carved rooms and even enjoy an appletini served in their famous ice glass. In our experience, it is also this time of year that is the best time to see wildlife. While you’re in the area, Angel Rocks is a great hiking trail too! 8 - Visit the University of Alaska CampusThe Museum of the North at the University of Alaska - Fairbanks is a great museum if you're interested in learning even more of the history of Alaska. Beyond learning about the gold rush days, they also have a variety of exhibits showing Native history and local animals, including The Blue Babe, a 36,000 year old mummified Steppe Bison found in the area. If that doesn't entice you enough, the University also sits on one of the few hills in town, offering stunning views of Fairbanks and maybe in Denali on a clear day! UAF also is home to the LARS - the Large Animal Research Station. Here you can learn all about muskoxen, reindeer, and other large animals periodically. Open year round, currently winter hours are TBA so keep an eye on their website for more info. 9 - Visit a museumOkay, I know I already listed a museum above, but the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum is home to 95 pre-WWII automobiles and is one of the premier vintage car museums in the world. They also have a vintage fashion collection that is considered to be the most extensive in the Pacific Northwest. Visiting this museum is literally like stepping back in time and it was so fascinating to learn about the unique challenges that were overcome with bringing automobiles to Alaska. It was truly fun for the whole family and we highly recommend a visit to this spot when visiting Fairbanks. Speaking of cars in Fairbanks, here's a completely random fun fact: Many car companies bring new car models to Fairbanks to test out how they will perform in the extreme cold weather! 10 - Visit Denali National ParkOnly about a 2 hour drive outside of Fairbanks, Denali National Park is home to the highest peak in North America. During the summer season, the road into the park is only open to Mile 15 to private vehicles. Unless you're lucky enough to snag one of the limited number of passes they release, visitors have to book a bus tour to go past that mile marker. But once the crowds leave and the visitor's center closes for the season in mid-September, the road is open (while road conditions allow) to mile 30. We love visiting the park in the off-season. Hiking trails are still open and obviously, wildlife is still roaming. But there's just something about being surrounded by the beauty of this national park while it's seemingly deserted. 11 - Explore a piece of historyExploring Pioneer Park is always an activity we recommend to visitors. Part of the park, known as Gold Rush Town, has been built into a living museum, bringing visitors back in time to the early days that put Fairbanks on the map. This little street includes original cabins and homes from the first settlers, as well as larger buildings that served the community as a variety of businesses. The park and some of the museums are open year round. All of the buildings have outdoor plaques that give a little history but we've found the businesses hit-or-miss whether they're open or not. We do know, however, that the train usually does it's last run of the year around Halloween. This is a fun visit to add to any itinerary. 12 - View the Northern LightsSaving the best for last, we often get asked when's the best time to visit for Northern Lights viewing. While the lights can be seen anytime the sky is dark enough, in our experience the September/October is a great time to view them. Clear skies are a little more common during this time of year and it's finally getting dark enough that sometimes there are great shows as early as 11:00pm! While there are a variety of tour companies you can book, we simply like watching them at Chena Lakes Recreation Area because it's close to our home. There are also a lot of places to see them outside of Fairbanks away from light pollution - we've even heard the Hot Springs Resort is a great viewing place as well! Keep an eye out for an upcoming post of the best places to eat in Fairbanks! If you've been to Fairbanks, is there anything we missed? Or let us know if you have any questions in the comments! If you’re interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to Alaska, check out our options here! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live! Well, I finally did it! I crossed something off my Alaska bucket list that’s been on there since before we even moved here and it took 4 years of living here to get it done. On our last little escapade around Alaska, I figured out a way to get myself to the iconic Brooks Falls and it did NOT disappoint! Before we dive in, I need to give a little background on Brooks Falls. Brooks Falls is located in Katmai National Park which is a skip, hop, and a jump (or a plane ride or boat ride) straight across the bay from the tip of the Kenai Peninsula. This location is an iconic bear viewing spot in Alaska because each year, bears gather here to bulk up on the salmon run and get ready for hibernation. The bears in Katmai National Park are some of the biggest brown bears in the world. You can even vote each fall on who you think is the fattest bear during "Fat Bear Week" on the Katmai National Park website. It is one of the least visited National Parks in the country because it is so remote but getting there is half the fun, honestly. I’ve sat down to plan this trip so many times, doing so much research and, I’ll be honest, it started to seem so illusive! Granted, I know a few people who have done it and there’s so much information out there about visiting Brooks Falls. The problem is there are just so many different ways to do it! And with it being such a big trip, I wanted to make sure I did it just right. The first decision about our trip was kind of made for us. There are two ways to spend time at Brooks Falls and that is to either stay there at the lodge or make it a day trip. The lodge has been in operation since 1950 and consists of 16 rooms, or cabins that sleep 4 people each. These cabins are $955/night