Today I’m writing to you from the Phoenix airport as we travel home from an awesome summer Alaska trip. Our goal was to have a vacation together that was unique, engaging for the kids (teens, ya know?) and that we would return home with a whole lot of stories about the cool places and things we did. Success. And we’ve also managed to stay out of the news cycle, which, OMG, that felt great but also was such a privilege that I know not everyone can have. So what’s been happening in the world?
This week I wanted to share my biggest takeaways from our time in rural Alaska together, as well as to chime in on a little bit o’ politics, cuz you know I have opinions, but I’m not going to go too deep because I need to read up on what’s new. Anyways though, thank you for following along and hearing out my two cents and travel tips. I love getting to share!
I know that not everyone is like me when it comes to planning, and that’s okay, but for this trip that we’re just wrapping up I’ve been working on it for two years. I have been thinking about the places and activities that my family hasn’t gotten to experience, the things that would be fun for everyone, and the things I want to write about. A lot of people’s Alaska trips follow a usual pattern, either on a 7 day Alaska road trip or a boat of some sort:
Fly into Anchorage
Visit Seward and Kenai Fjords National Park
Drive to Talkeetna because it’s funky
Check out Denali National Park
Maybe visit Fairbanks and call it good.
or Alaska Cruise. Done.
I love both of these trips and think they’re awesome and you’ll have so much fun and see so much wildlife but I really love when we get to do something you just don’t hear much about. To put together an off-beat Alaska trip we picked places you might have heard of but likely haven’t visited. This trip included some spots that I hadn’t even been to, so it was extra interesting for all of us. So where did we go? Whittier, Valdez, McCarthy, Copper Center and Glacier View/Glenn Highway.
I’m going to share all the details of our transportation and stays, our activities and guided tours, when I do next week’s My Alaska Trip Section, but what I will say is this: Alaska is always beautiful, but Valdez and McCarthy really take the cake for being remarkable, mountain-drenched destinations. There aren’t swarms of tourists and the people who’ve taken the time to get to these remote towns are very like-minded. Those you meet are looking for quiet, epic Alaska scenery, and to have a trip unlike any they’ve had before. And it’s not that the activities we had access to were so unusual, but that because there are such fewer people the vibes are never chaotic and everyone has time for you. It feels like “island time” but it’s Alaska.
Check out our Instagram for our day-by-day videos from our trip!
I’m excited to get home and get through all my writing, because there’s so much to cover. The Copper River Valley is HUGE, stretching from Glennallen, Alaska all the way to Valdez then down to Cordova and south of the Copper River Delta. This is a really large expanse of land and it’s so varied from town to town in terms of what you’ll find for lodging, restaurants and tourist-friendly activities. The mountains surrounding the Copper Valley are amazing with the Wrangells to the northeast, then the St Elias range to the southeast, the Chugach mountains to the southwest, and then the Talkeetna mountains to the northwest. You’re just surrounded all the time and it truly feels remote.
I think it’s safe to say that most people have heard of Copper River salmon… and they feel like they’re really giving themselves a treat when they have it in a restaurant or get it from the fish market. Here’s a secret: Copper River salmon tastes the same as salmon from Kenai River or even the Columbia River. The thing about these salmon is that they had to work ridiculously hard and battle against all odds to make it to the Copper River and then even further into one of its tributaries before they’re caught and their epic instinctual struggle is cut short by a fisherman before they get to spawn… But that’s neither here nor there, because we enjoy Copper River salmon too, and had a great time fishing for them on this trip. The point I’m making is that this area is not easy to get to.
We flew to Anchorage and then drove to Whittier to catch the Alaska Marina Highway (the ferry) to Valdez. If you time it just right, getting to Valdez this way takes 8.5 hours of driving and the boat. The other option is to drive from Anchorage via the Glenn and Richardson Highways, which takes about 6 hours. There are bush planes and float planes, but those are costly, so the ferry or driving it is. Either way, the actual journey is beautiful. The Copper Valley doesn’t skimp on views.
We’re always down to challenge our kids with their abilities out in the real world and by seeing where they want to draw the line on their bravery or physical endurance. This trip did that! Last month we did some big snorkeling trips in the Florida Keys and we had some new open-water experiences that we couldn’t have done a year ago. On this trip we rafted some big Class IV rapids and kayaked through ice bergs, we conquered some great hikes and got the kids into hip waders on the Klutina River. They’re 11 and 14 currently and have the bravery and physical resilience beyond most adults I know. I love it, and I love seeing how they actually enjoy it. If you give your kids the chance to be challenged or pursue the things they’re interested in, they’ll do great.
