Denali and Seward with My Parents

One of my biggest priorities in planning this trip was to stay on a tight budget. In Denali, it's very difficult to find anywhere to stay for under $100 unless you're camping. Camping wasn't really an option for us, and when I stumbled across a website for the Denali Mountain Morning Hostel (http://www.hostelalaska.com), my curiosity was piqued. This was our first stay at a hostel, and we rented a private room in the "Ice Worm" cabin. We spent $160.50 (including tax) for 3 people, for 2 nights.

We arrived to check-in on a Sunday evening at around 9pm (the check-in desk is open until 10pm nightly). Upon our arrival, we learned that we couldn't check-in until the hostel person returned from making a shuttle run. To us, it was no big deal, and we waited until their return. They returned around 10pm.

Our cabin appeared to be one of the newest on the property, and we found fresh linens, towels, and washcloths upon our arrival. It was located right along scenic Carlo Creek, and was clean and very cute inside, complete with log furniture. It also had plenty of room for 3 people. It had 2 queen beds in it, with one located in a loft over the other. For those who have never stayed in a hostel before, it's important to know that it's not like a hotel. You make up your own beds, and when you leave, you gather up your linens and towels and place them in a hamper. Even in our private cabin, there were no bathroom or sink facilities. There was a main bathhouse (with individual showers located in separate rooms with locks) just a few yards away. To use the restroom, a person could either use one of the outhouses located on the property or else go to the main lodge area, where there were several bathrooms (with regular plumbing). One of the rules in the lodge is that you have to take your shoes off at the door. In the lodge, there are kitchen and dining room facilities, complete with pots and pans, utensils, and just about anything you need to prepare a meal. The kitchen is roomy and includes two stoves, so we never had to wait to use one. There are also enough bathrooms that we never had to wait in line. Internet access is available (for a donation). In addition, a few organic groceries are available for purchase through the hostel.

We enjoyed our hostel stay and wouldn't hesitate to do it again. We stayed warm and dry for about half the price of anywhere else in Denali. We really enjoyed meeting people from around the world. The only thing we didn’t like was that our cabin wouldn’t lock from the inside (only the outside). While we never had a problem with it, it might be a concern for others.

We loved staying at the Seward Military Resort! It had everything we needed, and the staff was wonderful. The only catch is that you must be an active duty or retired military member, dependent of one, or sponsored by one, to stay here.

The Seward Resort is owned and managed by the U.S. Army MWR program, and is located in Seward. There are plenty of signs pointing the way to it as you’re coming into town, so it’s really not difficult to find. They offer motel rooms, RV spaces, tent spaces, yurts, and townhouses to stay in, so no matter what type of vacation you’re looking for, they probably have it. It’s also very affordable – the rates are based on your rank. Although there is also an Air Force resort located next to this one, I heartily recommend the Seward Military Resort, as it’s much nicer than the Air Force resort.

We arrived during the second week of August 2006. For the first 3 days of our stay at the Resort, my parents and I stayed in one of yurts located on the property. I am an active duty Air Force member, and for my rank, it was only $24/night for us. Although we’d never stayed in a yurt before, we found it to be clean and comfortable and definitely a step up from a tent. The yurts come with a wooden floor, 3 cots, a table and chairs, and a picnic table and garbage can outside the yurt. There is no electricity in the yurt, but we found that we got along just fine with our propane lantern and propane stove. The first night, we got a little cold, but this was taken care of after going to Supply. The Supply building has almost everything you could ever need. They have heaters and blankets to borrow as well as fishing and other recreational equipment to rent for a nominal price.

There is a main bathroom located near the RV spaces and yurts that was extremely clean. It also included a shower room with individual shower stalls. In addition to the Supply Building, the amenities on the property included a laundry facility (coin operated), a very clean Fish House to clean and pack your fish in, and free freezer use for guests (to store your fish). In addition, the Seward Resort has its own Halibut charter trips and also has discounted tickets for local attractions, fish charters, and other tours available. Service is available to clean and fillet your fish for you (you simply tip the employee what you think it’s worth), and they sell rolls of vacuum seal freezer bags for $2.00 each.

Our last night, we spent in one of the motel rooms (we spent $103 (no tax) per night). It was clean and comfortable, and we couldn’t have been more pleased with our stay. My only advice is to book early – these rooms go fast.

We initially tried to go to Ray's for dinner in downtown Seward, only to find it completely packed and to hear that we'd have a 45 minute wait. Rather than waiting, we decided to try the Salmon Bake, located out towards Exit Glacier.

In our opinion, this is one of Seward's best kept dining secrets. We were seated immediately, and our server was attentive and fast. My parents ordered the Captain's platter, which included halibut, giant prawns, and grilled salmon, as well as several side dishes. I opted for the grilled salmon. Everything was very fresh and very tasty. Even though we ate at a few other places throughout our trip, this is the one we remember best!

I highly recommend going here. They also have several smaller dinner options (for less money) available.

