April 22, 2025 • 25 mins
Jennie shares her advice for travelers on a parks quest hoping to visit all 8 of Alaska's National Parks based on her experience as a traveler, guide and planning custom itineraries for many clients on a quest to visit all the national parks.
Get Jennie's brand new on demand workshop - How to Visit All 8 of Alaska's National Parks (30% off through Friday 4/25 with code PARKS30)
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jennie Flaming (00:00):
Jennie, welcome to the Alaska uncovered podcast
(00:08):
with me, your host, JennieThwing Flaming, my occasional co
host and full time husband,Jennie and I bring you accurate,
helpful and entertaininginformation about Alaska, travel
and life in Alaska, before westart today's show, we'd like to
take a moment to thank ourPatreon subscribers for your
(00:30):
support and Making this podcastpossible. Enjoy the show.
Hi everyone. It's Jennie. It isour second episode this week of
national parks week, and I am soexcited about today's episode I
(00:55):
have been working for so long onpulling together this workshop
about how to visit all eight ofAlaska's national parks. So I'll
tell you about it today. I'malso going to give you some
highlights of that, because youmy listeners, I want to make
sure that you get at least someof this for free. So we'll talk
(01:19):
more about that in a moment. Thereason that I have put this
together is that I have had somany clients in my planning
business who have come to mebecause they're independent
travelers, and they got reallyfrustrated trying to figure out
Alaska, and specifically peoplegot really frustrated trying to
(01:42):
figure out how to visit alleight Alaska National Parks. So
today I am going to give you thehighlights of exactly how to do
that. If you want more detail,if you are planning a trip to
Alaska's national parks, then mynew workshop is going to be for
you. So before I dive into thiscontent, want to briefly tell
(02:06):
you what that is, how much itcosts, how you can get in on it.
So it is a slightly longer thanan hour on demand workshop, so
you can watch it on YouTube. Youdon't need to create an account
anywhere, anything like that.
You just buy it in my onlineshop, and then you get a PDF
that will direct you to whereyou can watch the workshop, and
(02:30):
it goes into lots of depth abouteach National Park. Kind of some
things to consider, in general,for a trip to Alaska's national
parks, how to budget for it, howto kind of evaluate the
different types of options. Andwe're going to talk a little bit
(02:50):
about that in this episode aswell. So this is a brand new
workshop. I've been pulling ittogether based on, of course, my
own travels in Alaska's parks,but also the experiences that
I've had in the last three yearshelping clients plan these trips
as well. And later this week,you'll get to hear from Al, who
(03:11):
was the first person I helpedplan a trip to all of Alaska's
national parks, and he's goingto talk about he his trip. He
actually did. Decided to splitit into several trips. So we're
going to talk all about thathere this week as well. But for
today, this episode is going tofocus on how to make this work.
(03:34):
Alright? So if you want to getthis workshop, there is a link
in the show notes. You can alsojust go to my online shop, which
is shop dot ordinary, dashadventures.com the workshop is
$17 but this week only throughFriday night, at midnight,
(03:57):
Pacific time, you can get it for30% off, which is pretty
awesome. So there's a code forthat, which is parks 30. And if
you follow the link in the shownotes, it'll take you straight
there without having to rememberthe code. But if you go find it,
you need to remember the code,then you can enter that parks
(04:18):
30. Okay, so that is just forthis week, but the workshop will
be available all the time, andit also includes in the PDF, it
has my full resource list, so ithas all the links to free
information online, as well assome of the outfitters and
(04:38):
lodges and National Park vendorsand other concessionaires, all
different people who operate thekinds of things that we're going
to talk about today and that wetalk about in the workshop. So
again today, I'm basically goingto give you a preview, because
I'm so grateful to. All of youfor listening. I want to make
(05:00):
sure everyone has access to thisinformation. But if you are
planning one of these trips, youwant to pick up this workshop at
the end. I'll tell you again howto get it and how to save during
National Parks week throughFriday night. Okay, so if you
are planning one of these trips,what do you do? Let's dive into
(05:22):
it. So first of all, the mostimportant thing for anyone going
to any Alaska National Park,even if you're not visiting all
of them, the most importantthing you need to know is that
Alaska parks are different, andif you've done any research, you
may have already started tofigure that out, or at least
(05:43):
suspect that that was the case.
Many of the parks are remote.
