Alaska: Denali, the Kenai Fjords and the Alaska Railroad

1. Day 1: Arrive in Anchorage

   Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to your hotel in central Anchorage

   • Drive about 18 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Anchorage
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), about 10 km from downtown, and a driver meets you for the short ride to your central hotel. Plan to land by about 4 pm to meet the group; the exact time is confirmed with your final itinerary. Anchorage sits on a wedge of land between two arms of Cook Inlet, with the Chugach Mountains rising straight behind the city, and in summer the evenings stay light until very late. If you arrive early, the Anchorage Museum downtown is a good first stop for the state's art, history and Alaska Native cultures, or walk a stretch of the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail along the shore, where moose are sometimes seen in the birch woods. In the evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing: how the train day works, what to wear on the boat and how your luggage travels while we ride. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner in town.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Optional experiences

   • Anchorage Museum

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   

2. Day 2: The Alaska Railroad to Denali

   Anchorage to Denali Park by train, via Wasilla, Talkeetna and Broad Pass

   • By train
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Denali Park
   Day 2 details

   The Denali Star leaves the Anchorage depot in the morning (about 8:20 am in recent summers), and we ride in GoldStar Service, the glass-domed double-deck cars with an outdoor viewing platform, while our driver takes the luggage north by road. The line runs about 380 km and seven and a half hours, the long leg that would otherwise be a five-hour drive. It crosses the farms and lakes of the Mat-Su valley, stops at Talkeetna, then leaves the highway to follow the Susitna River into country with no road beside the track. On clear days Denali shows to the west across the valley. Lunch is in the dining car. The train climbs to Broad Pass, crosses Hurricane Gulch on a high steel bridge and drops into the Nenana valley, reaching Denali Park in mid-afternoon (about 3:40 pm). Our vehicle meets us at the station for the short ride to the hotel near the park entrance, and the evening is free.

   Included

   • The Alaska Railroad Denali Star from Anchorage to Denali in GoldStar Service
   • Lunch in the dining car
   • Transfers to the Anchorage depot and from Denali station to the hotel

   Free time: Evening free near the park entrance

   Activity: About 7.5 hours on the train, with room to walk between cars and stand on the outdoor platform.

3. Day 3: Deep into Denali National Park

   The Denali park road by bus, then the park entrance area

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Denali Park
   Day 3 details

   We are on one of the first park buses of the morning, when animals are moving and the light is low, so it is an early start; we confirm the departure time with your final itinerary. Private cars may only drive the first 15 miles of the 92-mile park road, so the park's own buses are the way in. Our Tundra Wilderness Tour has a naturalist driver who stops for whatever shows: grizzly bears, moose, caribou, Dall sheep high on the slopes and, now and then, wolves. Past Savage River the road turns to gravel and runs over open tundra and braided river valleys, with the Alaska Range along the southern skyline. Since 2021 the buses have turned at East Fork, about mile 43, while a bridge is built across the Pretty Rocks landslide; if the road beyond has reopened for your dates, we go further. A packed lunch rides with us. Back at the entrance by early afternoon, choose between the park's sled dog kennels, where rangers show the dogs that patrol Denali in winter, or a hike. Dinner together tonight.

   Included

   • Denali National Park entrance fee
   • Tundra Wilderness Tour on the park road with a naturalist driver
   • Packed lunch on the bus
   • Sled dog kennels demonstration with a park ranger
   • Dinner together

   Optional experiences

   • Rafting on the Nenana River

   Easier option: The sled dog kennels demonstration, then a short walk on the Horseshoe Lake trail or a quiet afternoon at the hotel.

   More active option: Hike the Mount Healy Overlook trail with your guide: about 4.3 km each way and about 500 m of climb to a view over the Nenana valley and the Alaska Range.

   Activity: About 5 hours on the bus on a gravel road, with stops. Bring binoculars and a warm layer.

4. Day 4: Down the Parks Highway to Talkeetna

   Denali Park to Talkeetna on the Parks Highway, through Broad Pass and Denali State Park

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Talkeetna
   Day 4 details

   A slower morning, then we drive south about 245 km and three hours on the Parks Highway, the road side of the same corridor the train followed, with different views from the highway. We cross Broad Pass, the low gap in the Alaska Range where the country opens into tundra and small lakes, then follow the Chulitna River down into Denali State Park. If the mountain is out, we stop at the Denali Viewpoint South pull-out, which faces Denali and its glaciers across the Chulitna valley. Talkeetna sits at the end of a 14-mile spur road, where the Susitna, Chulitna and Talkeetna rivers meet. We arrive for lunch, then your guide walks you through the old town centre of log cabins and false-front stores, down to the river viewpoint and past the ranger station where Denali climbers register before their expeditions. If the weather is clear, this is the afternoon for an optional flightseeing trip over the mountain. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Drive from Denali Park to Talkeetna with your guide
   • Denali Viewpoint South, when the mountain is out
   • Lunch in Talkeetna
   • Talkeetna town walk with your guide

   Optional experiences

   • Flightseeing over Denali from Talkeetna, with or without a glacier landing (about USD 220 to 630 per person on recent operator pages), weather permitting

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free after the town walk

   

5. Day 5: Alaska Native cultures and Turnagain Arm

   Talkeetna to the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, then along Turnagain Arm to Girdwood

