Road Trip From Whittier to Denali.
We have booked an Alaskan Cruise ending in Whittier in mid-July. They wanted to sell us a post-cruise land excursion that would take us to Denali NP.
But we thought we could do better. We are older, but very active. I cycle, while my wife rides horses. This is our retirement cruise. I just did 10days in Switzerland with my son, logging 145,000 steps. But my wife will limit us in hiking, 2-4mi roundtrip is all she's interested in.
Still putting this together, and looking for ideas, and maybe some hidden gems.
Whittier: Rent car, buy bear spray. Maybe do Portage Pass Trail, before the Tunnel.
Number of possible stops on way through Anchorage:
Williwaw Valley - Salmon viewing (might be too early). Blue Ice Trail, Byron Glacier Trail.
Girdwood
Bird Point & Beluga Point
Potter Marsh
Go on to Talkeetna. Stay there, and do the air taxi to land on glacier.
This is where my broad paint strokes of the trip get fuzzy. From here, we're vacillating on the Denali NP. It's still 2.5hrs to the Park from Talkeetna. To take the Bus excursions, there are 2hr, 5hr and 8hr trips. That's a lot of time spent in cars and buses. I do want the adventure and not a workout. If we've already seen it from the air, is it still worth the car or car/bus trip?
Eventually we need to get back to Anchorage to fly out.
Ideas?
BTW, we have Alaska connections. My wife's horse trainer is from Homer. Her crazy brother decided to go to Alaska for a summer job in college, doing what amounts to "Most Deadliest Catch". And my wife's son drives the oil tanker Washington to Valdez to pickup oil.