Alaska 2022- Overview

As soon as we were pregnant with our much sought after third baby, we knew we wanted maternity leave to include a month long trip to Alaska. We had attempted an Alaska trip twice in the past. Once we became pregnant with Zooey and at that point, didn't even consider (nor have the funds or time for) and extended trip with a newborn as first time parents. Then we had a wonderful 2 week RV trip planned with my parents for 2020 and of course COVID ruined that. So we figured we'd go bigger and planned a 1 month travel trailer trip to the Kenai Peninsula, the Mat-Su Valley and Denali National Park. 

Napping in at the Eagle River Nature Center

This first post in a series of posts will discuss our overall travel plans and how we conceptualized this trip. Given timing was completely dependent on 1) delivery date of baby Fynn and 2) recovery of mom after 3rd (!) c-section and health of baby Fynn we didn't make plans or even an itinerary until after he was born. I gave myself 2 weeks to try to muscle through early nursing days, c-section recovery and the dense dense impenetrable fatigue of newborn sleeping (or lack thereof) patterns but by week 3 I was ready for some distraction and started planning hoping we could leave by week 7 post partum. The day I bought the very expensive last minute plane tickets, I knew we were actually committed. 

There was one part of this trip that we had actually booked months before in hopes that the timing would work out- our Denali campsite. Those slots fill up within minutes to hours so months ago we had a timer set and played the "book the campsite" game to get Savage River campground slots. We chose the only week that would work if Fynn was either 3 weeks early or on time. When he ended up being on time I then planned the rest of the trip around the Denali time- not the most driving efficient- we ended up going to the Kenai Peninsula for a week, then up to Denali for a week, then back down to Kenai for another two weeks but that was the only time inefficient wrinkle- not too bad for a trip planned last minute on mat leave haha.

I planned the entirety of the family trip in Alaska, but Adam had the Herculean task of  readying the camper for all possible problems that could arise on the to and from drive Illinois-Anchorage and our time in Alaska. He also had to map out his route to and from. Of course, on Day 4 of 8 driving to Alaska a beaver dam collapsed which washed out a bridge on the Al-Can so he had to reroute but thankfully I learned of the washout and he didn't have to backtrack at all. Phew!

This was mostly a camping trip. We bought our first travel trailer (a 16' Airstream Bambi) in May 2020 knowing we would be limited in flying for a while due to COVID. We found that in addition to loving access to our own food, kitchen, and clean bathroom at all times we love the freedom of visiting natural areas that don't have hotels nearby. The days we spent in rural Utah (Goblin Valley, Dead Horse), for example, were some of the best days we've had on a trip ever. We feel very very strongly about the benefits of being outdoors and when you are camping, your default is outdoors. In fact, when we bought our 2nd trailer to make room for Fynn, we bought an off road trailer with an entirely outside kitchen further maximizing our ability to be outside and even in the off road wilderness (the Opus 15). 

Playing in the RV

That said, during a past 15 day camping trip, Zooey made the request that we intermix some rental houses with the camping. She said after a week of camping she's really craving some space and the ability to have peace time (which is what she calls creative play/pretend that she likes to do solo). I will proudly note that she is not missing creature comforts- I am proud of my feral children who don't mind dirt, don't need to shower and find sitting on the ground just as good as a leather couch- but rather the quiet and space to be alone with her thoughts. I totally respect that so we promised a few nights of house after each week of camping.

Soothing the baby- Z is am amazing sis

So how did I make a month long itinerary in the maybe 45 minutes a day I could one handedly type on the computer while nursing a newborn and spending time with 9 yo and 4 yo? I started by being clear about my goals. #1 goal family time. Maternity leave is so so important for healing, recovering, establishing a nursing relationship but frankly when it's not your first rodeo time with the older kids is a huge part of the joy of this time away from work. So I wanted to be sure we prioritized time together over fast travel, causal joking and playing over non stop go go adventure. This also works better with a newborn- I think we are damn organized and damn good at getting all of us ready to go places but I also knew that more than 1 adventure a day would be taxing and that we would need zeros- days with minimal driving. Speaking of driving, while the bigs are used to going long (we've been back and forth out west to CO/WY/UT at least 4 times in the past 2 years), newborns eat a a lot which requires stopping, so I made a goal of no more than 4 hours of driving a day. 

