Our FAVORITE spots in ALASKA + top tips for visiting!

[Music] in case you missed our last video we just finished an incredible summer up in Alaska over the course of two and a half months from mid-june to late August we went from crossing the border to spending four days in Denali National Park visiting the Charming town of Talkeetna ice climbing on the Matanuska Glacier going for hikes near Anchorage road tripping around the Kenai Peninsula and exploring Kenai fjords National Park visiting the town of Whittier hiking and backpacking in Hatcher Pass admiring the amazing scenery and Wildlife and Valdez and camping hiking and seeing mining history in Wrangle Saint Elias National Park before driving the top of the world highway to the Yukon Alaska completely blew us away and it is hands down our favorite place we have ever visited it is impossible to put Alaska into words but some of the best words to describe it are just vast wild and completely mind-blowing it is a regular occurrence just to be driving around Alaska and to see glaciers all over the place so many mountains the mountains are just so big they just make you feel so tiny even just going to the grocery store as soon as you walk out you've got mountains right there bam even the most boring activities are more fun in Alaska and we just lost count of how many times we just stood there and complete awe of the scenery surrounding us and in this video we're going to share some of our favorite spots top tips and we're going to start with a rundown of our route and some Wildlife stats this is a basic snapshot of our route with all the stops that we mentioned earlier which ended up being around 2 400 miles total and as for wildlife we honestly did not see as much Wildlife as we thought we would in Alaska if we had to say one negative thing about Alaska it would probably be that there were some animals that we saw a good amount of but then others that we hardly saw at all like Bears we only saw one black bear in our entire two and a half months in Alaska and it was on a sidewalk in Whittier so not the most like wild epic spot to see a bear and then we think we might have seen one Grizzly I'm pretty sure it was a Grizzly it was brown I think it it had a hump on it but it was far away I couldn't totally tell it happened so fast I didn't even see it it was on our last hike at Wrangle saying Elias so if you didn't see that video go check that out we thought it was a bear so yeah definitely a bear definitely Brown I'm gonna go with Grizzly because that'd be cooler story yeah we're just gonna say we saw one black bear and one Grizzly and as for other Wildlife we saw 15 moves 10 caribou and 26 doll sheep and those were all near Denali which was definitely our best area for wildlife we also saw four porcupines and one fox and we actually didn't get the Fox on a vlog but we did get an iPhone video of it we saw him on this slope right by the madness Glacier and he was just sliding down the slope it was the cutest thing was like rolling around in the dirt it was the cutest thing we have ever seen and then last but not least we also saw two mountain goats a mommy and a baby on the crow Pass Trail and it was incredible all right now on to our favorite spots in Alaska which we really hated picking favorites because we truly loved everything we did we highly recommend it all and we just don't really like comparing places to each other because we try to appreciate everything for what it is but we thought if any of y'all are going to Alaska you may find it helpful to know just kind of what spots like slightly stood out over the rest and that we'd suggest definitely prioritizing we kept our answers separate from each other so we could have our own opinions and also hopefully share a little bit more yeah we're hoping that we don't overlap on all of them I think there's going to be some pretty big overlap and I personally found this to be so hard because yeah I really suck at picking favors for some reason this this exercise I guess was really easy for me I don't know things just really stood out to me really quickly but like we said you can't go wrong with anyone no way but the first category our top three favorite hikes drum roll yeah and these are I didn't originally put these in order I don't think I did but now that I'm looking at it again yeah I think these are in order one two three all right so my top one is the gold mint trail to the mint Hut that's my number one hike I didn't have that one oh because I hated that trail yeah yeah I liked the end point but I did not enjoy the trail I got stung by wasps yeah that wasn't fun for either of us but definitely you but the trail out there it did suck but it was that type 2 fun where it was just so hard to get out there and then you get this amazing reward when you get up to the top just the I guess iconic maybe is the word of the Hut there with the big mountains back there it's just I don't think iconic is the right word but it was epic yeah epic yeah and then the little the campsite we had was just probably the best one we ever had and then from a tent and then the little side hike up to the the glacier fed lakes with those mountains up there that was my number one no I I fully agree like the end of that hike was one of the most epic things we experienced in Alaska and I do have that experience as an answer to a different category so in order to not have to repeat everything he just said I feel the exact same way yeah it was one of the most breathtaking places we've ever been it was just Jagged Mountains Blue Lakes it was Unreal well my favorite hike though similar area but mine was Reed lakes and Hatcher Pass these are number one yeah do you have that on your list it's not on my list oh my really yeah I am shocked that hike I don't want to pick both from that area okay true valid so I the way I see it is like the Reed Lakes hike as a whole was more enjoyable than the hike to the mid Hut but the mint Hut end point was just slightly more epic but the Reed lace endpoint was still gorgeous you have those blue Lakes you get to hike from the one Lake to the other there's a waterfall along the way and just the sweeping views of the area it it was just stunning out there I I I'm really struggling to describe it I think the footage speaks for itself it was just insanely beautiful out there and the trail itself was not that hard to navigate minus the boulder section was kind of hard but it was that water like in between where I almost fell in was fun it was it was so beautiful too yeah without hike that whole area was just Hatcher Pass yeah highly recommend