There are only three that youcan drive to, really, it's only
two because for Ringel st Elias,you can't take most rental cars
there. So for visitors, I feellike that one is kind of a tough
(06:06):
call between driving and flying.
We talk about that in more depthin the workshop, but that's a
tough decision. So that's therest are all you're going to be
flying or taking a boat, andreally that's only Glacier Bay
the rest you're going to beflying to. And I feel like
(06:28):
counting Kenai Fjords and Denalias road parks is still a little
iffy, because honestly, like,you need to get out into the
park and away from the road inorder to really experience it.
So But technically, you can getthere with a rental car. You
don't have to fly in. So that isreally nice compared to the
(06:52):
others, all right, so we talkedabout that. Also talk about more
details for each park. One thingthat I really want to emphasize
here today is how important thehuman story is in the national
parks. We talked about that inyesterday's episode where you
heard Jay share about thatbetter than I can. So I won't
(07:14):
repeat that, but I just want tosay that all of these parks are
native land, all of them havebeen protected and treasured by
indigenous people for 1000s ofyears before, before settlers
and visitors came in to care forthese lands, or in some cases,
(07:37):
not care for them. But Denalihas been protect protected for a
long time. Most of Alaska'sparks were created in 1980 which
is another story that we'regonna tell sometime, and we've
touched on in other episodes,but it's a little too far off
the topic for what today isabout, which is really, how do
(07:58):
you get to these parks? Sothat's important. Each park has
its own indigenous history, bothpast and present. Today,
indigenous culture and Alaska,native culture is a big part of
every national park, moreobviously than it is in some
(08:21):
parks, I in the in the lower 48so this is something that's
really different. Andyesterday's episode, we talked
about this in more depth. Butit's also a wonderful thing
about visiting Alaska parks isthe opportunity to get to know
the people who live there now,as well as about people who've
(08:42):
lived there in the past.
Alaska's national parks are allamazing. There are some serious
challenges with trying to visitall eight of them, so I think
what I'll do for today just tokind of keep this manageable and
not give too much away, butstill be able to help you is to
(09:05):
talk about the different groupsof parks and how to visit them.
I I organize Alaska's nationalparks really into four groups.
There's eight parks. I put themin four groups. So let's dive
into that, and then I'll tellyou a little bit about each one
in detail. So again, it's verychallenging and hectic to put
(09:28):
this all into one trip. You candefinitely do it if you've got
lots of tolerance forcomplicated logistics, lots of
time and a big budget, in myopinion, to visit all eight of
Alaska's national parks, you inone trip. You need a month and
the you can technically do it inlike three weeks, not including
(09:51):
your travel days, but thatreally leaves you no margin for
error if anything Disrupt. Up toyour trip with weather and small
planes, which I'm just gonnatell you, that's very likely,
especially if you do lots ofsmall plane flights, you have to
be ready for delays. It takes afull day to get between each
(10:14):
park. So I would not try to dothis in less than a month, it's
going to and even in a month,it's going to feel quite
frantic, but that would give youa few down days in between parks
and make it slightly lessrushed. Again, if you can split
it into multiple trips. Andtoday I'm going to talk about
(10:37):
ways in which I recommend doingthat, but I'm gonna go over the
parks first, then I'll talk alittle bit about how I recommend
splitting them up into differenttrips. Okay, so let's start with
the Arctic parks. So that'sGates of the Arctic and Kobuk
Valley for most people, Irecommend visiting those two
(11:00):
parks together. There's two waysto do that. One is to do a
flight scene tour from Kotzebuethat goes into and you get to go
onto the ground, weatherpermitting in both parks. So
that's very cool. The other wayis to go to one of the two
remote fly in lodges that areall inclusive, that cater to
(11:22):
national parks chasers, and youwould depart from Fairbanks for
both of those. Those aremultiple days, and you get to
visit both parks. So those arereally the two ways to do Gates
of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley,unless you are up for doing a
back country adventure, and youhave a very good mosquito net
(11:45):
and excellent rain gear. And inthat situation, you'd be with a
guide and sleeping in a tentthere. There is a company that
offers a trip that goes to bothparks, but many of them, you
know, when you're on the groundand you're pack rafting or
you're backpacking and you'renot in the air, you still have
(12:08):
to fly between the two parks,and that is just kind of
complicated for most people topull off. But there is a way to
do it. So those are your optionsfor the Arctic parks, and then
the next group of parks I callthe bear parks. So that's cat my
and Lake Clark. Again. You canvisit those together if you want
(12:31):
to go to the farm Lodge, whichis also a remote fly in all
inclusive Lodge, which caters topeople who are doing parks
quests like you. It's also agreat way to just go to Lake
Clark and Katmai, even if you'renot going into all the others.