and open for reservations at the beginning of the year and sell out insanely fast. There is also a campground near the lodge surrounded by an electric fence. It costs $12 per person per night during peak bear watching season and is limited to only 60 people at a time so this books out extremely fast as well. Due to the ages and size of our party, and the fact that the last time I checked, everything was booked out until 2024 ;) we had to plan a day trip. The second decision to make was whether to bring the whole family. I absolutely love exploring and adventuring with my young kids but ultimately, we decided it was best for them to sit this one out. When visiting Brooks Falls, there is no food allowed on the trails. It's a bit of a walk from the beach/lodge area to the platforms and it’s not rare for the trails to close down for even an hour or two if a bear decides they want to take a nap or hang out close to the trails. My youngest is 2 years old and I wasn’t about to have a toddler be stuck on the trail with no snacks or juice to hold him over until who knows when…My husband graciously volunteered to stay behind with the kids while I planned the trip to go with my parents. The third decision to make was where we were going to book our trip from. There are multiple ways to get to Katmai National Park and we knew we wanted to fly. There are so many companies that fly to Katmai. Visitors can fly from Anchorage commercially to King Salmon and then either get a chartered flight to Katmai, or take the ferry. Or there are day trips that fly directly from Anchorage. We chose to get a day trip flight out of Homer and there were a few reasons for that. Last year, we actually did a bear tour to Lake Clark National Park out of Homer and we experienced, first hand, the way that the unpredictable weather can affect flights to the area. Because we knew there was a risk of having flights rescheduled, we decided we wanted to do a trip in Homer because, well, spending time in Homer is a little more interesting and new than hanging around Anchorage like we have done many times :) So we planned a trip to Homer with a very loose schedule in case we needed to switch around anything but it turned out perfectly. We spent 4 nights in Homer and booked the earliest flight in the week that we could with Northwind Aviation. The tour companies are very good at communicating when things come up but it does take a certain amount of patience and understanding on the customers’ behalf. Weather can look great in Homer but on the other side of the bay there’s a whole different weather system. Originally we were supposed to check in at 6:30 AM. The night before, they called and pushed it to 7:30 and then in the morning they pushed it to 8:30 and it was 9:30 when we were wheels up! Or rather, floats up. It was so cool to take off of the lake in a float plane and land at the beach in Katmai. Speaking of our flight, remember how I said getting there is half the adventure? The flight from Homer is 2 hours and it was so beautiful! We flew past views of volcanos and rivers and lush green mountains…we even saw a bear from the air before landing at the beach. We walked from the beach to the lodge where we had to take a quick lesson at Bear School to learn all the safety protocols before venturing off on our own. Katmai National Park is home to over 2,000 brown bears and as many as 50 bears live around Brooks Falls at any given time during the summer. Even though it is definitely a tourist destination, the rangers in the park are dedicated to not interfering with the lives of these majestic animals which means limiting human interaction as much as possible. Experiencing Brooks Falls puts visitors in one of the most dangerous places on earth when it comes to being around apex predators so going through Bear School is a must to make sure you, and the bears, stay safe. Once we got to the lodge, we had to put all of our food in the food cache. So before heading out to the falls, we scarfed down a quick sandwich in the small, electric-fence enclosed picnic area, and then we walked out to the falls! The 20 minute walk from the lodge to the falls is a little eerie after getting out of bear school ;) but it was fascinating. The first little platform you get to overlooks the famous Brooks River. We saw fisherman and bears but we also looked down right under the platform and saw the salmon! As we made our way to the next platform, we noticed all the fresh bear scat all along the trails, which was pretty wild. The next platform you get to is at an area called the “riffles”. While you can see the falls from here, this platform is a little bit down from the falls. It has no occupancy limit or time limit as opposed to the Falls platform, which is limited to 40 people and 30 minutes of viewing. Once we arrived here, we had to put our name down on the list for the falls platform and we were actually given a buzzer much like waiting for a table at a restaurant. We were there during peak season along with a ton of other people! We watched bears fish in the riffles while we waited for our name to be called and it took about 2 hours until we got to the top of the list. Time flew though, honestly. We watched a big, ol’ bear known as 747 - because of his size - wander in and take up his post in the river. We watched a new mama bear try to catch fish for her two spring cubs. We watched bears coming in and out of the river walking right underneath the platform and it was incredible. By the time they called our name for the falls platform, we only had about 10-15 minutes before we had to start walking back to our plane. But it was an amazing view. Indescribable honestly, but they say pictures are worth 1,000 words… Time flew by even faster in those 10 minutes and we soon found ourselves walking back to our plane with our pilot, who had made his way up to the falls after being stuck for an hour or so because a bear had decided to take a nap right on the trail. We could see where it had bedded down for a bit as we were walking back. But our trip wasn’t over yet. We climbed into our floatplane and had the most scenic flight back to Homer with clear skies