April 23, 2025 • 18 mins
Jennie shares what to expect while visiting Alaska's National Parks and other federal lands in 2025 along with her editorial approach for
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Transcript
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. Jennie here, HappyNational Parks week once again.
So just a reminder that thisweek we are having some extra
(00:52):
episodes. We have four episodesfor you this week, it is this is
not going to be the case goingforward, it's not going to
become a daily podcast, but thisweek, we're celebrating National
Parks week and talking in depthabout Alaska National Parks
before we get into today'sepisode too far. I wanted to
(01:15):
just remind you that I have mybrand new on demand workshop in
my online shop. It's a it's avideo class, and it is all about
visiting all eight AlaskaNational Parks and how to do
that. I want to encourage you topick that up this week, until
(01:38):
Friday night, it is on sale for30% off to celebrate parks week
and to launch this new workshop.
So you want to use the codeparks 30 to get that 30%
discount. And so you can get itfor $12 instead of 17, which is
pretty cool. All right, you canfind the link to the show notes,
(02:01):
or you can go to shop, dotordinary, dash adventures.com,
and you'll find it there. Allright, so today we are talking
about visiting Alaska's nationalparks, and not just national
parks, but other public lands.
(02:24):
In 2025 to start off with, Iwant to just mention that this
podcast is primarily focused forvisitors, and so we'll be
talking about like what you canexpect as far as a visitor
experience. But before I talkabout that, I really want to
(02:46):
mention that there are so manythings that as visitors to our
national parks, we don'tnecessarily see that are super
important, and the cuts that weare experiencing right now in
the United States are absolutelycatastrophic for our public
lands. So I want to just startby making that clear. I really
(03:12):
tried to get some folks who workin public lands to come on the
podcast for this episode, andI'm sure you won't be surprised
to hear that no one feltcomfortable doing that, and I
certainly didn't want anyone tofeel pressured to do that. So
I'm going to do my best to sharewhat I know based on talking to
(03:36):
people around Alaska, and I alsojust want to say that this is a
huge problem for protecting ourpublic lands and making sure
that they're there for manyfuture generations of humans,
and also because these placesare worth protecting just for
(03:59):
their own sake, that's what Ireally believe, and that is
really under threat. Beyondthat, the federal government is
the state of Alaska's largestemployer. There are more
veterans living in Alaska thanany other state. Many of them
work in federal jobs, or diduntil recently. So in addition
(04:24):
to how this impacts our publiclands, this is really impacting
Alaska's economy and Alaska as acommunity, and so I I mentioning
that because I think it'simportant. I think it's
important for people to know howdevastating it is to lose these
jobs and in some cases access toplaces. But more often than just
(04:50):
access, we're talking aboutthings that we don't necessarily
see as visitors, things like thescience and research that's
going on. In Alaska's parks,which is a lot, and in addition
to that, all the maintenancethings that need to be done,
there's just so much thathappens behind the scenes, both
(05:13):
to protect our public lands, butalso to study and understand
what's happening. And there areso many reasons why that's
important. Climate changeresearch is especially crucial
in Alaska's parks, because innorthern places, many of these
(05:34):
impacts of climate change arehere now, and not something
that's coming in the future. SoI'm not qualified to tell you
about every single projectthat's going on, but I know you
all know, probably by now, I'msure you do that. My husband,
Jay worked for the National ParkService as an archeologist, and
(05:58):
I did research, but there's somany other kinds of research,
biology, wildlife, climatechange, just various things
about how different environmentsand ecosystems work. There are
just so many different things.
And so I wanted to just mentionthat, because you won't
(06:18):
necessarily see that as avisitor, but those are things
that are super important to thework, especially of the National
Park Service. With that, let'smove into talking a little bit
about what to expect in Alaska'snational parks this summer. I
want to be clear. I'm going tokeep this episode fairly short,
(06:40):
because I want to make sure I'monly sharing real information
that I can actually verify,which is pretty challenging
right now, to be honest withyou, everyone is scrambling to
figure out how to makeeverything work, and you know
that is part of the spirit ofAlaska and Alaskans is to
(07:03):
persevere, to find a way to makethings work. And so people are
working very hard to make surevisitors still have amazing
experiences. I am not aware ofany visitor centers or
activities that will be closedor inaccessible this summer,
(07:25):
2025 in Alaska. That doesn'tmean it's not going to happen,
and it doesn't mean that itmight not change. So again, this
is just me sharing what I'vebeen able to learn one thing
that's important to know aboutAlaska parks. You know, the last
(07:45):
couple days, in the episodesthat we've had, we've talked
quite a bit about how remotethey are and challenging to
access. And so in most cases,when you are going into Alaska's
national parks having anexperience you're typically
going to be working with, ortraveling with a someone who has
(08:07):
a permit to commercially operatein that park. And the way that
this is structured is kind ofcomplicated, but like, for
example, in Denali, all of thebus tours are operated in a
joint venture between Doyon andAramark, and so they are
(08:29):
expecting to continue as theynormally do. It's not National
Park Service employees thatdrive the busses, for example.