The other big thing that everyone saw (and we knew they’d be fine) was that the kids DON’T need technology to be content. We brought books, drawing pads, card games, and had our activities. We didn’t need television or nightly movies, disappearing into phones or tablets wasn’t a problem (no good cell service in the Copper Valley, lame wifi everywhere). It was kind of like a tech cleanse, with a little bit of tech peppered into longer driving time days. They were fine. We were fine. The world continued and we weren’t missing out on not having that constant connection. We had this a bit on our OARS multiday rafting trip in Utah last month, but now had it for a nice 11 day run in Alaska.
So, even though this was a vacation for everyone else, my writer brain doesn’t turn off. We got to partner with some really cool local tourism folks, family run businesses and Alaskans that really care about the environment, and that of course MUST be written about. In the coming weeks I hope to get a lot of pieces published on both MyAlaskaTrip.com and 2TravelDads.com both that are straight up itineraries you can use to plan your own trip and detailed feature articles about the many experiences we enjoyed.
Here are some of the articles I’ve already started:
Things to do in Portage
Valdez AK Itinerary
Everything about visiting McCarthy AK
Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center
Stephens Wildlife and Glacier Cruises
Copper River Guides fishing
McCarthy River Tours
Kennicott Wilderness Guides
and rafting the Matanuska River with NOVA (I rafted with them 22 years ago too!)
It’s really fun to talk to the locals who are working in tourism and hear their stories about how they’re active in preserving the environment around them or how their family has been guiding visitors for 50 years and they’re a multigenerational group. Really, there are lots of stories to tell and hopefully you’ll read some of them and consider choosing local when you’re planning your own travels.
You may or may not have noticed, but I’ve started sending out location specific weeklies; one for My Alaska Trip and one for The Keys Explored. It’s something you can opt out of, but I’m seeing that most people are tuning into these specific topics just as much as my regular weekly Substack. I’ve sent out weekly sections about Snorkeling in the Florida Keys, Travel Planning for AK, first-time Keys trips and more. Through the summer there will be more coming out with easy, actionable travel ideas, so stay tuned.
“Why are you sending such specific weeklies out?” Good question (from reader Jenny). Both Alaska and the Florida Keys are very expensive destinations to visit and they’re on a lot of people’s bucket lists. If you can plan your travel far in advance, like a year out, you can not just have a great trip when it finally approaches, but you can pay for your lodging, activities and transportation far in advance and pace out your spending on the trip. I am NOT a credit card person and don’t like the idea of incurring debt, so if you can pay for a little bit of your trip at a time, you’ll both lock in current prices and you’ll not be hit with a huge travel bill when your trip happens.
Okay, so I have now perused the news… I’m never glad to hear that somebody is sick or has passed away, but I will say this: Lindsey Graham. What a horrible person who actively was the mouthpiece of anti-LGBTQ groups and politicians, somebody who spoke out against women’s healthcare, health privacy, and his fellow humans. With his passing, this is an opportunity to shift the leadership of our nation back towards progress for women, minorities and the LGBTQ population. That man had too much power and influence.
Also, there’s a new national housing bill that has passed and it’s awesome. We live in a neighborhood full of vacation rentals where regular families are routinely priced out because wealthy private capital can buy up homes and land. This new law limits and prevents that. Hopefully there’s a retroactive element to this, but I don’t know. I’m only just tuning back in to see what’s been going on.
Something that absolutely socked me in the jaw while we were in Wrangell-St Elias National Park, a beautifully preserved wilderness full of wildlife, is the new push to open more lands to corporate greed, and to shift what’s being protected by the Endangered Species Act. I need to research more, but on the surface it’s awful and I need to understand it more so I can be an active part in protecting the places we love and the world that allows us to stay alive and breathe clean air and drink clean water.
What else have I missed in the last two weeks?
I think that's it for now. Thanks so much for tuning in and hopefully you'll be inspired to check out all the Alaska and Florida Keys content we have coming your way this summer. I really appreciate our readers and the people who suggest cool and new places for us to visit as a family. Enjoy the summer and try and stay cool out there!
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