and epic views of unexplored peaks and glaciers and then islands and volcanos and even a small pod of Humpback whales as we flew back over the bay. While there is no wrong way to visit Katmai National Park, we truly had an amazing time during our trip to Brooks Falls during this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A couple things to note: (1) The trail to the falls is not as well marked as it could be. Our pilot gave us a great tip in taking all the right hand turns on the way out and all the left hand turns on the way back and we did stumble across some of the tiny little signs they have but we were grateful for the inside tip. (2) I can’t stress enough about how no food is allowed on the trails. No food is allowed outside, even, unless you’re within the small electric fenced areas. This is a rule in place for everyone visiting the park. The food cache was packed with food people had brought in but there is also a restaurant that is open for anyone. We had limited time and didn’t want to waste it by standing around eating so we didn’t really check it out but they do serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (3) We did fly in but there were also boats along the beach. King Salmon is a very short flight from Katmai but they also offer a ferry. Both ways of travel are significantly impacted by the weather. But I’ve heard of lots of people staying in King Salmon for a few days and taking the ferry into the park each day if they didn’t have the option of staying at the lodge. Keep an eye out for our next post about more of what we did in Homer! If you’re interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to Alaska, check out our options here! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live! If there’s anything you should know before planning a trip to Alaska it’s that there is a lot of space between point A and point B. If you want the whole Alaska experience - and to explore as much as possible - you have a lot of ground to cover. By looking at some of our past blog posts about our Alaskan adventures, you’ll see that we’ve posted a few different versions of road trips that we’ve done, covering ground from Fairbanks to destinations like Anchorage, Seward, Homer, and everywhere in between. While these types of trips are incredible, and we have seen and done so many amazing things, sometimes we prefer trips that are located around a central hub. We recently got back from a trip to Girdwood, Alaska which was just such a trip. If you’re looking for a trip to Alaska that allows for a little rest in between the day-to-day adventures, then this post is for you. Day 1Girdwood, Alaska is about 45 minutes south of Anchorage. It’s sits at the bottom of a beautiful, glacier-carved valley tucked into the Chugach Mountain range. It boasts the only ski resort in the state of Alaska that is open year round for all kinds of outdoor adventures. We picked Girdwood to be our central hub for this trip because we wanted to be close to amenities while still being away from the “city” and Girdwood is such a place! On the first day, we arrived a little bit before it was time to check in at our airbnb. We explored the beautiful Alyeska Resort grounds and decided to take the tram up to the top of Mount Alyeska. This activity is a little pricey, especially when paying for a whole family, but we can’t ever say no to a bird’s eye view and up we went. The Alyeska Tram takes visitors from 306 ft in elevation to 2,334 ft in about 6 minutes. On a clear day you can beautiful views of the valley all the way to Turnagain arm as well as up to 7 hanging glaciers. Every time we’ve done this activity, there was just a little too much snow to really explore the hiking paths around the area but they are there! This last trip, the operator told us about the annual Alyeska Climbathon that takes place here. It's a competition to see who can run up the mountain the most number of times in the span of 10 hours. Participants will run up the 2.2 mile trail (gaining 2,000 ft in elevation each time) and take the tram down as many times as they can until the tram closes for the day. He assured us that it’s a pretty intense and impressive event. At the top of the tram, you can explore the lookout tower and there are two restaurants that are pretty decent! Sit by the window for a meal with a view. After our little adventure up the mountain, it was time to check into our absolutely incredible Airbnb. This 3 bedroom/3 bathroom townhouse was stunning down to the very last detail. Our kids especially appreciated the “bunk room” with two bunkbeds and books for them to sit with…but once we showed them the game room, it was “game over” ;) Complete with foosball, arcade games, darts, and more, it was the first room they went to every morning and the last room they were in every night. But it was fun for adults too! With a little corner dedicated to working out, a big TV and a little bar, this room is sure to provide entertainment for everyone. We hung out here for the rest of the night gearing up for the next day's itinerary. If you decide you want to stay here, mention to the host, Jodie, that Ashlee from Our Big Backyard sent you to get a discount on your stay. DAY 2We had family visiting with us this trip and on day 2, I planned a little outing with just myself and my aunts that were up for an adventure. We left Jon with the kids (who ended up going back into Anchorage for some shopping and Chuck E Cheese ;) and we headed to Whittier. Whittier was about a 30 minute drive from our Airbnb but the major thing to take into account when visiting is the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel schedule. This tunnel to get into Whittier is the longest highway tunnel in North America. It’s 2.5 miles one way and also shares with the train so it is imperative that they keep to a strict schedule to keep traffic flowing. The best advice when going through the tunnel is to check the schedule on their website but usually traffic going into Whittier sits in the holding lot until the bottom of the hour when the tunnel opens for 15 minutes. Then traffic leaving Whittier does the same thing on the other