It's an amazing property. It'svery expensive, but people
(12:54):
absolutely love it. It's justincredible. So that's one way.
The other way is to do a daytrip flight scene from Anchorage
that is significantly lessexpensive, but you get to be on
the ground in the park forseveral hours, so that's another
option. And then you can also dothat from Homer. So you could,
(13:17):
you could be down in Homer andgo over from there. It doesn't
really matter. I'd say whichevertown is on your itinerary is the
right one to do. And then, ofcourse, you can also do back
country adventures in both ofthose parks as well. One other
thing that I wanted to touch onbriefly is Brooks Lodge and
(13:40):
Brooks camp in Katmai, as wellas Port Alsworth in Lake Clark.
So with Katmai to to stay in thelodge, you have to win a lottery
two years ahead of time, or youcan camp. The camping sells out
like immediately when it goes upfor sale in early January. So
you've got to get right on that.
But camping is like $20 a night,and the lodge is like $1,000 a
(14:04):
night. So you know, you couldkind of decide how much you want
to camp with bears. I've doneit. I've talked about it on this
podcast before. I talk about inthe workshop, that's a whole
nother thing to talk about adifferent time. And then in Lake
Clark, you can also camp or geta cabin in Port Ellsworth. And
(14:28):
there are some trails that youcan take in the park from the
Village of Port Ellsworth. Soyou still have to fly there, but
that is different from a backcountry adventure and not as
expensive as a wonderful, allinclusive, full experience like
the farm lodge or the otherlodges I mentioned that are up
(14:51):
further north. All right, sothat brings us through the Arc
de par. Bear Arctic parks andthe bear parks, I'm trying to do
this in the order of hardest andmost expensive, most expensive
to I don't want to say easiest,because none of them are easy,
but easier and less expensive.
(15:14):
Alaska is an expensivedestination, as you know, these
four remote parks we've justtalked about are going to be
they're going to be 1000s ofdollars a person to visit.
That's just the way it's goingto be. Day Trip. Flight scene is
the most affordable way. Butthat's still going to be 1000s
(15:36):
of dollars a person once you addeverything up. So just keep that
in mind. All right, let'stransition to the others. So the
next two I call the unsungheroes, and they are not close
to each other. Well, they'resort of close to each other, um,
but unlike the others Imentioned, these ones don't
(15:59):
necessarily make sense to visittogether, and these are my two
personal favorites. And I alsowant to mention that both in the
workshop and in today's episode,I'm really focusing on folks who
are going to visit all theparks, or as many parks as
possible. Glacier Bay and Denaliand Kenai Fjords are ones that
(16:22):
you can visit on Alaska cruisesor Alaska cruise tours. That's
not really what we're focusingon today. We have other episodes
about that that's much lesscomplicated because you have
someone else figuring out thelogistics, at least for those
three parks. So that's why we'renot diving into that too much
(16:45):
today. Okay, so let's start withRingel st, Elias. Ringo st,
Elias is an incredible Park.
Almost everyone who goes thereputs it in their top five in the
whole country. It's a reallywonderful, wonderful place. The
big thing with Rangel st Eliasis you're going to have to
decide whether you're going todrive there, getting a more
(17:08):
expensive rental car that youcan take on the road, or whether
you're going to fly there,either from Anchorage or from
Chitna. And the reason that youmight want to consider flying
from Chetna is that you candrive to Chitna in any rental
car. You can also take a vanshuttle from Anchorage to
(17:31):
McCarthy. So we talk about moreof those logistics in the
workshop, but those arebasically your options. It's a
surprisingly tough decision,because there's no super easy,
straightforward answer to that.
