Alaska

We took our adventure to Alaska in July, 2022. July is the warmest season in Alaska and wildlife is fully active, all trails accessible, long days and Alaska’s warmest average temperatures. We started our journey in Canada. Majority of Alaska you can only get to by air or plane. So, we decided on an Alaskan cruise + land excursion. We went with Celebrity Cruise, and booked through Costco Travel. If you know me, you know I love Costco Travel.

We boarded our ship in Vancouver (see my Canada trip on a different post) ventured up the coast line of Alaska with 6 stops along the way. We got off the ship in Anchorage, Alaska and got on a grayhound bus to Denali National Park. We stayed a night in Denali and explored the park. We saw moose and tried our best to get a glimps of Denali mountain. Fun note, only 30 percent of people get to see Denali’s peak that go there to see it. It was a trip of a life time and I’m very impressed by the folks that life there year round.

After getting on our ship in Vancouver, Canada our first stop was Ketchikan, Alaska. Beautiful Ketchikan is known for its vibrant downtown, historical tours, and Alaska Native roots. It’s also a recreation hotspot, where you can fish Tongass National Forest’s shimmering fresh-water lakes one day, then kayak past tumbling waterfalls the next.

Creek Street is infamous as being Ketchikan’s red light district, roughly between 1903 and 1954. It was very rainy when we visited, but it still did no disappoint.

One thing that I did not expect was how good the culinary scene was. We were blown away by everywhere we ate. By far one of our favorites was 49th Street Brewing in Anchorage. The airport also had a 49th Street Brewing, but we weren’t impressed. I’m not even a brewery fan, but the food was top notch and Grant thought their beers were very good.

My favoriate stop in Alaska was by far Juneau. Such a fun vibe! It did also help that we booked a pretty sweet excursion, which was taking a helicopter ride to a glacier to hike! That felt like a totally different world. Absolutely amazing. Skagway was pretty high up there on my favorite list too.

Denali was neat, but I hate to say this, but it felt a bit overrated.

The places we explored in Alaska: Ketchikan, Rainforest Canoe and Nature Trail, Icy Strait, Juneau, in Juneau we took a helicopter tour that took us on a glacier to hike, Skagway, Chilkoot Trail where we hiked and rafted (that’s a fun story), Hubbard Glacier, Seward, Anchorage and finally Denali National Park.