And so what I have heard fromtalking to different people who
provide visitor services in theparks, whether that's tours or
(08:52):
other types of things they have,what they have told me is that
they're expecting to operate inthe same way that they always
have, and that is across alleight of Alaska's national
parks. They're still expectingto get their permits to take
people into the park. Dependingon the park, it might be by
(09:14):
airplane, it might be on ahiking tour, it might be on a
boat tour. We've talked in thelast couple days about the many
different kinds of coolexperiences that you can have in
Alaska's parks. And so as ofright now, what I'm expecting is
that those tours are going tocontinue as normal. Now, of
(09:36):
course, there are manychallenges that are always
there, things like staffing,things like wildfires. You know,
there's the potential, potentialfor this volcano erupting, but
as far as cuts to the ParkService, I'm not expecting that
your scheduled tours will beaffected. The thing that I think
(09:59):
may be affected, although Idon't have solid information
about this, is potentiallythings like visitor center
hours. Ii The only place I know that is
going to have more limitedvisitor center hours is the
Mendenhall Glacier VisitorsCenter, which is not National
(10:22):
Park Service, that is the USforest service that operates
Mendenhall Glacier. And theyhave several community
partnerships, including thecultural ambassadors program
with the Tlingit and Haida. Andthey are working together to
keep the visitor center open asmuch as possible, but it is
(10:44):
going to have less hours than inthe past. The Mendenhall Glacier
visitor center will be closed onSaturdays, and it will open, I
think, an hour later and closean hour earlier. But if you're
traveling on your own, you canstill get to Mendenhall Glacier.
(11:05):
You can still hike there evenwhen the visitor center is
closed, so which is a greatthing to do. So just to pause
there on Mendenhall Glacier fora moment again, that's not a
national park, it's the ForestService. It's just going to be
(11:25):
super important to have a planfor how to get there. We have
other episodes where we'vetalked about Mendenhall Glacier
in depth, but it's going to beextra important to make sure
that you're on a tour with a orthat you're getting there
through some kind of permittedtransportation provider, unless
(11:46):
you're renting a car. If you'rerenting a car, then you can just
drive there and pay the $5 topark, and that'll be fine. Okay,
so I one thing I mentionedbefore that Alaskans are very
resourceful, really committed tomaking things work, and that is
(12:09):
amazing. I just want to makesure that you're aware that if
you go to Denali and you takeyour bus tour as scheduled, that
they're that these cuts arestill devastating. They're just
maybe not going to impact yourbus tour. But I think it's
really important to mention howimportant these behind the
(12:29):
scenes things are, and how muchthese cuts are really going to
impact things, especially in thelong term. So if you care about
public lands in the US. Ifyou're an American, I just
really want to encourage you tocontact your member of Congress,
regardless of who you voted for,regardless of your political
(12:51):
beliefs, public lands in theUnited States has long been a
bipartisan value, and so I justwant to encourage you to reach
out to you to ask for thisfunding to be restored. I just
think that's so important,getting back to your experience.