It kind of depends on yoursituation, but those are your
(17:52):
options for Rangel st Elias,okay, Unsung Hero number two,
Glacier Bay National Park, whichI'm going to just show my hand
and tell you, is my favoritepark in Alaska. It's wonderful
if you visit it on a cruiseship, but I'm really talking
about if you go on your own andspend several days there, you
(18:15):
will feel like you are having aton of solitude. It never makes
the list of least visited parksbecause there are 1000s and
1000s of cruise ship visitorswho come, but you won't see them
when you are there, stayingseveral days in the park on your
own Glacier Bay is amazingthings to be aware of there. I'd
(18:37):
really recommend doing that parkby itself, or in combination
with a trip to Juneau, thatmakes an amazing trip for most
people, it will take just aslong to get from Glacier Bay to
any of the other parks as to getto the other parks from home. So
if possible, you want to do thisone by itself, unless you're
(18:59):
spending the whole summer or youjust are cool with a lot of
logistics. I know that soundscrazy, but you will, yeah, once
you start digging into it andlooking at flight schedules,
you'll be like, what, how? Howlong does it take? Gonna take to
get to Anchorage from there? Um,so you have a couple options,
(19:19):
other than cruise ships. Ofcourse, you can take the Alaska
State ferry this year. It's twodays a week that it's going into
Gustavus, which is 10 miles fromthe park. And you can also fly
between Juneau and Gustavusmultiple times a day. Watch out
in Gustavus, if you aren'tstaying at Glacier Bay Lodge,
(19:43):
just make sure that you have away to get around, because
you're not going to have a carthere, and there's no like ride
share services in Gustavus andGlacier Bay, all right, so this
brings us to our last two parks.
The road parks, as I call them,Kenai Fjords National Park and
(20:04):
Denali. So for both of these,you know, we have other episodes
about Seward in great detail. Ithink what's important for Kenai
Fjords is this is a great placeto do a hike, whether that's at
exit glacier, or you're up forall the way up Hardy, nice
field, or whether, you know, youdo a more chill hike. But those
(20:28):
are, those are wonderful ones.
You definitely want to do theboat tour in the park. You
definitely need seasicknessmedication for that. And then
finally, Denali. So I'm notgoing to talk about Denali in
too much detail during thisepisode, because we have several
other episodes about visitingDenali on your own, January 2024
(20:49):
that episode that we did kind ofhas all my best advice about
Denali, along with what's in theworkshop, but it's really just
keep in mind that it's very,very busy, and lots of people
are on group tours. So I thinkI'll just mention that you can
(21:11):
kind of pair Denali and KenaiFjords, really, with any other
parks, because you'll be flyingthrough Fairbanks or anchorage
anyway, and so you'll already beon the road system. Those ones
go well together. They go prettywell with ringelsen, Elias as
well. You know that's going tobe more driving or flying, but
(21:34):
again, you're going to bestarting from Anchorage or
Fairbanks, probably anchoragefor Rangel st Elias. So those
ones all go really welltogether. Beyond that, like I
said, I promised I'd finish upwith what parks go well
together. So Glacier Bay,ideally, is a standalone one. If
(21:55):
you are going to combine it withanother, it doesn't really
matter which one it is, becauseyou're going to have to fly to
Juneau and then Anchorage to getup there, I would recommend, if
you are doing all these parks inone trip, do Glacier Bay first
or last. Otherwise, you'll bedoing a lot of backtracking
(22:16):
flying, and that's never anyfun. So yeah. And so then that
leaves us with the other fourremote ones. I talked about how,
like Clark and cat might go welltogether. I talked about how
gates and COVID Valley go reallywell together. So you can kind
of mix and match those differentoptions for what works best for
(22:39):
you and your travel crew. Sobefore I wrap up this episode,
just want to say again, I'm soexcited about my new visiting
all the parks workshop and allthe resources I pulled together
for you. It's everything I'velearned from visiting these
parks for the last 25 years,along with planning trips to the
(23:01):
parks for folks in the lastthree years. So you can follow
the link in the show notes, youcan go straight to shop. Dot
ordinary, dash adventures.com,and you'll find it. It's called
visiting all eight AlaskaNational Parks, and you'll be
able to watch the on demandworkshop and get that list of
(23:24):
resources and links. And then,in addition to that, this week,
until Friday night, you can save30% it's only $17 to start with,
and you can save another 30%with the code parks 30 so thank
you so much for being here.
(23:47):
Thank you for loving Alaska'snational parks like I do. Please
be kind this summer to staff.
This is always really important.
These are remote locations. Youknow, you're away from home for
months and months, really toughplaces to work, also beautiful
(24:08):
places to work. And right now,our public servants are really
facing a tremendous amount ofstress and kind of an impossible
job to continue caring for theselands while they are under such
an enormous threat from currentcuts. So please be kind and
encouraging. Thank people forbeing part of the National Park
(24:31):
Service when you see them,whether it's in Alaska or any
other park. And once again,because it's this week, I am
looking forward to see youtomorrow, or being in your ears
tomorrow. Have a great day. Seeyou tomorrow.
