This Is Why You Have To Go To Alaska

There are 50 states in the United States of America, and Alaska is the largest. In fact it is so big, it is three times the size of the next biggest state of Texas. 

For a long time, I’ve wanted to visit Alaska but never knew where to start. There was so much to choose from and so much to see, it was overwhelming. 

Working with the tourism board brought a lot of perspective, and they were able to work with us to come up with an affordable, attainable, and extremely scenic summer road trip.

The one big problem with seeing a lot of the most scenic and adventurous communities along the Pacific coast, is that access is difficult from the mainland. To drive to Valdez from Anchorage, for example, would take you 10.5 hours round trip; and to see Cordova, the mountains are so high and impassable, the only way to access the community is by plane or ferry. 

Thankfully the ferry system is amazing, in fact the coastal communities absolutely rely on it. They call it the Alaska Marine Highway System, and it is what we used to make our trip many times better than it would have been without it.

What we did is take a big loop, driving from Anchorage to Valdez through the mainland, with several life-changing stops, then took the ferry from Valdez to Whittier, which is only an hour from Anchorage, completing the loop.

The details of this are what made the trip seem so attractive to me as a summer road trip idea. 

From Vancouver BC, we took a direct flight three hours to Anchorage, picked up our rental car then got straight on the road.

Our first stop was at Knik River Lodge, just under an hour from Anchorage. We spent two nights here, and since it is also the home base of Alaska Helicopter Tours, it was the perfect opportunity to see the Knik Glacier and other surrounding areas by helicopter. 

Helicopter is definitely the best method of visiting the glacier because you can actually land on the glacier, get out and walk on it, and drink the runoff from the source as it’s being created.

Part two of the trip had us drive from Knik River Lodge to Chitina, where we boarded a small plane for a 30 minute flight to McCarthy. There is a road to McCarthy from Chitina, but it is an extra 6 hours round trip, and although I haven’t seen it for myself, I’ve been told it’s one of the bumpiest roads around.

We arrived in McCarthy and felt like we were transported back a century. Our first stop was at Ma Johnson’s Hotel which is a 100 year old hotel, restored to be exactly as it was originally, and I’d say they hit the mark, it was fascinating.

McCarthy serves as an adventure hub for the Wrangell-St. Elias mountains and is home to two certified guiding services who have full permission to guide anything and everything inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the largest national park in the US.

St. Elias Alpine Guides took us onto the Root Glacier for their half-day option, and it rained sideways, but it didn’t matter because of how mesmerizing it was to be on the glaciers exploring the different features, plus we knew we could head back to town to warm up and grab a hot bowl of soup any time.

We woke up the next day, caught our plane back to Chitina and carried on to Valdez. 

Valdez is a coastal community with tons of fishing, waterfalls, hiking, and of course like many other places in Alaska, glaciers.

Stan Stephens Cruises is based here, and we opted for the Columbia Glacier cruise. You hop on the boat in town and head out through Prince William Sound passing all sorts of wildlife. We saw seals, otters, eagles, and at least a couple thousand sea lions.

At this point in the trip, we’ve been on the road six days and it’s time to complete the loop. We woke up early at our hotel in Valdez and went straight to the ferry terminal. The next 6 hours were much more relaxing and scenic than the alternative, which would be driving back the way we came.

All things considered, Alaska was one of the best trips of our lives so far. The word “vast” does not even begin to describe what it felt like having been there. Can’t wait to get back and see even more of this amazing state.