(13:11):
So again, if you've bookedtours, whether that's into very
remote Gates of the Arctic andCOVID Valley National Park,
whether that is in Rangel stElias national park or Denali or
Katmai or lake Clark or GlacierBay or Kenai Fjords. I would
what I would recommend is thatyou assume that you the tours
(13:35):
you've booked, the lodgingyou've booked, will be available
and will happen. But keep anopen mind and be aware that
there could be some other typesof changes around things like
visitor center hours and that,of course, everything I've
talked in this episode maychange. So before I finish up
(13:56):
today, I want to just tell youhow I'm going to handle this,
both for those of you who are onmy email list and with the
podcast going forward thissummer. So not just with access
to public lands, but also thingslike if mount spur erupts, if
there are wildfires, which thereoften are in the summer, and
(14:20):
that is something that has beengetting more intense with
climate change, more fires andmore of the year. This summer, I
am really going to try to dobonus episodes of the podcast
when major things change. Now,if that happens when I am in the
middle of a tour. It's going tobe hard for me to do that. I'm
(14:43):
still going to try. I'm going tohave my hand held field
recording kit with me, so I willtry to record a short episode if
I do find out about changesrelated to these budget cuts on
public land. Plans this summer,I am expecting to be in Denali
several times. I am expecting tobe in Kenai Fjords at least
(15:07):
once, and Lake Clark at leastonce. I may be in other national
parks but but not that I havespecifically planned right now,
so I will definitely report backif anything that I've shared
turns out to change. I'll also,you know, as I'm learning about
(15:29):
things that happen, I willdefinitely update my email list,
but also I will try to recordshort bonus episodes when I can
as things change. And I alsojust want to really encourage
you in any time of uncertainty.
And travel always has someuncertainty and
(15:51):
unpredictability. We're justmore aware of it. Right now,
make sure that you have travelinsurance and make sure that you
have an open mind and that youhave your plan, go into it with
your plan, but it's going to bereally important to be flexible,
just like it always is, and kindand supportive to hard working
(16:14):
seasonal staff, especially thosewho are government employees,
but also those who are workingas guides and really dedicated
and working hard at giving youthe best experience possible
while you're in Alaska. Sodefinitely make sure, as always
to show your support for them. Afew resources, I know I don't
(16:39):
always remember to talk about myemail list, but I'll put the
link to shine to sign up forthat in the show notes, along
with, of course, my planning atrip to all Alaska's national
parks workshop. That's 30% offfor a couple more days. Thank
you for listening. Thank you forcaring about our public lands.
(17:02):
We have one more episode forthis week for national parks
week tomorrow, and that episodeis going to be with Al and
Carla, who did a trip to alleight Alaska National Parks.
They actually split it up intoseveral trips, and I help them
plan that. And so we're justgoing to walk through their
(17:25):
experiences in the differentparks. And they're really fun to
hear from. They have a greatstory. They are very close to
completing their quest to visitall 63 national parks in the
United States. So I am going tosign off here. Thank you for
listening, and I'll see youtomorrow.
Unknown (18:02):
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. Jennie here, HappyNational Parks week once again.
So just a reminder that thisweek we are having some extra
(00:52):
episodes. We have four episodesfor you this week, it is this is
not going to be the case goingforward, it's not going to
become a daily podcast, but thisweek, we're celebrating National
Parks week and talking in depthabout Alaska National Parks
before we get into today'sepisode too far. I wanted to
(01:15):
just remind you that I have mybrand new on demand workshop in
my online shop. It's a it's avideo class, and it is all about
visiting all eight AlaskaNational Parks and how to do
that. I want to encourage you topick that up this week, until
(01:38):
Friday night, it is on sale for30% off to celebrate parks week
and to launch this new workshop.
So you want to use the codeparks 30 to get that 30%
discount. And so you can get itfor $12 instead of 17, which is
pretty cool. All right, you canfind the link to the show notes,
(02:01):
or you can go to shop, dotordinary, dash adventures.com,
and you'll find it there. Allright, so today we are talking
about visiting Alaska's nationalparks, and not just national
parks, but other public lands.