Unknown (24:59):
You.
Jennie, welcome to the Alaska uncovered podcast
(00:08):
with me, your host, JennieThwing Flaming, my occasional co
host and full time husband,Jennie and I bring you accurate,
helpful and entertaininginformation about Alaska, travel
and life in Alaska, before westart today's show, we'd like to
take a moment to thank ourPatreon subscribers for your
(00:30):
support and Making this podcastpossible. Enjoy the show.
Hi everyone. It's Jennie. It isour second episode this week of
national parks week, and I am soexcited about today's episode I
(00:55):
have been working for so long onpulling together this workshop
about how to visit all eight ofAlaska's national parks. So I'll
tell you about it today. I'malso going to give you some
highlights of that, because youmy listeners, I want to make
sure that you get at least someof this for free. So we'll talk
(01:19):
more about that in a moment. Thereason that I have put this
together is that I have had somany clients in my planning
business who have come to mebecause they're independent
travelers, and they got reallyfrustrated trying to figure out
Alaska, and specifically peoplegot really frustrated trying to
(01:42):
figure out how to visit alleight Alaska National Parks. So
today I am going to give you thehighlights of exactly how to do
that. If you want more detail,if you are planning a trip to
Alaska's national parks, then mynew workshop is going to be for
you. So before I dive into thiscontent, want to briefly tell
(02:06):
you what that is, how much itcosts, how you can get in on it.
So it is a slightly longer thanan hour on demand workshop, so
you can watch it on YouTube. Youdon't need to create an account
anywhere, anything like that.
You just buy it in my onlineshop, and then you get a PDF
that will direct you to whereyou can watch the workshop, and
(02:30):
it goes into lots of depth abouteach National Park. Kind of some
things to consider, in general,for a trip to Alaska's national
parks, how to budget for it, howto kind of evaluate the
different types of options. Andwe're going to talk a little bit
(02:50):
about that in this episode aswell. So this is a brand new
workshop. I've been pulling ittogether based on, of course, my
own travels in Alaska's parks,but also the experiences that
I've had in the last three yearshelping clients plan these trips
as well. And later this week,you'll get to hear from Al, who
(03:11):
was the first person I helpedplan a trip to all of Alaska's
national parks, and he's goingto talk about he his trip. He
actually did. Decided to splitit into several trips. So we're
going to talk all about thathere this week as well. But for
today, this episode is going tofocus on how to make this work.
(03:34):
Alright? So if you want to getthis workshop, there is a link
in the show notes. You can alsojust go to my online shop, which
is shop dot ordinary, dashadventures.com the workshop is
$17 but this week only throughFriday night, at midnight,
(03:57):
Pacific time, you can get it for30% off, which is pretty
awesome. So there's a code forthat, which is parks 30. And if
you follow the link in the shownotes, it'll take you straight
there without having to rememberthe code. But if you go find it,
you need to remember the code,then you can enter that parks
(04:18):
30. Okay, so that is just forthis week, but the workshop will
be available all the time, andit also includes in the PDF, it
has my full resource list, so ithas all the links to free
information online, as well assome of the outfitters and
(04:38):
lodges and National Park vendorsand other concessionaires, all
different people who operate thekinds of things that we're going
to talk about today and that wetalk about in the workshop. So
again today, I'm basically goingto give you a preview, because
I'm so grateful to. All of youfor listening. I want to make
(05:00):
sure everyone has access to thisinformation. But if you are
planning one of these trips, youwant to pick up this workshop at
the end. I'll tell you again howto get it and how to save during
National Parks week throughFriday night. Okay, so if you
are planning one of these trips,what do you do? Let's dive into
(05:22):
it. So first of all, the mostimportant thing for anyone going
to any Alaska National Park,even if you're not visiting all
of them, the most importantthing you need to know is that
Alaska parks are different, andif you've done any research, you
may have already started tofigure that out, or at least
(05:43):
suspect that that was the case.
Many of the parks are remote.
There are only three that youcan drive to, really, it's only
two because for Ringel st Elias,you can't take most rental cars
there. So for visitors, I feellike that one is kind of a tough
(06:06):
call between driving and flying.