side at the top of the hour. The tunnel was built in WWII for the literal supply train for the troops stationed there. It was the first time the town had been connected to the rest of Alaska by road but it wasn’t converted for cars until the year 2000. Whittier is a random town and at first glance it doesn’t really seem like they have much going on but the tunnel isn’t the only thing that makes Whittier interesting. Whittier was actually voted one of the weirdest places in the world because most of the population lives in the same building. The Begich Towers is an apartment complex where almost every one of the year round residents live. There’s a rumor that some of the residents have listed the apartment on Airbnb…but that’s an adventure for another time :) The floor level of the building is open to the public and has a hall dedicated to the history of the town, which is pretty fascinating! There is also a grocery store and a post office as well as a tunnel that connects to the school on the other side of the parking lot for those bitter cold winters. After exploring a bit, we grabbed some lunch at the Swiftwater Cafe. All of “downtown” is right along the harbor and is a good place to grab food or souvenirs but who doesn’t love those Alaskan harbor views?? Whittier may seem random and *gasp* boring (I didn’t say it but I’ve gotten a few instagram comments *smh*) but there are some pretty epic adventures to be had here. After a quick lunch, we met up with our tour of choice for this trip which was with Glacier Jet Ski Adventures! Honestly, this was such an incredible trip! We went out into the Prince William Sound and Blackstsone Bay and got up close and personal with some wildlife, waterfalls, and glaciers all on our own personal jet ski. Whittier is known for a lot of things and unpredictable weather is one of those things. Our jet skis had heated handle bars, if that tells you anything - but we really lucked out with incredible weather and had the best time! We got back from our tour just in time to catch the tunnel out of Whittier and met up with the fam back at the Airbnb for dinner. Day 3On the third day, we took it easy and did a little more exploring around Girdwood. We all drove a short ways to Crow Creek Gold Mine and did a little gold panning. Crow Creek is still a fully operational gold mine and the historical mining camp was such a fun place to explore. We roamed around the property and some of the old buildings. We had a quick lesson on gold panning, some practice with some pay dirt, and then we went on a short walk to the creek to put our skills to the test. It was a fun little adventure for the whole family. After the Gold Mine, some of our group set out to explore some of the trails around Girdwood. Winners Creek is a locals favorite and the Historic Iditarod Trail is a fun one as well. Both are easy “hikes” suitable for all ages. Day 4On our last day in Girdwood, we had booked a little excursion with the Alaska Railroad. The Glacier Discovery Train picked us up right there in Girdwood and took us along the most scenic section of the renowned railroad. First we actually went back into Whittier - which was a whole different experience by train - and then we came back out and went into the backcountry to see the magnificent Spencer and Grandview Glaciers. These are places in Alaska that are only accessible by the train and the whole ride was just gorgeous. For those feeling a little more adventurous, you can actually book a kayak or pack raft trip where the train takes passengers to Spencer Glacier where they’ll disembark and do a little paddling until the train comes back to pick them up. It honestly looked so much fun! But our relaxing little train ride was a good experience too! We saw so much wildlife - including bears, moose, and bald eagles - beautiful waterfalls and glaciers and they even stopped at the more scenic parts and opened the doors so we could take in the view. It really was a great little trip. One tip if you don't want to ride back into Whittier a second time on the way back is to book the shuttle transfer which will take you back to Girdwood or Anchorage from the Portage stop. BonusYou may notice that I haven’t said anything about restaurants. There aren’t a ton of food options in Girdwood and our Airbnb was actually closer to the highway than going into town so we had loaded up on groceries in Anchorage before our trip. However, we did grab some lunch at Subway before getting on the train on the last day and there’s a great little bakery, called Alpine Cafe and Bakery, in that same little strip mall area. Driving to Girdwood, you drive along Turnagain Arm. We always love stopping at Beluga Point, especially at high tide and watching for Beluga Whales. Bring some binoculars and watch for smooth, round, white “waves” moving in a small pod. They can be tricky to differentiate between actual waves, so watch closely! Girdwood is a great hub for some fun Alaska adventures but if you’re looking to explore more of Alaska, you can easily spend some time here and then move on to areas like Seward or Homer. We actually ended our trip by driving back up through Anchorage and spending a few days in the Wasilla/Palmer area. Check out our post about some awesome things to do there as well! If you’re interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to Alaska, check out our options here! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live! One thing you should know about visiting Alaska is that finding a place to stay is a little different than in other parts of the world. If you’re looking for a luxury vacation, there are exactly 0 5-star hotels, even in Anchorage, which is the biggest city in Alaska. Sure, you’ll find all-inclusive resorts that will fly you out to there properties in remote locations but if you’re looking for an affordable place to stay that acts as a good hub for all those Alaskan adventures you have on your bucket list, you’ll want to read this post. We’ve been exploring Alaska for 4 years and we’ve learned that the best places to stay when you truly want an Alaskan experience are those places away from the bustling “big cities”. Okay, I don’t know if any city in Alaska really qualifies as a “big city” that most people think of, haha. But if you’re coming to Alaska, wouldn’t you agree that you want the full, well-rounded experience? If you’ve been around for a minute, you know how much we rave about the Palmer/Wasilla area of Alaska. It was love at first sight when we first visited this little heaven on earth and out of all the places we’ve visited in Alaska, this area is one that we’ve frequented much more than any other. This part of the Mat Su Valley is under an hour from Anchorage and is the perfect jumping off point for some of our favorite Alaskan bucket list adventures. The mountain views, the cozy neighborhoods, and the community feel just has us continually coming back. We’ve stayed in many different places in the area and on our most recent little vacation down south, we were invited to spend some time at the Meier Lake Resort. We wound through little neighborhood streets to get to Meier Lake, but the property is nestled into 120 acres of secluded wilderness. With just 12 rooms, visitors feel as if they are "off-the-grid" without having to go far from the amenities of comfort (like shopping and restaurants) or go out of the way from planned adventures. The grounds are quiet and calming and there's a sense of intimacy that comes with the natural surroundings. The beauty of Meier Lake Resort is that the current owners purchased the property that had been run as a summer camp for youth since the 70s. After a few years of extensive remodeling, they have done a remarkable job with keeping the nostalgic summer camp atmosphere but mixing it with upscale and luxurious details and theming. First, we’ll start with the rooms. Going to summer camp as a kid, I know exactly what to expect when I think of summer camp cabins full of bunks of young kids whispering and playing games into the night. But walking into the cabins at Meier Lake make you feel like you’re staying at an upscale resort. The comfortable beds with the thoughtful details of fresh flowers and clean robes will have you feeling refreshed and ready for the day’s adventures. Each room is it’s own Alaskan experience decorated with different maps of the beautiful state. But waking up to the view of green trees and a pristine lake is just what the doctor ordered. The no phone/no TV policy of the property is welcome with the theming of serenity and unplugging from the bustle of everyday life, though wifi is available for those who choose to use it. Second, the location is a great hub for adventures in the area. Meier Lake Resort sits just at the base of the stunning Hatcher Pass, a little over an hour away from our favorite Matanuska Glacier Recreation Site, or even just 30 minutes from our favorite beloved Reindeer Farm experience. This is such a good area to look into when looking for a good hub. Boasting a private lake complete with a sandy beach, Meier Lake Resort offers a calming start or end to a fun adventure-filled day. But beyond that, staying at Meier Lake is an adventure all on it’s own. Every guest on the property has full use of all the water amenities including kayaks, paddle boats, canoes, or paddle boards. But nothing can compare to enjoying the wood fire heated sauna right there on the shore after taking a dip in the lake. Take advantage of the provided hammam towels and pour some water over the coals to get some steam for a relaxing end of your day. Spa packages are even available with prior notice. Other outdoor amenities on property include a PDGA championship disc golf course, which is the only tier A disc golf course in Alaska. The course boasts a 3.5 mile loop around the lake and through the woods with 18 holes and 36 baskets. Grab a frisbee from the main lodge and try your hand at this popular sport. In keeping with the summer camp feel, all the cabins on property are dry, which means no running water inside the individual cabins. However, the shower house at Meier Lake leaves nothing to be desired with larger private bathrooms and showers. It is kept clean and fully stocked of fresh fluffy towels throughout the day. At the time of our visit, Meier Lake was working on getting a liquor license and as well as getting their kitchen up and running so they can operate at restaurant there at the property in the near future. The main lodge was already inviting but we’re excited to go back and see how this addition adds to the property. Though there was no dining on site while we were there, breakfast is included in every stay and we had it delivered to our door every morning, complete with a thermos of fresh coffee, fresh fruit, yogurt and muffins. We loved waking up to breakfast with a view. If you’re looking for a place of gathering for a group of people, look no further because this resort would be the perfect place for such an occasion. There’s even a cabin with strictly bunk beds specifically for families with children. Individual families could enjoy the privacy of their own cabin while still enjoying the space as a larger group. This really would be a wonderful place to host a wedding or family event. One of my favorite things about Meier Lake Resort are the events that they host themselves. If you follow their instagram, you’ll be up-to-date on all things Meier Lake, including disc golf championships and clinics, beach club days, wellness retreats, yoga classes, cooking classes, self care retreats…the possibilities of activities to enjoy on the property are endless. We loved our stay at Meier Lake Resort and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to people looking for somewhere to stay to complete that Alaskan aesthetic when visiting this great state. What do you look for when looking for a place to stay? If you’re interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to Alaska, check out our options here! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live!