(02:24):
In 2025 to start off with, Iwant to just mention that this
podcast is primarily focused forvisitors, and so we'll be
talking about like what you canexpect as far as a visitor
experience. But before I talkabout that, I really want to
(02:46):
mention that there are so manythings that as visitors to our
national parks, we don'tnecessarily see that are super
important, and the cuts that weare experiencing right now in
the United States are absolutelycatastrophic for our public
lands. So I want to just startby making that clear. I really
(03:12):
tried to get some folks who workin public lands to come on the
podcast for this episode, andI'm sure you won't be surprised
to hear that no one feltcomfortable doing that, and I
certainly didn't want anyone tofeel pressured to do that. So
I'm going to do my best to sharewhat I know based on talking to
(03:36):
people around Alaska, and I alsojust want to say that this is a
huge problem for protecting ourpublic lands and making sure
that they're there for manyfuture generations of humans,
and also because these placesare worth protecting just for
(03:59):
their own sake, that's what Ireally believe, and that is
really under threat. Beyondthat, the federal government is
the state of Alaska's largestemployer. There are more
veterans living in Alaska thanany other state. Many of them
work in federal jobs, or diduntil recently. So in addition
(04:24):
to how this impacts our publiclands, this is really impacting
Alaska's economy and Alaska as acommunity, and so I I mentioning
that because I think it'simportant. I think it's
important for people to know howdevastating it is to lose these
jobs and in some cases access toplaces. But more often than just
(04:50):
access, we're talking aboutthings that we don't necessarily
see as visitors, things like thescience and research that's
going on. In Alaska's parks,which is a lot, and in addition
to that, all the maintenancethings that need to be done,
there's just so much thathappens behind the scenes, both
(05:13):
to protect our public lands, butalso to study and understand
what's happening. And there areso many reasons why that's
important. Climate changeresearch is especially crucial
in Alaska's parks, because innorthern places, many of these
(05:34):
impacts of climate change arehere now, and not something
that's coming in the future. SoI'm not qualified to tell you
about every single projectthat's going on, but I know you
all know, probably by now, I'msure you do that. My husband,
Jay worked for the National ParkService as an archeologist, and
(05:58):
I did research, but there's somany other kinds of research,
biology, wildlife, climatechange, just various things
about how different environmentsand ecosystems work. There are
just so many different things.
And so I wanted to just mentionthat, because you won't
(06:18):
necessarily see that as avisitor, but those are things
that are super important to thework, especially of the National
Park Service. With that, let'smove into talking a little bit
about what to expect in Alaska'snational parks this summer. I
want to be clear. I'm going tokeep this episode fairly short,
(06:40):
because I want to make sure I'monly sharing real information
that I can actually verify,which is pretty challenging
right now, to be honest withyou, everyone is scrambling to
figure out how to makeeverything work, and you know
that is part of the spirit ofAlaska and Alaskans is to
(07:03):
persevere, to find a way to makethings work. And so people are
working very hard to make surevisitors still have amazing
experiences. I am not aware ofany visitor centers or
activities that will be closedor inaccessible this summer,
(07:25):
2025 in Alaska. That doesn'tmean it's not going to happen,
and it doesn't mean that itmight not change. So again, this
is just me sharing what I'vebeen able to learn one thing
that's important to know aboutAlaska parks. You know, the last
(07:45):
couple days, in the episodesthat we've had, we've talked
quite a bit about how remotethey are and challenging to
access. And so in most cases,when you are going into Alaska's
national parks having anexperience you're typically
going to be working with, ortraveling with a someone who has
(08:07):
a permit to commercially operatein that park. And the way that
this is structured is kind ofcomplicated, but like, for
example, in Denali, all of thebus tours are operated in a
joint venture between Doyon andAramark, and so they are
(08:29):
expecting to continue as theynormally do. It's not National
Park Service employees thatdrive the busses, for example.
And so what I have heard fromtalking to different people who
provide visitor services in theparks, whether that's tours or
(08:52):
other types of things they have,what they have told me is that
they're expecting to operate inthe same way that they always
have, and that is across alleight of Alaska's national
parks. They're still expectingto get their permits to take
people into the park. Dependingon the park, it might be by
(09:14):
airplane, it might be on ahiking tour, it might be on a
boat tour. We've talked in thelast couple days about the many
different kinds of coolexperiences that you can have in
Alaska's parks. And so as ofright now, what I'm expecting is
that those tours are going tocontinue as normal. Now, of
(09:36):
course, there are manychallenges that are always
there, things like staffing,things like wildfires. You know,
there's the potential, potentialfor this volcano erupting, but
as far as cuts to the ParkService, I'm not expecting that
your scheduled tours will beaffected. The thing that I think
(09:59):
may be affected, although Idon't have solid information
about this, is potentiallythings like visitor center
hours. Ii The only place I know that is
going to have more limitedvisitor center hours is the
Mendenhall Glacier VisitorsCenter, which is not National
(10:22):
Park Service, that is the USforest service that operates
Mendenhall Glacier. And theyhave several community
partnerships, including thecultural ambassadors program
with the Tlingit and Haida. Andthey are working together to
keep the visitor center open asmuch as possible, but it is
(10:44):
going to have less hours than inthe past. The Mendenhall Glacier
visitor center will be closed onSaturdays, and it will open, I
think, an hour later and closean hour earlier. But if you're
traveling on your own, you canstill get to Mendenhall Glacier.