#2 goal flexibility. I booked a few adventures but I wanted to leave plenty of room to change plans, book things on the go and even change which towns we stay in and for how long based on what we enjoy, the weather, our whims. I haven't travelled like that since college and boy it was awesome! That's a nice thing about camping- the campsites are between 20-60$/night so if you change your mind you aren't out a huge amount of cash and many you can cancel up to the night before. So we did end up changing plans - forgoing a state park for an RV park with power when we had two days in a row of torrential downpour, fleeing a wooded (read the mosquitos were going to kill us) dark site for a lovely site along the Turnagain Arm, bailing on camping altogether for 3 nights when we were so enjoying house life in Homer near the end of the trip. 

#3 giving the kids what they need. Of course Fynnie had a ton of newborn needs. But Ollie and Zooey had needs too and I wanted to be sure to meet them. Not every day, not all the time. And truly this trip had many moments, hours and even sometimes days that were highly stressful and taught my kids grit and resiliency. But they need the chance to recover after they are stressed and they need things just for each of them. So one day we drove 3 hours round trip to go to a rideable train for Ollie because the day we were in that town earlier in the trip it was pouring so the train was closed. Was it convenient to backtrack? No but it was totally worth it. I knew Z would need time away from her brothers so we made sure to go on a few Mommy/Zooey outings. I worked hard to make sure Ollie had time to run and move move move because while he does great in the car I know it takes it's toll on his little energizer bunny body. And while we always met Fynn's basic needs, I wanted to be sure he had time out of the carrier, out of the car seat to roll around and get his tummy time in. It was a lot to balance but we did a pretty good job.

I'd like my itinerary to be helpful to those taking a more "standard" trip to Alaska so I will try to comment with the faster traveler or the traveller with older kids in mind. Here is what we did, which is very similar to what we set out to do:

Day 1: Fly to Anchorage, Adam picks us up, camp at Eklutna Lake, Chugach State Park 

    arrived in afternoon, drove 45 minutes to campsite that Adam had already set up, played around campsite, got organized

Day 2: Eklutna Lake, Chugach State Park

    Z and I explored the lake, Z/O and I took a bike ride along the lake, drove to Eagle River Nature Center, hiked there, played at campsite in PM

Day 3: Eklutna Lake, Chugach State Park 

    Day trip to Matanuska glacier and did 3 hour guided glacier hike

Day 4: Eklutna Lake, Chugach State Park

    Playground day in Anchorage, played at campsite in PM (skip this day with older kids- instead do longer bike ride around Eklutna Lake or paddle the lake and then move on to next site)

Day 5: Drove to Seward, Stayed at Seward Municipal Campground

    Z/A paddled Eklutna Lake while O/F and I explored the shore prior to heading to Seward

Day 6: Seward Municipal Campground

    campground playground, SeaLife Center, black sand beach Seward (none are essential- with older kids would instead do a full day hike at Kenai Fjords National Park or a full day Major Marine Tour)

Day 7: Seward VRBO

    Kenai Fjords National Park, Exit glacier hike, visitor's center walked around Seward, then checked into house and relaxed

Day 8: Seward VRBO

    relaxed, downtime, explored creek at VRBO, Seavey's Idadaride tour in PM (could do a short Kenai Fjords hike and Idadaride tour in same day with older kids)

Day 9: Seward VRBO

    relaxed and packed in AM, Major Marine 4 hour Tour in afternoon

Day 10: plan was Finger Lakes SRA x 2 nights but had been raining for 2 days with downpour expected for 2 more so instead went to Bear something RV park in Wasilla so we'd have power 

    took most of day to get there

Day 11: Bear something RV park

    dud of a day- were supposed to do K2 glacier landing flight seeing trip but was cancelled as we were driving to Talkeetna. Instead went to the Anchorage Museum which has a great children's area. Very nice museum but with all there is to do in AK, if weather is good would not go here! Quality in trailer time during downpours, and campground playground when light rain.

