I recently got back from a trip to Alaska in June. I have been to a few locations higher up in the northern hemisphere before, but usually I’ve gone in the darker months with the intention to see the northern lights. I’ve been to Iceland, Sweden, Finland, and Norway, all for that reason. Going up north during the summer was foreign to me. Of course I would like to see the northern lights, but traveling to Alaska in June doesn’t provide that opportunity. Instead it allows you to see the midnight sun. So – a new experience! I traveled with my friends Joey and Rob and it was an incredible trip.

Day 1

Our first day was like The Day of Travel. We flew from Chicago to Anchorage, picked up our rental car, grabbed some food and road trip supplies, then drove up to Fairbanks where we would be staying the next few nights. It was a long day of travel. Six hours in the plane, then six hours in the car – but we broke it up a little bit between food, viewpoints, and wildlife viewings.

Along the way, we saw a rainbow which was a nice little treat as it was pride month, and then… FINALLY I saw my first moose, ever! And there were four of them. Two adults, two babies. I was seriously so excited. I’ve wanted to see a moose for so long now, and have been in places where they live in theory (Maine, Colorado, Washington, Oregon). Well, Alaska finally rewarded me because we saw moose quite a few times along our trip (spoiler alert, whoops).

Day 2

Day two in Alaska was pretty hiking intensive. We drove from Fairbanks to Denali National Park, grabbed some food and bear spray, and then headed off to do some hikes. One nice thing is that if you’re hiking around the Visitor Center, you don’t really have to pay an entrance fee. So we set off for the day, with plenty of bug spray because those mosquitoes are killers in Alaska (although surprisingly the Midwestern mosquitoes leave way more of an itch than Alaskan mosquitoes?).

We started with Triple Lakes Trail, which wasn’t the trail we technically wanted to be on. It was the longest hike near the Denali Visitor Center – 9.5 miles.

After a while of hiking, I got the feeling we were on the wrong trail so we all turned around to get back on the right track. It took us a while. We stopped at a little amphitheater area that had log benches and rested.

We continued back to the Visitor Center and then hiked the Mount Healy Overlook Trail. WOW. It was incredibly gorgeous, with 2000ft elevation. I really enjoyed that hike, but unfortunately it would be the last big hike for me while in Alaska, because I majorly fucked up my knees. I’m not sure how it happened exactly – I think it was perhaps a combination of a cheap backpack, carrying a lot of weight in the backpack, and then stepping too heavily while hiking up and down the mountain. The hike didn’t feel very difficult to me at all – both going up and going down, but the next day and for many subsequent days since then my knees have been really sore. To the point that it would hurt to walk with each step. I’m doing much better now, but they’re still healing.

Once we finished that hike, it was pretty late. We had been hiking all day and still had a two hour drive ahead of us, so we grabbed some food and then drove back to Fairbanks. Along the way, we saw the midnight sun for the first time ever. It was odd for it to be midnight, and to see the sun hanging low in the sky.

Day 3

This was one of my favorite days! We took it easy in the morning and then drove back to Denali National Park to get to our shuttle bus tour which started at 2pm. At Denali, you can only drive about 15 miles into the park with your own car. After that, you need to get on a shuttle bus or a designated tour to go further into the park. The park is 92 miles long, but this year they were only going to Eielson Visitor Center at mile 66. That’s okay – it was still a great day.

Along the way, we saw so much beautiful scenery, and a decent amount of wildlife – including dall sheep from a distance, caribou, ptarmigans, a raven’s nest with three grown ravens in it, and the best part of the day was seeing grizzlies. They were far away, but it was a mother and her cub. They didn’t pay us any mind, and were playing with each other. It was so cute to see, and the zoom lens on my camera afforded me a better view of them. Even without, you could clearly see what they were doing. I wish we’d seen them closer, but alas! We also saw – and this was VERY far away – a grizzly who was taking a nap on a recent kill. It was really hard to see and I could hardly make it out.

Once the tour was almost over, our phenomenal shuttle bus tour Mike pointed out that we could see Mount Denali’s peak. It’s quite rare to see the entire mountain, as it creates its own weather and is usually covered by it. But… at least we saw the peak!

I was so hoping to see moose that day, because we’d only seen them on the first day and only for a moment, but to no avail. BUT on the drive home, we did see a fox crossing the road which was neat.

Day 4

By the fourth day, we attempted to do another hike, but my knees were really starting to hurt. I think they (my knees, not my travel buddies) were mad at me for not really resting them. Even on the shuttle bus tour, we had still been walking around. That said, Joey, Rob, and I hiked the Taiga Trail in Denali and started to do the Horseshoe Trail for a little bit before we drove back down to Anchorage. I wish we had more time in Denali National Park – if I ever return to Alaska, and I think I will, I definitely want to be there for a longer amount of time.

Day 5

This is the day I was really looking forward to. We had to get up super early for our 2.5hr drive to Seward to make our whale watching/glacier tour in time. We ended up being down to the wire, especially since we wanted to get breakfast, but we made it! We saw so, so much marine life. It was a wildlife overdose for sure. We saw fin whales, orcas, humpbacks, puffins, seals resting on chunks of ice, sea lions, dall sheep on top of a cliff. We saw dall porpoise that were racing the front of the boat which was such a cute thing to see. We saw actively calving glaciers – where giant chunks of the glacier fall off and into the water. It was a total dream.