We talk about that in more depthin the workshop, but that's a
tough decision. So that's therest are all you're going to be
flying or taking a boat, andreally that's only Glacier Bay
the rest you're going to beflying to. And I feel like
(06:28):
counting Kenai Fjords and Denalias road parks is still a little
iffy, because honestly, like,you need to get out into the
park and away from the road inorder to really experience it.
So But technically, you can getthere with a rental car. You
don't have to fly in. So that isreally nice compared to the
(06:52):
others, all right, so we talkedabout that. Also talk about more
details for each park. One thingthat I really want to emphasize
here today is how important thehuman story is in the national
parks. We talked about that inyesterday's episode where you
heard Jay share about thatbetter than I can. So I won't
(07:14):
repeat that, but I just want tosay that all of these parks are
native land, all of them havebeen protected and treasured by
indigenous people for 1000s ofyears before, before settlers
and visitors came in to care forthese lands, or in some cases,
(07:37):
not care for them. But Denalihas been protect protected for a
long time. Most of Alaska'sparks were created in 1980 which
is another story that we'regonna tell sometime, and we've
touched on in other episodes,but it's a little too far off
the topic for what today isabout, which is really, how do
(07:58):
you get to these parks? Sothat's important. Each park has
its own indigenous history, bothpast and present. Today,
indigenous culture and Alaska,native culture is a big part of
every national park, moreobviously than it is in some
(08:21):
parks, I in the in the lower 48so this is something that's
really different. Andyesterday's episode, we talked
about this in more depth. Butit's also a wonderful thing
about visiting Alaska parks isthe opportunity to get to know
the people who live there now,as well as about people who've
(08:42):
lived there in the past.
Alaska's national parks are allamazing. There are some serious
challenges with trying to visitall eight of them, so I think
what I'll do for today just tokind of keep this manageable and
not give too much away, butstill be able to help you is to
(09:05):
talk about the different groupsof parks and how to visit them.
I I organize Alaska's nationalparks really into four groups.
There's eight parks. I put themin four groups. So let's dive
into that, and then I'll tellyou a little bit about each one
in detail. So again, it's verychallenging and hectic to put
(09:28):
this all into one trip. You candefinitely do it if you've got
lots of tolerance forcomplicated logistics, lots of
time and a big budget, in myopinion, to visit all eight of
Alaska's national parks, you inone trip. You need a month and
the you can technically do it inlike three weeks, not including
(09:51):
your travel days, but thatreally leaves you no margin for
error if anything Disrupt. Up toyour trip with weather and small
planes, which I'm just gonnatell you, that's very likely,
especially if you do lots ofsmall plane flights, you have to
be ready for delays. It takes afull day to get between each
(10:14):
park. So I would not try to dothis in less than a month, it's
going to and even in a month,it's going to feel quite
frantic, but that would give youa few down days in between parks
and make it slightly lessrushed. Again, if you can split
it into multiple trips. Andtoday I'm going to talk about
(10:37):
ways in which I recommend doingthat, but I'm gonna go over the
parks first, then I'll talk alittle bit about how I recommend
splitting them up into differenttrips. Okay, so let's start with
the Arctic parks. So that'sGates of the Arctic and Kobuk
Valley for most people, Irecommend visiting those two
(11:00):
parks together. There's two waysto do that. One is to do a
flight scene tour from Kotzebuethat goes into and you get to go
onto the ground, weatherpermitting in both parks. So
that's very cool. The other wayis to go to one of the two
remote fly in lodges that areall inclusive, that cater to
(11:22):
national parks chasers, and youwould depart from Fairbanks for
both of those. Those aremultiple days, and you get to
visit both parks. So those arereally the two ways to do Gates
of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley,unless you are up for doing a
back country adventure, and youhave a very good mosquito net
(11:45):
and excellent rain gear. And inthat situation, you'd be with a
guide and sleeping in a tentthere. There is a company that
offers a trip that goes to bothparks, but many of them, you
know, when you're on the groundand you're pack rafting or
you're backpacking and you'renot in the air, you still have
(12:08):
to fly between the two parks,and that is just kind of
complicated for most people topull off. But there is a way to
do it. So those are your optionsfor the Arctic parks, and then
the next group of parks I callthe bear parks. So that's cat my
and Lake Clark. Again. You canvisit those together if you want
(12:31):
to go to the farm Lodge, whichis also a remote fly in all
inclusive Lodge, which caters topeople who are doing parks
quests like you. It's also agreat way to just go to Lake
Clark and Katmai, even if you'renot going into all the others.