(11:05):
You can still hike there evenwhen the visitor center is
closed, so which is a greatthing to do. So just to pause
there on Mendenhall Glacier fora moment again, that's not a
national park, it's the ForestService. It's just going to be
(11:25):
super important to have a planfor how to get there. We have
other episodes where we'vetalked about Mendenhall Glacier
in depth, but it's going to beextra important to make sure
that you're on a tour with a orthat you're getting there
through some kind of permittedtransportation provider, unless
(11:46):
you're renting a car. If you'rerenting a car, then you can just
drive there and pay the $5 topark, and that'll be fine. Okay,
so I one thing I mentionedbefore that Alaskans are very
resourceful, really committed tomaking things work, and that is
(12:09):
amazing. I just want to makesure that you're aware that if
you go to Denali and you takeyour bus tour as scheduled, that
they're that these cuts arestill devastating. They're just
maybe not going to impact yourbus tour. But I think it's
really important to mention howimportant these behind the
(12:29):
scenes things are, and how muchthese cuts are really going to
impact things, especially in thelong term. So if you care about
public lands in the US. Ifyou're an American, I just
really want to encourage you tocontact your member of Congress,
regardless of who you voted for,regardless of your political
(12:51):
beliefs, public lands in theUnited States has long been a
bipartisan value, and so I justwant to encourage you to reach
out to you to ask for thisfunding to be restored. I just
think that's so important,getting back to your experience.
(13:11):
So again, if you've bookedtours, whether that's into very
remote Gates of the Arctic andCOVID Valley National Park,
whether that is in Rangel stElias national park or Denali or
Katmai or lake Clark or GlacierBay or Kenai Fjords. I would
what I would recommend is thatyou assume that you the tours
(13:35):
you've booked, the lodgingyou've booked, will be available
and will happen. But keep anopen mind and be aware that
there could be some other typesof changes around things like
visitor center hours and that,of course, everything I've
talked in this episode maychange. So before I finish up
(13:56):
today, I want to just tell youhow I'm going to handle this,
both for those of you who are onmy email list and with the
podcast going forward thissummer. So not just with access
to public lands, but also thingslike if mount spur erupts, if
there are wildfires, which thereoften are in the summer, and
(14:20):
that is something that has beengetting more intense with
climate change, more fires andmore of the year. This summer, I
am really going to try to dobonus episodes of the podcast
when major things change. Now,if that happens when I am in the
middle of a tour. It's going tobe hard for me to do that. I'm
(14:43):
still going to try. I'm going tohave my hand held field
recording kit with me, so I willtry to record a short episode if
I do find out about changesrelated to these budget cuts on
public land. Plans this summer,I am expecting to be in Denali
several times. I am expecting tobe in Kenai Fjords at least
(15:07):
once, and Lake Clark at leastonce. I may be in other national
parks but but not that I havespecifically planned right now,
so I will definitely report backif anything that I've shared
turns out to change. I'll also,you know, as I'm learning about
(15:29):
things that happen, I willdefinitely update my email list,
but also I will try to recordshort bonus episodes when I can
as things change. And I alsojust want to really encourage
you in any time of uncertainty.
And travel always has someuncertainty and
(15:51):
unpredictability. We're justmore aware of it. Right now,
make sure that you have travelinsurance and make sure that you
have an open mind and that youhave your plan, go into it with
your plan, but it's going to bereally important to be flexible,
just like it always is, and kindand supportive to hard working
(16:14):
seasonal staff, especially thosewho are government employees,
but also those who are workingas guides and really dedicated
and working hard at giving youthe best experience possible
while you're in Alaska. Sodefinitely make sure, as always
to show your support for them. Afew resources, I know I don't
(16:39):
always remember to talk about myemail list, but I'll put the
link to shine to sign up forthat in the show notes, along
with, of course, my planning atrip to all Alaska's national
parks workshop. That's 30% offfor a couple more days. Thank
you for listening. Thank you forcaring about our public lands.
(17:02):
We have one more episode forthis week for national parks
week tomorrow, and that episodeis going to be with Al and
Carla, who did a trip to alleight Alaska National Parks.
They actually split it up intoseveral trips, and I help them
plan that. And so we're justgoing to walk through their
(17:25):
experiences in the differentparks. And they're really fun to
hear from. They have a greatstory. They are very close to
completing their quest to visitall 63 national parks in the
United States. So I am going tosign off here. Thank you for
listening, and I'll see youtomorrow.
Unknown (18:02):
You
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