Day 6

The day of rest. Geez, did we all need it – especially after waking up so early the day before. We didn’t do much except attempt to do laundry, eat food, and then in the evening we went to Kincaid Park in Anchorage to see what it was all about. We didn’t get very far because the park closed at 10pm and the gates lock at 11pm, so we had maybe 30min to explore. We decided to check it out some more on our last day before heading to the airport.

Day 7

Day seven was pretty rainy. We drove an hour away to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center so we could see some animals up close. I guess it’s not really a zoo, which is good, but rather they take care of these animals after they’ve been injured or abandoned. We saw just about all there was to see – moose, brown bears, black bears, caribou, elk, different types of deer, musk ox, bison, wolves, hedgehogs, lynx, and more. It was cool to be there but I couldn’t help feeling that the animals were unhappy. It may be a step up from a zoo, but people are still gawking at them taking pictures, and some of the animals (notably the black bear) were pacing back and forth which is a clear sign of stress and anxiety in animals.

Afterwards, we drove a few minutes away to hike the Byron Glacier trailhead. My knees were still feeling super broken, but I was determined to do it, so we did. I was incredibly slow motion. The increased usage on my knees was doing the exact opposite of what I wanted… making them worse. But alas, we did it. It was cool to hike up to a glacier, but it was also raining, windy, cold, and overall kind of miserable. Still a great hike, though!

Day 8

I loved this day. We drove out to Virgin Creek Falls, where we planned to do a quick hike to see a waterfall. Along the way, I managed to spot a black bear off the side of the road, munching on dandelions. It was so, so cute to see in the wild. We pulled over and watched it for a short while until it ran off and disappeared into the bush.

We then found our way to Virgin Creek Falls. The waterfall was lovely, but I needed to rest my knees in anticipation of a hike later in the day. Joey and Rob continued on the trail farther than the waterfall, but I stayed and talked with an older couple from New York. They were visiting Alaska for five weeks and it was their retirement trip. We talked about some other places we had been and bonded over nature and wildlife.

Once Joey and Rob had finished their hike, we drove to Bird Creek to check out the area. We had passed it a couple times while driving down the highway and we all wanted to see what was up – it seemed like an area where wildlife would hang out for a quick drink. Unfortunately no wildlife there, but on our way back, I spotted a bull moose walking down a hill. It was probably our best moose sighting the whole trip (and we saw I think eight in the wild?). We parked the car and it walked behind us, then off into a meadow. It kept looking back at us, but then disappeared into the brush. I was so thrilled to have witnessed it and appreciated its beauty so near to us. As we got back onto the road, either Rob or Joey said “wouldn’t it be crazy if the moose was walking alongside the road?” and sure enough – that’s where it had gone to. Unfortunately the poor guy got anxious because all the cars started stopping and looking at him. He paced back and forth and then ran back into the woods.

We then drove to a park called Russian Jack Springs and hiked that for a little while, then went to Far North Bicentennial Park. That’s a park I’d really love to explore more – it felt so wild, and was on the edge of Chugach State Park which is gigantic. It really felt like bears could have been anywhere along the trails, but we didn’t have any run-ins.

Day 9

The last day already. It’s funny how quickly trips can go by, but we really made the most of it. Every day was pretty full and we saw a lot of amazing things. We went back to Russian Jack Springs in the morning because Joey reallllllly loved it there, and then our last task of the day before departing was going to Kincaid Park.

We hiked down to the beach which had a pretty cool view. We weren’t able to stay very long because we needed to drop off the car and check in at the airport, but we took a brief detour and had our first face to face encounter with a moose. I remember freezing in place and saying “moose,” and Joey and Rob stopped walking as well. With moose encounters, if you agitate them/invade their space, they will run at you and try to trample you. There are more deaths by moose than bears, believe it or not. The rule of thumb is to run, and I was in no place to run, so we kept a safe distance but watched it graze in the meadow for a little while, while slowly backing away. They are really massive creatures – so it was intimidating to view them on foot and not from the safety of a car.

That was our last moose sighting of the trip, and it was a great farewell. We then went to the airport to drop off the car rental and prepare for our departure back to Chicago.

Afterthoughts

I really, really loved Alaska. I love seeing wildlife, and this trip was the most saturated I have ever experienced wildlife aside from my Kruger safari in South Africa. Absolutely the most abundant wildlife I have seen in America. Another thing is – I felt like I could have done so many more hikes and explored the area for way longer than the amount of time we were there. I would love to spend more time in Denali, more time on the water in Seward, more time on hikes just about everywhere in the state. I’m sure I’ll be back one day – but it’s hard to go back somewhere when there are still so many places I haven’t been to yet. I initially wanted to save Alaska and Hawaii as my last states, but I figured, why wait? Who knows what could happen in the future?

I’d also like to note that I really enjoyed traveling with Joey and Rob. I hadn’t mentioned much in this post, but we had so many laughs throughout the trip. I love goofing off and laughing, and it was really enjoyable to be traveling with people who like the same thing. I’d definitely do it again!

What’s next? I know I’m going to New York for a few days around Labor Day to visit Lauren, but I also have a trip in November for my birthday. I have zero idea where I want to go yet… but stay tuned!