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Girdwood
   Day 5 details

   We leave Talkeetna after breakfast and drive about two hours south to the Alaska Native Heritage Center on Anchorage's eastern edge. Inside, Alaska Native hosts share dance, song and stories; outside, a path around a small lake leads past full-size village sites, each built by and for a different group of Alaska's Indigenous cultures. We spend about two and a half hours here, then have lunch together in the city. In the afternoon the Seward Highway runs south along Turnagain Arm, named on James Cook's 1778 voyage when his ships had to turn back. We stop at Beluga Point to scan the water for the white whales that sometimes follow the tide in, and the cliffs above for Dall sheep. Girdwood, a small mountain town in a valley on the arm's north shore, is ours by mid-afternoon. We ride the Alyeska Aerial Tram to its upper station at about 700 m for the view over hanging glaciers and the arm, and the evening is free.

   Included

   • Alaska Native Heritage Center, Anchorage
   • Lunch in Anchorage
   • Beluga Point on Turnagain Arm
   • Alyeska Aerial Tram, Girdwood

   Free time: Evening free in Girdwood

   

6. Day 6: Exit Glacier and on to Seward

   Girdwood to Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park, then Seward

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Seward
   Day 6 details

   The morning is free in Girdwood: sleep in, have a coffee in the village, or walk the Winner Creek Trail with your guide, a boardwalk and forest path through tall spruce and hemlock. We leave late morning and drive south through Turnagain Pass and past the long lakes at Moose Pass, about two hours on the Seward Highway, with a lunch stop on the way. Just before Seward we turn up the valley to Exit Glacier, the part of Kenai Fjords National Park you can reach by road. Signs along the approach mark where the ice stood in past years, so you see for yourself how far it has pulled back. Your guide leads the walk on the Glacier View Loop, a short accessible trail, or the keen can climb the first section of the Harding Icefield Trail to a turnaround the guide sets. We reach Seward, at the head of Resurrection Bay, in the late afternoon, and dinner tonight is together at a local seafood restaurant, with Alaska salmon and halibut on the menu.

   Included

   • Exit Glacier walk with your guide, Kenai Fjords National Park
   • Dinner together in Seward

   Optional experiences

   • Winner Creek Trail walk with your guide in the free morning, at no extra cost

   Easier option: The Glacier View Loop, a short accessible trail to a view of the glacier.

   More active option: The first section of the Harding Icefield Trail, steep and rocky, with the turnaround set by your guide. The full trail is about 13 km (8 miles) return and is not part of this trip.

   Free time: Morning free in Girdwood

7. Day 7: Kenai Fjords National Park by boat

   Seward, Resurrection Bay and Aialik Bay

   • By boat
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Seward
   Day 7 details

   Start at the Alaska SeaLife Center on the Seward waterfront when it opens: an aquarium and research centre where you watch Steller sea lions, harbour seals and puffins above and below the water, and hear about the centre's work rescuing stranded marine mammals. Late morning we board a six-hour cruise into Kenai Fjords National Park. The boat runs the length of Resurrection Bay, past sea stacks and seabird cliffs, then round Aialik Cape into Aialik Bay to the face of a tidewater glacier, where the captain idles the engines so you can hear the ice crack and fall. Watch for humpback whales, orcas, Dall's porpoises, sea otters, sea lions hauled out on the rocks and puffins on the cliffs. Lunch is served on board. If the sea outside the bay is rough, the captain keeps to sheltered water and the route changes on the day. We are back in Seward in the early evening, which is yours.

   Included

   • Alaska SeaLife Center, Seward
   • Six-hour Kenai Fjords National Park cruise to a tidewater glacier
   • Lunch on board

   Free time: Evening free in Seward

   Activity: About 6 hours on the boat, with indoor seating and open decks. Bring a warm hat, gloves and seasickness tablets if you need them.

8. Day 8: Portage, Turnagain Arm and home

   Seward to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center at Portage, then along Turnagain Arm to Anchorage airport

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   We leave Seward after breakfast and drive north on the Seward Highway past Moose Pass and over Turnagain Pass, where the morning light falls on the other side of the valleys from the way we came. At Portage, at the head of Turnagain Arm, we stop for about an hour at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, a sanctuary for orphaned and injured animals that cannot return to the wild. Paths and a loop road lead past brown and black bears, moose, musk oxen, caribou and wood bison, a good back-up if the park road was quiet. Then we follow the arm one last time, with a last look for belugas, to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, arriving at about 1 pm. Driving is about 215 km in all, under three hours. Book a flight leaving after about 3 pm; if you are staying on, we drop you downtown instead. Your guide sees you to the airport and checks your flight before saying goodbye.

   Included

   • Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, Portage
   • Drop-off at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) or downtown Anchorage

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 3 pm.

Wildlife and weather: Summer days are usually about 10 to 20 °C with rain possible on any day, and it is colder on the water near the glaciers. June has the longest light and the most mosquitoes; salmon run in July and August, and the Denali tundra turns red and gold from late August. The mountain itself is often hidden in cloud, and wildlife on the park road and the boat is likely but never certain.

• Anchorage1 night
• Denali Park2 nights
• Talkeetna1 night
• Girdwood1 night
• Seward2 nights