I don’t know how else to set the scene for our visit to Wrangell St. Elias National Park/McCarthy, Alaska except to start with some facts about this mind-blowing national park. Wrangell St. Elias is the largest national park in the United States. It is also one of the least visited national parks in the country. Covering 13.2 million acres, this park is 6 times the size of Yellowstone. 9/16 of North America’s tallest peaks sit inside it’s borders. This means it’s bigger than Switzerland and has taller mountains. It’s landscape includes one of the most active volcanos in North America as well as many glaciers including the world’s largest, Bering Glacier, which is 100 miles long. There are only two roads that lead into the interior of the park, both of which are very rural, meaning gravel, are one way, and have no services (minus the occasional outhouse). Nebesna Road is only about 40 miles and McCarthy Road ends it’s 60 mile length at McCarthy, Alaska. This is the road we took. Greeted with a sign that was anything but welcoming, we slowly made our way as deep into Wrangell St. Elias National Park one can get by car. The gravel road was rough with all the pot holes and our confidence wasn’t boosted when passing spots just waiting for some heavy rains to wash it out. About a 1/3 of the way in, we came to the Kuskulana bridge, and my husband was ready to turn around and go home, haha. This one way bridge sits about 240 feet above a sheer sided ravine and is 525 ft long. Built in 1910, it was originally a train trestle that has since been reinforced with steel - guard rails being added in 1988. I climbed in the driver’s seat while my husband sat in the back with his eyes on the ground as we passed safely over this scenic spot on our journey. Adding to the stunning scenes of our drive was the historic train trestle. The whole train track from Cordova to Kennecott, Alaska was built for the sole purpose of transporting copper out of Kennecott. As the mine operated year round, so did the train, where workers had to overcome obstacles such as -60 degree Fahrenheit weather, heavy snow, and avalanches. Sometimes the train would become derailed and it was more cost effective to just add more track to get it back on course instead of trying to lift it back onto the existing track. Another interesting fact we came across was the purpose of these platforms along some of the trestle. Workers would stand on these platforms and pour water on the support beams to stop fires from catching as the train chugged along above them on the track. McCarthy, Alaska was built up as a town about 5 miles down from Kennecott Copper Mine. McCarthy was the rough and tumble town that offered miners “services” that weren’t allowed in the Kennecott mining town. Still a very rural town, with only 20 year round residents, visitors aren’t allowed to drive cars into McCarthy. There’s a large parking lot at the end of the road where visitors park and walk across a footbridge over the river, and if you catch it in time, a shuttle will drive you up the mile walk into downtown McCarthy. Along this path, you can see the old hand trams that used to by the only way to cross the river. You’ll also be able to see gorgeous views of the Chugach Mountain Range to the South and the other view I couldn’t get over was the view of 4 glaciers converging into one giant ice wall to the north. A stunning view that we’ll revisit later in our trip. We caught the shuttle just in time when we first were entering McCarthy. It was a short drive to downtown and then we caught a free shuttle up to Kennecott. Once up at the old mining town, we got to explore some of the old buildings while we waited to check in for our tour. You can roam the old post office and commissary, some of the old cabins, and even the community hall where they held dances, church services, showed movies, and other entertainment. St. Elias Alpine Guides is the only tour company with exclusive access to Kennecott Copper Mill. We started by up the short path to the 14th floor of the abandoned copper mill and my husband started questioning my trip planning judgment for a second time :) Not only were we high over the valley, we had to sign a waiver and don some hardhats before entering the seemingly dilapidated building. In fact, at the end of our tour, our guide stated that there used to be more buildings included in the tour but they had recently collapsed. Nonetheless, the tour was extremely interesting as we walked through the processes used to break down copper that was coming in from the mine above. As we went down through each floor, a new step in the process was explained and stories shared of the miners experiences. When the mine was abandoned in 1938, the head honchos wanted to work until the very last second. They announced the last train was departing from town only 2 hours ahead of time, giving residents no time to gather items. Everything was abandoned and it was definitely noticeable when we got to the bottom floors and saw shoes and gloves and tools just left to deteriorate. At it’s height, Kennecott Copper Mill produced 25% of the world’s copper and it is still considered the richest area of copper in the world. It was such a cool place to explore and you can even stay in the hotel in town! You would schlep your luggage over the footbridge and get picked up from the Kennecott Lodge Shuttle to take you into town. Given more time, and maybe without our little littles in tow, it would be so interesting to also have gone to the Kennecott cemetery, where it is said to have listed causes of death - some being a little gruesome - on the headstones. After our tour, we caught a shuttle back into McCarthy and grabbed dinner at the Roadside Potato. We have been to it’s sister restaurant on our trips to Valdez and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to eat there again. We got some ice cream at the local commissary and made our way back to our campsite. Though we missed the last shuttle out, it wasn’t a bad walk back over the footbridge. The next morning, we walked back up to the footbridge, but instead of going across, we made our way to the edge towards the glacier lake. Those glacier views never get old and we had a great time just taking in the views and playing at the edge of the lake. We visited Memorial Day weekend and the lake seemed to be frozen over, but upon further inspection we had stumbled upon some