re: Best Alaskan Cruise and month to go ?

Ferry system goes as far South as Bellingham Wa

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You could spend a week alone on the Kenai, another in the interior. Much of Ak is not accessibly by road but you could still easily spend a month on the road system.

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A few years after the cruise we drove to Alaska in a VW camper van and spent just over a month in the state and 3 months on the road. It was the best vacation I'll ever have. We even made it up to Prudhoe Bay which isn't for the faint of heart and; we had a shredded tire and cracked windshield to show for it. Dawson City and the Top of the World highway was great. The Denali highway too. Great times in Homer and Seward and Talkeetna and Haines. We took the ferry across from Haines to Skagway but otherwise didn't use the ferry system which is expensive. And the Alaska highway through Canada is pretty great as well. I think flying into Whitehorse and renting a small RV would make an awesome vacation and save a ton of driving.

Ok, a summary of our trips. Note road trip in Ak really means fly and rent, so many places are not accessible by road without long ferry rides.

Year 1
My son lived in Ketchikan so we went there first, the first yr highlight of Ketchikan was the flight seeing tour on a beautiful restored Otter float plane of misty fiords.

Flew to Juneau, went whale watching with Harv and Marv on a smaller boat, awesome, you get much closer to the whales. We also did menhall glacier, I would like to do the ice caves one day. Juneau is the capital and a historic town, I would go back to Juneau.

Flew to Anchorage, tried to catch the tidal bore but missed it, the next day drove to Talkeetna, took another flight seeing tour to Denali, landed on the glacier, spectacular even though the mountains were shrouded in clouds. Talkeetna was a cool little town, drove to Denali, got a ticket, use cruise control, it’s a long road and some of it’s boring, at some point the road turns to gravel, which is why you can’t tell the rental car agency you are going to Denali. Denali, it’s hard to put into words, just go there, just go, take the bus tour all the way to the end, it’s all day and so worth it, on our second trip it was clear as a bell and we could see the mountain the whole time, had a grizzly 25 yds from the bus. sows with cubs, sheep, caribou, scenery. I’d love to take the bus in and mountain bike out one nite during the midnight sun. Or hike in toward the mountain.

Year 2
Ketchikan again, went fishing 1/2 day, shipped home 74 lbs of salmon, you will never eat that farm raised Atlantic crap again.

Flew to Sitka on a Sunday, it was closed, flew to Valdez, went kayaking and glacier hiking, was fun but wouldn’t do it again. What I would do is drive from anchorage to Valdez, we drove a little ways north out of Valdez while we were there and it was Spectacular with waterfalls, hanging glaciers etc. if I can get the nerve I will do the fireweed 400 bike ride that ends in Valdez, but it’s incredibly steep for a flatlander. There are other towns between Anchorage and Valdez that I would like to explore.

We did some mild hikes in Ketchikan and Sitka, my wife refuses to tent camp so extended hikes, river rafting was out, but I’d love to do some of that one day.

I love AK, will go back again in a heartbeat. I want to spend more time in Fairbanks and points north. We only went a week each time, if you can spend more time I would.