Day 12: Drove to Denali National Park, Savage River Campground

    settled in, explored the campground, free play time for kids 

Day 13: Denali National Park, Savage River Campground 

    slept in, very slow morning, Z/V white water rafted on Nenana River (white water here NOT a must do IMO, if all kids out of car seat would instead do bus tour into interior of park)

Day 14: Denali National Park, Savage River Campground 

    THE SUN CAME OUT!!!! Hiked mountain vista trail to glimpse Denali, then hiked Savage River Trail, great ranger talk at campground

Day 15: Denali National Park, Savage River Campground 

    Z planned the hiking- 3 trails in Riley Creek area, went to Denali visitor's center, played around Savage River at campground, another great ranger talk at campground

Day 16: Drove to Girdwood area, camped at Bird Creek Chugach State Park

    Explored shore of Turnagain Arm near campground

Day 17: Bird Creek Chugach State Park

    Ollie got 2nd COVID vaccine in Anchorage then we drove to Wasilla for the Alaska Live Steamer model railroad, Z and I rode bikes on Bird to Gird trail 

Day 18: Drove to Homer, VRBO Homer

    Long driving day with some unwanted adventures haha, stopped at wildlife refuge visitors center

Day 19: Homer VRBO

    Rest and free play day, Creatures of the Dock tour, Oceans and Islands visitors center, great enjoyment of house

Day 20: Homer VRBO

    Evaline state park wildflower hike, Homer playground

Day 21: loved house life so booked last minute additional Homer Air Bnb

    Z/O/V biked out and back on the Homer spit, Homer playground, enjoyed the HOT TUB at the new house!

Day 22: Homer Air Bnb

    water taxi to Kachemack Bay State Park, did 5 mile Grenwick (sp) glacier to Saddle Trail hike, water taxi back

Day 23: Homer Air Bnb

    relax/free play day, fishing in the spit lagoon, exploring the tide pools along the spit, using food and diaper boxes to make cool creations, wine and cheese consumption

Day 24: Driving day to near Girdwood, Bird Creek Campground, Chugach State Park

    explored shores of Turnagain Arm, free play after driving day

Day 25: Bird Creek Campground, Chucagh State Park

    Alyeska Tram, Z/O/V bike ride Bird to Gird trail, watched the Bore Tide come in

Day 26: Girdwood VRBO

    Portgage Boggs visitors center, tunnel, lunch, settled into final house

Day 27: Girdwood VRBO

    Glacier Discovery Train, hike to Spencer Glacier from Spencer Whistle Stop

Day 28: Fly home on Red Eye

    Z/V North Face Trail hike at Alyeska Mountain

Not gonna lie- a red eye with a 9 yo, insomniac 4 yo and a lap newborn was no joke. Sleep deprivation on top of sleep deprivation. But curbside pick up by our wonderful nanny made it survivable. Years of functioning with sleep deprivation and keeping oneself awake no matter what during medical training served me well. And yes, even while I was thinking "what the hell did I do to myself" I was still thinking " WORTH IT!"

Quick tips for campers and adventurers: 

A lot of the Facebook groups- both general travel and camping groups, had frequent comments that if you don't plan way in advance you won't get campsites or you will miss out on your adventures. Maybe we got lucky but we did not find that to be true at all. I get the sense that most RV travelers who visit the area are looking for full hook ups. Perhaps the RV parks with full hook ups book early - though the one time we did get hooks ups we booked around 2 pm on a Saturday for a Saturday and Sunday night stay. But the majority of the state park campground were pretty doggone empty during the week. I can't imagine any trouble getting a FCFS (first come, first served site) during the week days. Eklutna Lake was pretty full on the weekends but somehow we got lucky at Bird Creek getting FCFS around 3 pm on a Friday then again a week or so later on a Saturday. My advice would be to maybe have reserved back up campsites for Fridays and Saturdays but then try the state parks- you might get lucky like we did. The exception to this is Denali- it was full, full, full. Savage River booked up within 10 minutes of going live for booking. So def plan far ahead for Denali. Lastly, we had the idea early on to book our campgrounds for one extra night more than we needed so we wouldn't have to leave by check out time. It's a pain to drive around with a trailer - you are limited in where you can go or park- so if we paid just a small amount (always less than $50), we could leave the trailer, do our days adventures, then come get it when we were good and ready to move to the next destination. This was immensely helpful- I think we did this 3 or 4 times. 

Campgrounds that we did not stay at but looked cool included Williwaw, Porcupine, Anchor Point. 

Similarly, it was all doom and gloom online about booking adventures last minute. I did book Major marine well in advance because there had a Black Friday deal but everything else- K2 flight seeing, white water rafting, Discovery train- I booked last minute. The rafting I booked 2 days in advance and the flight seeing I booked one week in advance. As long as you are flexible in your timing it seems that anything is possible. 

Click the links above for detailed posts on the places we stayed and the wonderful Alaskan adventures we had with this little guy and his big sister and brother.