When traveling through Denali, something that many people don’t realize is that you can’t drive through it with your own car, like you can in Yellowstone or Yosemite. In order to tour Denali, you’ll need a bus ticket. There are 2 basic ways to do this. You can either get a shuttle bus ticket, or you can book a tour bus. The first thing a person should do is decide how far you want to travel into the park and how much time you have. Check out http://www.reservedenali.com/shuttle_bus.php. If your priority is to see the wildlife and possibly Mt. McKinley, or "Denali" as many of the locals call it (on a clear day), in my opinion you want to go to at least Wonder Lake and even Kantishna. These are 86 miles and 91 miles long, respectively, and will take you nearly all day. The longer your ride, the greater your chances are to see different kinds of wildlife.

The next thing to determine is whether you want to stop and do any hiking/exploring or not. If you plan on doing some hiking and/or backcountry camping, you’ll definitely need one of the shuttle buses. The shuttle leaves from the Wilderness Access Center (this is also where you’ll go to pick up your reserved ticket.) The shuttles stop about once an hour for rest stops (at outhouses with antibacterial hand gel supplied), and also stop to pick up hikers and view wildlife. If you’re a hiker, you buy a shuttle bus to the point you eventually want to end up at. Along the way, if you want to stop and get off at any point, you let the bus driver know, and he will drop you off. When you want a ride to another spot along the road, you just go out to the main road and flag down one of the shuttle buses. The shuttle bus isn’t only for hikers, however. There are many people who ride it to the end and back, as we did. Although the bus drivers on the shuttles aren’t required to give any sort of guided tour, we found that the bus drivers do give somewhat of a narrated tour along the way in addition to answering relevant question. In order to travel this route, make sure you pack plenty of water, snacks, a lunch, bug spray, and a camera with a decent zoom lens (for the wildlife) since there are no places along the way to purchase these sorts of items.

If you prefer more of a structured tour, the other option is to buy a bus tour from one of the various tour companies that can be purchased through the park concessionaire. The guided bus tours come with a boxed lunch, and they also pick up and drop off from various locations inside the park. If you don’t have a car while there, this may be an important consideration. When we checked these out, they were running around $130/person to Kantishna.

Many people try to view Mt. McKinley from inside Denali National Park. Often, it's very cloudy, and you're very lucky if you get to see it. Don't despair. If you visit the park and miss seeing Denali, and you're traveling south towards Anchorage, there are other opportunities to see the "Great One." I've lived in the Fairbanks region now for over a year, and the locals here say that if you view Mt. McKinley from the south, your chances are usually better to see it. We missed seeing McKinley in Denali (it was just too cloudy), but we were finally able to see the tip of it, and the bottom of it (although the middle of it was surrounded by clouds) from one of the southern viewpoints. These are located along the Parks Highway towards Anchorage.

This was our first time staying at the Seward Military Resort and booking one of their Halibut charters.  The boats are actually owned and operated by the Resort.  The deck hands are Active duty Army members who are on special temporary duty (TDY) assignments to do these jobs.

Would we do it again?  Yes, I think so, but I would schedule several charters over several days just to ensure that you have at least 1 good fishing day.  The pluses of this charter was that it was only $130 per person, a real deal for the Seward area.  We went on a really crappy day for the weather.  Because it was so stormy, the skipper decided not to take us where he'd initially planned due to the high seas (we had 5 foot waves).  Because of this, we really didn't catch that many fish.  I got terribly sick with the high waves and couldn't fish much.  My Dad managed to catch 2 very small Halibuts, which he threw back, and he never did catch any others.  I caught one small rockfish, and my Dad caught a 50 lb. Ling Cod as well as a decent sized Black Sea Bass.

If you're interested in taking fish home, I highly recommend that you don't schedule only 1 deep sea charter (as we did). You really need to go for at least 2 days and maybe 3 to make sure you take home the fish you're anticipating. Bad weather at sea can make for difficult fishing conditions.

I went on this fishing charter with my parents.  We went on the all day salmon fishing trip down the Kenai River.  With our military discount, it was about $215/person.  

One of the things we didn't realize until we got there was that we would be fly fishing.  I had never done any fly fishing in my life, but our guide was great, and he taught us exactly what to do.  The weather on the day we went was very rainy, but we still had a great time.  

One very important tip I learned from this trip was that if you are intent on bringing lots of fish home, river fishing may not be your best course of action.  Fly fishing (particularly this type which is a different style than any I've seen) goes a lot slower than fishing in the ocean.  If you want lots of salmon to take home, schedule several ocean charters.  If you want the experience of being able to fly fish in Alaska, though, this is an awesome experience.

Also, watch the fish charts.  We had hoped to catch a lot of silver salmon.  Unfortunately, the silvers are coming in very late this year due to the cold, wet summer we've had here in Alaska.  As a result, we mostly caught very red (beat up) sockeye salmon that we had to release (as they wouldn't be any good to eat).  We only caught 1 silver salmon.

All things considered, our guide Steve, was great.  If we do salmon fishing on the Kenai again, I wouldn't hesitate to use these guys again. 

I had seen many photos of Kenai Fjords National Park prior to traveling to Seward, therefore, we really wanted to see Exit Glacier. Since we were worried about my Mom getting sick on one of the Glacier tours (by boat), we decided to just drive out to Exit Glacier.

We were glad that we did. This is an easy hike for just about anyone to do. My Dad has bad knees and walks very slowly, and even he didn't have much difficulty traversing the trail. The trail is clearly marked from the parking lot, and you won't get lost.