Adventures at Wrangell - St. Elias National Park & Preserve & Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska

Arrive in Fairbanks and depart the airport with a rental car. Grab a bite to eat at Pike's Landing, they have outdoor seating overlooking the Chena River and it's located near the airport exit. Then check into your hotel and walk through the town and small shops. Grab a light dinner at The Crepery. Their popular dishes include Smoked Salmon Crepe, Crab Melt Crepe, Nutella & Berries Crepe. Get a good night's rest for your long drive the next day.

Get an early start to your day since you have a five to six hour scenic drive from Fairbanks to Chitina. But before you head out, take a slight detour to the North Pole to visit Santa & his reindeers. When you arrive at the airport in Chitina, you will take a Cessna plane for about 30 minutes to McCarthy Airport in Kennecott. The views of the peaks and glaciers are incredible! Once you land, you will take a shuttle van to Kennecott Glacier Lodge, which is the only lodging in the park. The great thing about the lodge is that the National Park Visitor Center is right next door. The kids were able to explore and learn about the history of the park. We ate our meals in the lodge or the food truck across the trail.

This day was truly an adventure! We checked into the information cabin and got fitted for our crampons. We then took an easy two mile hike (four mile round trip) to Root Glacier right from our lodge! Once we reached the glacier, we put on our crampons and hiked onto the ice. We explored crevasses, blue pools & the kids drank from the streaming glacier water.

The second half of the day we explored the historic Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark which is also situated next to our lodge. We had a guided tour that took about two hours.

After lunch, we took a brief shuttle ride into town where we got geared up to go kayaking around the glacier. We had a short hike with our inflated kayaks and paddled along the edges of the glacier. The kids had a great time chipping ice for our tour guide and the water was freezing cold!

We had to say goodbye to the majestic Wrangell-St. Elias and fly back to Chitina. We took a 2.5 hour drive to Sheep Mountain Lodge in Chickaloon. We rented the Mountain House. It was spectacular! It was huge and roomy! There were three bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms and a full kitchen. Right next door was the restaurant, the kids enjoyed their meals and especially the hot cocoa while looking outside searching for Dall sheep in the mountains. The Matanuska Glacier viewing site is 5.6 miles away, it was a quick drive to see its beauty. There is a fairly easy one mile trail you can take to get a clearer view of the glacier.

This is the kids favorite part of the trip. We first stopped by the Asian market to stock up on food. We then rented an RV in Anchorage and took a two hour drive to Coopers Landing. For the night, we stayed at the Kenai Princess Lodge RV Park. They had full hook ups and paid showers with hot water. They had a small food shop and the employees were very kind.

This is my husbands favorite part of the trip. An all day guided fly fishing experience on the Kenai River. Mid-June was the first salmon run. It wasn't too crowded but we were only able to catch a few sockeye salmon. If you can stand the crowds, he would recommend coming during the second run. We were able to eat one fresh caught salmon for dinner and vacuum pack the rest to be mailed back home. We then drove the RV for a little over an hour from Coopers Landing to Exit Glacier (as seen on Running Wild With Bear Grylls: Season 2, Episode 9). We hiked a short trail to explore and see how much the glacier has receded over the years. Afterwards, we took a 15 minute drive to stay at the KOA Journey which also had full hookups and free showers with hot water.

We drove the RV to the harbor in Seward. The one great thing about Alaska is that they are RV friendly, therefore, finding parking was never an issue. Once we checked in for our Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise, we sailed for six hours. The cruise included a meal, dessert and hot chocolate. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful and I didn't get sea sick. We saw so much marine life up close which included a pod of orcas, gray whales, harbor seals, sea lions & sea otters. After the cruise, stop by the ice cream shop at the harbor and order a cherry soda float!