It's an amazing property. It'svery expensive, but people
(12:54):
absolutely love it. It's justincredible. So that's one way.
The other way is to do a daytrip flight scene from Anchorage
that is significantly lessexpensive, but you get to be on
the ground in the park forseveral hours, so that's another
option. And then you can also dothat from Homer. So you could,
(13:17):
you could be down in Homer andgo over from there. It doesn't
really matter. I'd say whichevertown is on your itinerary is the
right one to do. And then, ofcourse, you can also do back
country adventures in both ofthose parks as well. One other
thing that I wanted to touch onbriefly is Brooks Lodge and
(13:40):
Brooks camp in Katmai, as wellas Port Alsworth in Lake Clark.
So with Katmai to to stay in thelodge, you have to win a lottery
two years ahead of time, or youcan camp. The camping sells out
like immediately when it goes upfor sale in early January. So
you've got to get right on that.
But camping is like $20 a night,and the lodge is like $1,000 a
(14:04):
night. So you know, you couldkind of decide how much you want
to camp with bears. I've doneit. I've talked about it on this
podcast before. I talk about inthe workshop, that's a whole
nother thing to talk about adifferent time. And then in Lake
Clark, you can also camp or geta cabin in Port Ellsworth. And
(14:28):
there are some trails that youcan take in the park from the
Village of Port Ellsworth. Soyou still have to fly there, but
that is different from a backcountry adventure and not as
expensive as a wonderful, allinclusive, full experience like
the farm lodge or the otherlodges I mentioned that are up
(14:51):
further north. All right, sothat brings us through the Arc
de par. Bear Arctic parks andthe bear parks, I'm trying to do
this in the order of hardest andmost expensive, most expensive
to I don't want to say easiest,because none of them are easy,
but easier and less expensive.
(15:14):
Alaska is an expensivedestination, as you know, these
four remote parks we've justtalked about are going to be
they're going to be 1000s ofdollars a person to visit.
That's just the way it's goingto be. Day Trip. Flight scene is
the most affordable way. Butthat's still going to be 1000s
(15:36):
of dollars a person once you addeverything up. So just keep that
in mind. All right, let'stransition to the others. So the
next two I call the unsungheroes, and they are not close
to each other. Well, they'resort of close to each other, um,
but unlike the others Imentioned, these ones don't
(15:59):
necessarily make sense to visittogether, and these are my two
personal favorites. And I alsowant to mention that both in the
workshop and in today's episode,I'm really focusing on folks who
are going to visit all theparks, or as many parks as
possible. Glacier Bay and Denaliand Kenai Fjords are ones that
(16:22):
you can visit on Alaska cruisesor Alaska cruise tours. That's
not really what we're focusingon today. We have other episodes
about that that's much lesscomplicated because you have
someone else figuring out thelogistics, at least for those
three parks. So that's why we'renot diving into that too much
(16:45):
today. Okay, so let's start withRingel st, Elias. Ringo st,
Elias is an incredible Park.
Almost everyone who goes thereputs it in their top five in the
whole country. It's a reallywonderful, wonderful place. The
big thing with Rangel st Eliasis you're going to have to
decide whether you're going todrive there, getting a more
(17:08):
expensive rental car that youcan take on the road, or whether
you're going to fly there,either from Anchorage or from
Chitna. And the reason that youmight want to consider flying
from Chetna is that you candrive to Chitna in any rental
car. You can also take a vanshuttle from Anchorage to
(17:31):
McCarthy. So we talk about moreof those logistics in the
workshop, but those arebasically your options. It's a
surprisingly tough decision,because there's no super easy,
straightforward answer to that.