candle ice! Candle ice is another name of rotten ice that is breaking down during spring melt into perpendicular geometric pillars that is so fascinating to play with. The best way to see it in action is to check out our Instagram Reel. But to describe in words, I will say that it’s very unstable and we were easily able to push through it. I wished I had had my kayak to skim across the top of it. It made a wind-chime sound as we scooped it up and pushed it around. It was very clear glacier lake ice as the water on top had frozen with the sediment falling to the bottom. We all thought it was so cool! We had planned to stay three nights at our campground near McCarthy but to ease my husband’s mind about the drive back, we ended up leaving after two nights. It just felt better to get the McCarthy Road under our belt and then to finish our drive back to Fairbanks the next day. The drive was about 7 1/2 hours in total. Our weekend was honestly incredible, learning about the history of the area. Would I recommend everyone visits McCarthy? Not necessarily. While I really enjoyed the trip, you have to have a pretty big sense of adventure to make the trek. Another way - an easier way - to visit Wrangell St. Elias National Park is to just stop at the visitor’s center near Glennallen. The visitor’s center sits at the edge of the park with gorgeous views, interesting facts, and a little 20 minute video that goes into impressive detail about the park. There are trails and viewpoints around the visitors center to get a little more perspective of this impressive section of Alaska. If you want even more of an adventure than we took, another way to explore the park is by bush plane. There is an air service out of McCarthy and many public cabins around the park with their own runway so visitors can fly out and enjoy the vast wilderness away from civilization. Or staying closer to town, there are river rafting tours and glacier hiking tours of differing lengths and skill levels. Is Wrangell St. Elias National Park on your bucket list? We’d love to know if you’d add anything or if you have any questions! If you’re interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to Alaska, check out our options here! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live!
Juneau was actually one of the first cities we visited when we came to Alaska. When we originally arrived in Alaska we were on the ferry traveling along the Alaska Marine Highway. And while we did stop in Juneau, the ferry port is a lot further away from Downtown which hosts the cruise ship docks. So between that, and the fact that our stop there lasted less than an hour, we didn’t have anytime to really see anything and Juneau unfortunately wasn’t on our radar after that. It wasn’t until a few years later, when our daughter started to learn all the US states and their capitals in school that we decided it might be a cool place to visit while we live here. Juneau is the 3rd largest city in Alaska, both in population and size. In fact, it’s actually one of the largest municipalities in the whole United States and the largest state capital in the US by area-bigger than the state of Rhode Island. Juneau is cutoff from the rest of the mainland due to a giant ice field making it the only state capital inaccessible by road. This doesn’t deter visitors, by any means. Some 900,000 cruise ship passengers visit each year during their tour through Alaska’s inside passage, and you can count us in the additional 100,000 independent visitors each year. Juneau is a fascinating city, not only because of it’s location and scenery but also because of it’s rich history. Like most, if not all, cities in Alaska, Juneau was put on the map during the gold rush in the late 1800s. And of course it has kept strong roots in the native culture of the tribes who have lived there for the past few thousand years. Our itinerary capitalized on all of this and we had the best time exploring Alaska’s state capital. Day 1On the first day, we arrived in the afternoon. We ventured downtown and happened upon what looked like a food truck court. Deckhand Dave’s was Jon’s pick and this was where we would go every day for the rest of our trip :) Their menu of fresh local seafood was better than any other seafood I had tasted in Alaska - especially their trash bear fries (asked for the blackened halibut). Right next door was Alaska’s Crepe Escape, which was the girls’ choice and honestly, we tried a few of their flavors too - even though they inevitably snuck bites from their dad’s fish ;) Next we checked into our Airbnb which was honestly the best airbnb we’ve ever stayed in! The 3 bedroom/2 bathroom private apartment was very spacious for our family of 5. It included a private entrance, a little kitchenette (microwave and mini fridge), and an utterly breathtaking view of Downtown Juneau. I could’ve been completely happy spending all our time relaxing in our digs but, alas, we are an adventure family and we were there for a grand adventure! So we made our way back downtown and took advantage of a beautiful, rare, bluebird sky day in Juneau and took a ride on the Goldbelt Tram. The Goldbelt Tram is one of the world’s most vertical tramways, taking passengers from sea level upwards to 1,800 feet to the top of Mt. Roberts in the span of about 6 minutes. At the top we had epic views of downtown Juneau and the Gastineau Canal due thanks to the gorgeous weather. We did arrive with the early cruise ships the first week of May, so there was still snow on the trails. So while we weren’t able to explore as much of the area as we were hoping, we still had fun spotting totem poles around the visitors center. Inside we chatted with a few Native Alaskans who invited us to watch their presentation. Norman taught us about his culture, some native Tlingit words and even showed us part of a native dance that he does usually with a large traveling group. While the rest of the family watched a video about the local native culture, our little man wasn’t up for sitting in a dark room and being quiet so I took him out to roam a bit. We thought we might grab dinner at the restaurant up there but it was