North(west), to Alaska!

After last year’s very enjoyable cruise in the Galápagos Islands, we thought hard about doing another cruise this year. But we also wanted to go to Alaska, and we felt that it took more of a land experience to do that properly. Having looked at a number of options, we decided to do a two-week self-guided driving tour, starting and ending in Anchorage. We booked the trip through a tour operator, All Alaska Tours, primarily to save the hassle of making all of the hotel bookings ourselves (although this helped in other ways as well). This year, in addition to my wife Kenna and daughter Celeste, Kenna’s parents, Jim and Shirley, joined us for the trip.

Table of Contents

• Alaska Day 1: San Francisco to Anchorage
• Alaska Day 2: Anchorage to Copper Center
• Alaska Day 3: Copper Center to Kennecott
• Alaska Day 4: Kennecott and McCarthy
• Alaska Day 5: Kennecott to Valdez
• Alaska Day 6: Valdez and Mears Glacier Cruise
• Alaska Day 7: Valdez to Black Rapids
• Alaska Day 8: Black Rapids to Fairbanks
• Alaska Day 9: Fairbanks to Denali
• Alaska Day 10: Denali National Park
• Alaska Day 11: Denali to Knik River
• Alaska Day 12: Knik River to Seward
• Alaska Day 13: Exit Glacier and Seward
• Alaska Day 14: Seward to Anchorage
• Alaska Day 15: Anchorage to San Francisco

While not as exotic as last year’s trip, we have had a considerable number of people ask us about the trip, both before and afterwards. I kept a daily journal of the trip, and as I did last year, I plan on blogging the entries from my journal on a time-delayed basis.  Entries will be posted three weeks after they occurred, beginning tomorrow, July 8, with the summary of our arrival in Anchorage on June 17.  I hope you enjoy them.