Why go on an Alaska Adventure Holiday
Alaska is an adventure lover’s paradise! Alaska is filled with breathtakingly beautiful landscapes filled with sculpted mountains, often draped with blue glaciers, pristine waters dappled with ice flows, and wildlife. Oh, all of the wildlife!!!
Wildlife vastly outnumbers humans in Alaska, so you are sure to get your fill. And you’ll get to see BIG animals, too, like grizzly bears and elk, and an abundance of majestic bald eagles (on my visit, they were as common as seagulls:).
And Alaska knows how to showcase its feast for the eyes! It offers spectacular hiking and water adventures which allow you to get close to all the action.
Listen to the podcast about Milli’s super fun adventure holiday below, check out her photos and learn more about creating your fabulous Alaskan adventure holiday.
Kenai Fjords and Denali Active Travel Vacation
Alaska is HUGE, so there is no way to experience it all. So we will concentrate on two of Alaska’s most impressive landscapes, Kenai Fjords National Park and Denali, which will give you a great everview of this impressive land.
Milli went on an “Adult only” tour with my affiliate Austin Adventures.
On this small group full guided Alaska adventure tour she:
- Took a six hour narrated cruise of the glacial waters of Resurrection Bay, the Gulf of Alaska and Aialik Bay. Keep your eyes peeled for puffins, whales, sea lions, harbor seals, eagles and the epic crashing of glacial calving as you sail along the wonders of Kenai Fjords National Park.
- Hiked to explore glaciers and soak in incredible views of Exit Glacier.
- Rafted the Kenai River
- Toured Anchorage
- Took the historic Denali Star train to Telkeetna
- Take an optional flightseeing trip over Denali to get a bird’s eye view of the Alaska Range and then walk on a glacier
- Kayaked Byers Lake
- Toured Denali National Park seeking the Big 5: bears, moose, caribou, Dall sheep and wolves
- Hiked to Horseshoe Lake
- Optional Dogsledding Demo
- Hike the famous Triple Lakes Trail in Denali
Email me for the current Austin Adventures Promo Code
When to Visit Alaska for Adventure
Alaska can be chilly, even in the summer, so the best time to visit is June, July and August. During these months, you can expect pleasant but cool temperatures and no chance of snow.
You will still need to pack your thermals, but don’t forget to pack an eye mask, as this far north, the sun barely sets in the summer! I found I wore my ear warmer head band a lot.
Denali National Park Average Monthly Weather Kenai Fjords National Park Average Monthly Weather
Transportation on your Alaska Adventure
On this Austin Adventures active vacation, you fly in and out of Anchorage, AK via the Ted Stevens Achorage International Airport, ANC. Click here to see direct flights into ANC (scroll down to the bottom for a list of airlines and their direct flights).
You’ll also take the iconic Denali Star route for a three-hour scenic train ride on the famous Alaska Railroad, heading north to Talkeetna.
If you can swing it, take advantage of the optional flightseeing airplane ride above Denali to enjoy breath-taking bald eagle views of nature’s glory!
Before or after your Austin Adventures Keni Fjords and Denali adventure, consider extending your stay by exploring Alaska’s coastline on the Alaska Marine Highway! The landscape of Alaska is so rugged, and the population so small, that in lieu of more highways that would be incredibly hard to build and maintain, Alaska cleverly turned to the sea! You can book the local ferry to explore the entire western coast of Alaska!
Bill and I did this many years ago. You can hear my interview about our Alaska Cruise using the ferry system on the Zero To Travel podcast here.
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Milli got to see lots of bears on her adventure – even some grizzlies fishing for salmon from the shoreline while she was out in her raft! She also got to see lots of glaciers, but didn’t luck onto any glaciers ‘calving’, or breaking off into the sea like in the video above. Exciting!
How Difficult is this Alaska Adventure Holiday
While some of the activities can be modified for less milage, the terrain can be challenging, so you should be fairly fit. It is ranked a 3 out of 5 for difficulty.
If you choose to hike the (optional) Harding Icefield Trail, you will climb 3000′ (1000 m)! If you go the distance on the Triple Lakes Trail, you’ll be hiking nine miles (or choose to hike in three miles and return). You will be kayaking for a couple of hours and need to have core and shoulder strength, especially in case of wind.
I always recommend that you train before any adventure, so that you can most enjoy your time. If you need help figuring out how to plan your training, you can get a free initial consultation with my friend and affiliate, Becki at TrailBlazer Wellness (plus she gives my listeners a 10% discount).
Wildlife in Alaska
You will no doubt see an abundance of wildlife on your Alaska adventure!
The Big 5 animals of Alaska are bears(black and brown/grizzly), wolves, caribou, moose and Dall sheep with their imposing horns. You are likely to see all but the shy wolf. You can learn how to tell the difference between a black and brown bear here. You’ll also learn what to do if you run into a bear and you are too close.
You’ll likely see plenty of bald eagles, of course, and osprey. Along the shore, look for playful seals and otters. Look for puffins zooming about with their darling clown faces.
Out in the water, be on the lookout for humpback whales breaching, maybe even an impressive orca killer whale or gray whale.
Be sure to pack along a pair of high quality binoculars to check out any animals from a distance!
Water Sports in Alaska
In Alaska, you can enjoy the amazing landscape and abundant wildlife from the water, too! On this Austin Adventures tour, you’ll have the opportunity to kayak on a guided tour on Byers Lake in Denali State Park. Be on the lookout for resident trumpeter swans, loons and beavers. You might even paddle over pools of spawning salmon. TIP: you can find them by looking for the bears and eagles that come to feast on them!
You’ll also get to take a fun rafting trip on the Kenai River. This trip is mostly a float that has some safe but choppy rapids. This will leave you time to saok in the incredible beauty and seek out wildlife.
And as you can see from the photo, you can also take a dip in the sea, like Milli did!
Email me for the current Austin Adventures Promo Code
Austin Adventures
Austin Adventures is now part of Active Adventures out of New Zealand. They have been around for 40+years and offer some amazing tours all over the world!
You can choose from “Adult Only” to “Family Friendly” small group guided tours, so that your traveling companions fit the style you want to go in.
Austin Adventures creates especially memorable tours that always feature a ‘WOW!” moment, that is sure to be your ‘go to’ memory when you look back on your trip.
Email me for the current Austin Adventures Promo Code
Email me for the current Active Adventures Promo Code
This discount code works on their sister companies, Austin Adventures and Discovery Bicycle Tours as well.
Active Adventures is one of my favorite adventure travel tour companies. I have personally taken six of their epic, bucket list active tours, and am scheduled for my seventh later this year!
You can check out my experiences plus the shows where I have interviewed guests about their Active Adventures tours below:
New Zealand Machu Picchu Patagonia Galapagos Mont Blanc Italian Lakes Iceland Annapurna Nepal Lodge to Lodge Bhutan Dolomites Kilimanjaro Botswana South Africa Tanzania Bolivia and Peru
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