closed for a private event so we headed back down the mountain. Day 2The next day was pretty special because there were actually no cruise ships in port! So it felt like we had a lot of the place to ourselves. We started out with a visit to the iconic whale statue right downtown. It was a pretty cool little area to explore, especially to take the time with no one else there. Next we visited the Alaska State Museum. This museum was so well done and so interesting! It had displays that talked about the native history in Alaska all the way up to the gold mining days and even into WWII. We learned so much about Alaska, like how the gold rush got here before lighthouses were a thing, so there were actually hundreds of shipwrecks in the inside passage in the early days-some bearing pretty big loads of treasure that have never been recovered (insert side eye emoji here ;) This was a great family friendly activity that everyone enjoyed and those under the age of 18 are free! So even better. Then we grabbed lunch at Deckhand Dave’s (and the Crepe Escape) obviously…and we took a little break for a nap for the little guy. But we weren’t done adventuring for the day. After a little rest we took the drive out to Mendenhall Glacier and again, with no cruise ships, it was almost empty! We walked the trail out to Nugget Falls, a 300 foot tall, 100 foot wide water fall flowing into the Mendenhall Glacier Lake that was full of icebergs that had broken off the stunning Mendenhall Glacier face. Again, we had the place all to ourselves and the kids had the best time running around the little beach area. Though the highlight of this little hike was seeing a porcupine cross the trail in front of us and climb a tree for an afternoon meal! We have seen a lot of wildlife in Alaska but that was our first (live) porcupine so it was pretty exciting. We ended the day with a little historic drive through downtown and up into the original neighborhood of Juneau. Most of the downtown buildings in Juneau are original to the Gold Rush Days as well as most of the homes above the downtown area. Actually, because of the way Juneau was set up, there are these stairways in between some of the buildings in town that actually have street signs marking them. They are official roadways that the early residents used to get from their homes to the shops downtown. We thought that was pretty interesting. We also drove past the State Capital building, the Governor’s mansion - which is the official residence of the governor of Alaska - which was built in 1912, and Judge Wickersham’s house, which we thought was fun because he was a house in Fairbanks that we’ve toured. Day 3The next morning, we watched some cruise ships coming into port from our view at our airbnb and we made our way downtown to catch our whale watching tour. Juneau is one of the top places in the world to see humpback whales and we were able to see a few from far off but the every playful orcas stole the show that day as they seemed to appear from out of nowhere! It was another rare day of blue skies and beautiful weather. While the girls have been on a few wildlife or glacier cruises during our time here in Alaska, other ones we have been on were so cold and windy! We could not have planned for a better day. As we got off the boat to get back on the shuttle that was going to take us back to downtown, we saw a crabbing ship that thad just come into the docks showing off their catch of the day! Honestly, that was just as cool to see as the whales so it made for a fun little surprise. If you’re wondering if we went to Deckhand Dave’s again for lunch, you’d be 100% correct haha. Baby boy fell asleep in the car so we took our lunch to a park we had driven past a few times to let the girls run around. It was the first week of May and our first time playing at the park since there was snow on the ground still when we left home! It was a fun break and something we like to do when we’re traveling so we don’t feel like we’re dragging the kids around to do things only we want to do…although, to be honest, they really enjoyed Juneau as much as we did! We took it easy the rest of the day, ending with ice cream sandwiches on our private balcony watching the cruise ships leave town. Day 3On our last day, we checked out of our airbnb and made the drive out to the National Shrine of St. Therese at the recommendation of our airbnb host. This place was the perfect ending to our trip to Juneau. It was such a calming and peaceful place to explore that I left thinking we could really spend a whole day there just taking in all the beauty. That afternoon, we flew out with full hearts and more incredible Alaskan memories. I cannot overstate how interesting and captivating Juneau is. We had such a great time and loved taking our time exploring all that we did. Though I’m sure almost everything we did could be done in the span of the time a cruise ship would spend at port. We had a car but there are cruise excursions that double a whale watching tour with a glacier tour in one. Downtown is very walkable with restaurants, historic buildings, and museums all close to the port. The tram entrance is also near the ports. One thing to note: Juneau is actually located in a coastal temperate rainforest, which is actually pretty rare outside of Alaska. This means it rains in Juneau about 250 days of the year. We were prepared for rain and cool weather, not expecting at all the gorgeous weather we experience, even with a close eye on the weather forecast. Be prepared with good waterproof walking shoes and layers, even in the middle of summer. Is Juneau on your bucket list or have you been? We’d love to know if you’d add anything or if you have any questions! If you’re interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to Alaska, check out our options here! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live!
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AuthorWe're just a military family enjoying where we live, one PCS at a time. Follow us as we explore our current home, South Carolina, and beyond. The world is our backyard. Archives
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