It kind of depends on yoursituation, but those are your
(17:52):
options for Rangel st Elias,okay, Unsung Hero number two,
Glacier Bay National Park, whichI'm going to just show my hand
and tell you, is my favoritepark in Alaska. It's wonderful
if you visit it on a cruiseship, but I'm really talking
about if you go on your own andspend several days there, you
(18:15):
will feel like you are having aton of solitude. It never makes
the list of least visited parksbecause there are 1000s and
1000s of cruise ship visitorswho come, but you won't see them
when you are there, stayingseveral days in the park on your
own Glacier Bay is amazingthings to be aware of there. I'd
(18:37):
really recommend doing that parkby itself, or in combination
with a trip to Juneau, thatmakes an amazing trip for most
people, it will take just aslong to get from Glacier Bay to
any of the other parks as to getto the other parks from home. So
if possible, you want to do thisone by itself, unless you're
(18:59):
spending the whole summer or youjust are cool with a lot of
logistics. I know that soundscrazy, but you will, yeah, once
you start digging into it andlooking at flight schedules,
you'll be like, what, how? Howlong does it take? Gonna take to
get to Anchorage from there? Um,so you have a couple options,
(19:19):
other than cruise ships. Ofcourse, you can take the Alaska
State ferry this year. It's twodays a week that it's going into
Gustavus, which is 10 miles fromthe park. And you can also fly
between Juneau and Gustavusmultiple times a day. Watch out
in Gustavus, if you aren'tstaying at Glacier Bay Lodge,
(19:43):
just make sure that you have away to get around, because
you're not going to have a carthere, and there's no like ride
share services in Gustavus andGlacier Bay, all right, so this
brings us to our last two parks.
The road parks, as I call them,Kenai Fjords National Park and
(20:04):
Denali. So for both of these,you know, we have other episodes
about Seward in great detail. Ithink what's important for Kenai
Fjords is this is a great placeto do a hike, whether that's at
exit glacier, or you're up forall the way up Hardy, nice
field, or whether, you know, youdo a more chill hike. But those
(20:28):
are, those are wonderful ones.
You definitely want to do theboat tour in the park. You
definitely need seasicknessmedication for that. And then
finally, Denali. So I'm notgoing to talk about Denali in
too much detail during thisepisode, because we have several
other episodes about visitingDenali on your own, January 2024
(20:49):
that episode that we did kind ofhas all my best advice about
Denali, along with what's in theworkshop, but it's really just
keep in mind that it's very,very busy, and lots of people
are on group tours. So I thinkI'll just mention that you can
(21:11):
kind of pair Denali and KenaiFjords, really, with any other
parks, because you'll be flyingthrough Fairbanks or anchorage
anyway, and so you'll already beon the road system. Those ones
go well together. They go prettywell with ringelsen, Elias as
well. You know that's going tobe more driving or flying, but
(21:34):
again, you're going to bestarting from Anchorage or
Fairbanks, probably anchoragefor Rangel st Elias. So those
ones all go really welltogether. Beyond that, like I
said, I promised I'd finish upwith what parks go well
together. So Glacier Bay,ideally, is a standalone one. If
(21:55):
you are going to combine it withanother, it doesn't really
matter which one it is, becauseyou're going to have to fly to
Juneau and then Anchorage to getup there, I would recommend, if
you are doing all these parks inone trip, do Glacier Bay first
or last. Otherwise, you'll bedoing a lot of backtracking
(22:16):
flying, and that's never anyfun. So yeah. And so then that
leaves us with the other fourremote ones. I talked about how,
like Clark and cat might go welltogether. I talked about how
gates and COVID Valley go reallywell together. So you can kind
of mix and match those differentoptions for what works best for
(22:39):
you and your travel crew. Sobefore I wrap up this episode,
just want to say again, I'm soexcited about my new visiting
all the parks workshop and allthe resources I pulled together
for you. It's everything I'velearned from visiting these
parks for the last 25 years,along with planning trips to the
(23:01):
parks for folks in the lastthree years. So you can follow
the link in the show notes, youcan go straight to shop. Dot
ordinary, dash adventures.com,and you'll find it. It's called
visiting all eight AlaskaNational Parks, and you'll be
able to watch the on demandworkshop and get that list of
(23:24):
resources and links. And then,in addition to that, this week,
until Friday night, you can save30% it's only $17 to start with,
and you can save another 30%with the code parks 30 so thank
you so much for being here.
(23:47):
Thank you for loving Alaska'snational parks like I do. Please
be kind this summer to staff.
This is always really important.
These are remote locations. Youknow, you're away from home for
months and months, really toughplaces to work, also beautiful
(24:08):
places to work. And right now,our public servants are really
facing a tremendous amount ofstress and kind of an impossible
job to continue caring for theselands while they are under such
an enormous threat from currentcuts. So please be kind and
encouraging. Thank people forbeing part of the National Park
(24:31):
Service when you see them,whether it's in Alaska or any
other park. And once again,because it's this week, I am
looking forward to see youtomorrow, or being in your ears
tomorrow. Have a great day. Seeyou tomorrow.
Unknown (24:59):
You.
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