While I like to seize the day with 48 hour trips and weekend adventures whenever I can, my favorite way to travel is really to spend more than a week somewhere. Thanks to remote work, PTO, and a federal holiday or two, I had an amazing opportunity to spend five weeks on an Alaskan adventure in the summer of 2021. I took two weeks completely offline on a backpacking trip with the National Outdoor Leadership School, book-ended with remote work from Airbnbs in Juneau and Anchorage and weekend adventures. Also, I took the ferry to Alaska from Washington! I’m going to be posting a series of 48-hour weekend trip guides to my Alaskan adventure, including one on the ferry to Alaska, the Kenai Peninsula, Denali National Park, and the Anchorage area; this post is kicking things off with an overview of the whole trip.
Ferry from Washington to Alaska
I started my Alaskan adventure taking a ferry boat from Bellingham, Washington, to Juneau, Alaska. The ferry left Bellingham on a Saturday evening and arrived in Juneau on Tuesday morning, after stopping in Ketchikan, Alaska for a few hours on Monday. You can read my separate post about the ferry ride, Ketchikan, and Juneau here but for now suffice it to say – HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Of course I got lucky with perfect weather in late June, but I think that even without sunny days and glorious sunrises and sunsets it would have been a pretty incomparable experience. You can rent a cabin/room/berth – but I don’t know what they call it because I didn’t do that, I slept in my tent on the deck instead! Well, I guess one night in my tent and one night on a deck chair, but either way is awesome and free with the price of your regular ticket.
Glacier Bay and Kenai Peninsula
I spent Tuesday through Friday working from an Airbnb in Juneau, and then Friday afternoon (I was working 5am-1pm Alaska time, that’s 9-5 Eastern!) I took a quick little plane hop out to Gustavus, the gateway to Glacier Bay National Park. Honestly that deserves its own blog post as well – totally epic and I was there for less than even 36 hours – but again, highly highly recommend. I camped in the Glacier Bay campground Friday night, took the park boat ride out to see the glaciers on Saturday, and Saturday night took the ferry back to Juneau.
From Juneau I was supposed to catch another ferry to Anchorage but it ended up being canceled due to mechanical issues, so I managed to get a flight and found myself with an unplanned two days free (Sunday + Monday was the 4th of July) before I was supposed to be back to work remotely in Anchorage. I was able to change my car reservation and ended up driving out to the Kenai Peninsula, first to Seward and Kenai Fjords National Park and then to Homer. Much more to come on that!
Two Weeks Backpacking in Alaska
I worked remotely for a few days from Anchorage and then set off on my two week backpacking trip. NOLS was incredible and I was so grateful to have the opportunity to explore the wilderness in the Talkeetna Mountains (just northeast of Anchorage) with two extremely knowledgeable and experienced guides and a fun and supportive group of seven other women. We were dropped off by another little backcountry plane for the start of our journey and had food delivered one week in by plane as well, and then hiked our way out to a final pickup on the road. There are, of course, bears and other wildlife you want to be very prepared to travel amongst in the Alaskan wilderness, so for me this trip with professional guides and a group was a great first Alaska backpacking experience.
Denali, Anchorage and Alyeska
After the trip I did another week of remote work in Anchorage, and then set off for Denali on the weekend. I decided to just take the bus there and back rather than renting a car, and was very happy with that decision. I stayed at a campground just inside the park entrance and took the park buses out to the end of the road – farther than you can usually go in a private car anyway! Blog post to come with the details of that whole weekend.
Back to Anchorage for another week, and then a final weekend camping with a friend near Alyeska and just north of Anchorage in Chugach State Park. It was an unforgettable five weeks!
What to Pack for a Trip to Alaska
What do you pack for a trip to Alaska? How about, what do you pack for five weeks in Alaska without a car?! I did bring a good amount of luggage – above you can see me ready to board the ferry with my backpacking backpack, a big tote, and a bag of food. (Honestly couldn’t really tell you what food I brought – I think basically some staples for the ferry ride, and then I went to grocery stores throughout the trip.) Also given the nature of my trip, even though I was able to rent some gear from NOLS for the backpacking portion, I brought a tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad which of course wouldn’t be needed if you were going to just stay in Airbnbs or hotels.
Leaving out the backpacking gear, these are all the clothes I brought:
- Warm leggings
- Lighter-weight leggings x2
- Shorts x3 (hiking, casual, and “sleep” although the sleep shorts also worked for hiking or casual wear)
- Joggers (non-cotton)
- Rain pants
- Hiking t-shirt
- Two additional t-shirts
- Two tank tops
- Hiking socks x4 (varying warmths)
- Long sleeve hiking shirt/thermal
- Long sleeve shirt/lightweight hoodie
- Merino wool pullover
- Fleece jacket
- Insulated vest
- Raincoat
- Wool hat
- Sun hat
- Neck gaiter
- Fleece gloves
- Underwear (mostly quick-dry) and sports bras
- Hiking boots, waterproof sandals, slip-on shoes
Google probably wants me to wrap up by making sure you know that you can find other posts about my time in Alaska here, including a post specifically about the ferry trip portion here. And, I should probably re-state that this is a post about a five week Alaskan adventure. Happy walking!