Hatcher Pass yep all right my number two is so this one has like I guess sentimental value for me so the eagle and Symphony lakes in the chugach state park I'm glad you said that one because that was one of my contenders and I was like I hope Adam picks this one because I want to but I don't think I'm going to so what this stood out for me was when the hike was awesome the entire way it was an enjoyable hike but then you get to the end and you not only have two lakes that are right next to each other but they're different colors because they are you know fed by different things ones a glacier fed the other one is a snow melt so they're just completely different you don't see that I can't think of anywhere else I'm sure there's something out there but we've never seen it and then you can hike up to get a better view if you want but what puts it over the edge for me is me catching my first fish that was the best ever well catching I hooked to them you touched it yeah for a second yeah but that I guess the sentimental reason puts that over so that might not be the same for everybody but just the Viewpoint at the end and the trail out there yeah spectacular incredible hike and the footage we got of Adam catching those fish and like falling and so excited is the makes me like almost cry which is happiness just how much joy he has it just brings me so much joy so it was fun yeah that hike was awesome all right my second one was the Harding ice field I have that one okay good I was like you better have at least same ones yeah I mean the Harding eyes feel just feels like another planet like that end point at the end even though it was kind of rainy and a little foggy we didn't get to see it on its clearest day it was just ice as far as the eye can see I think some people uh responded to us on Instagram saying this looks like Interstellar like it just looks like another planet but not even just the end point was great like the whole hike I mean the tree part was fine it wasn't overly exciting but once you get out of the trees you have views of the glacier you have used the mountains around you kind of go into this more Tundra area and then you go into this area that's just more like gray and black rocks and like like loose dirt and it felt like we were walking on a volcano or another planet the Hut thing was cool it was just the amount of different scenery on the hike just made it super interesting tons of variety on that yeah walking next to the glacier most of the time and then when you get to the top there's the Hut which is really cool and you already said this but then you see the ice field and you can just see ice as far oh yeah as you can see I mean we couldn't see that Park as all the clouds but yeah it's there and it's amazing and we love glaciers and icy things so yeah loved that hike I think you're done with house right all right so my third hike and I kind of went back and forth on this one but I really loved the crow pass to Raven Glacier Trail so we did that one in our chugach state park chugach mountains video along with the one where he caught the fish and just the scenery on that hike I don't know it was like really green at first and it got really rugged and Rocky and I kind of felt like maybe we were in like Iceland or something through all these waterfalls we saw the goats yeah like it just had this you know we went on a more cloudy foggy day but even so it was still really beautiful and we could see most of the views still that Lake was really cool there was still ice chunks in it and then we hiked to the glacier Overlook and that was just unreal I think that was one of our first Glacier experiences in Alaska like on a hike yeah it was just incredible I just really enjoyed that hike even though the weather was really cold and windy and kind of brutal at times next up our favorite town I went through all the towns we went through and I thought about I think I kind kind of categorize this one by which one would I want to live in the most maybe um so I went with Valdez I knew you were gonna take that one yeah I knew you'd pick it so the scenery Just Around Town number one as soon as you get there and the drive-in is unbeatable I thought it had the best scenery because if you're there on a clear day which we only had part of a clear day but when it's clear there are giant mountains in every direction it is spectacularly beautiful but there's a great Library there there's a nice little coffee shop that we love good food if you're wanting to get out on the water there's all kinds of stuff for that nice little walkable area I would have loved to spend more time there and we will we will we will all right well I struggled with this one big time because I loved all the towns we went to I thought the Homer spit was super cute and was really walkable it's a little touristy but I just thought it had like a really cute kind of like fun vibe tal keatona had a lot of characters Seward had beautiful views we didn't really spend much time in Seward like the town itself but the area was beautiful and then I just thought hope felt the most authentic it was just really small and just really historic the community there seemed really strong but I also went with Valdez yeah yeah I really went back and forth but I for me like I kind of thought of it similarly to you not just the town itself because Valdez maybe wasn't like the most uh touristy feeling one it felt more like local but I think that's why I liked it is because it felt less touristy but for me it all came down to like the area as a whole it just how beautiful it was the things to do in the area just kind of took it to the top but yeah I mean if I had to think of any drawback it would be you know where it is it'd be really hard to get to and yeah it's a trek out there but if you can get out there it's worth it yeah the area was just incredible next we have our favorite National Park so Alaska has eight national parks total only three of them are accessible by vehicle we only went to the three accessible by vehicle just because logistically with having know who's napping right behind me and also just financially with like how much money it costs to fly out to them or take a boat out to them it just didn't make sense for this trip we wanted to make this a very like RV van like road trip Focus trip and we'll come back to do the rest don't you worry but I think we both agree on out of the three we went to went to Denali Wrangle San Elias and Kenai fjords I think we both have the same answer for this one say it on three three two one I mean yeah I think the video alone just says why we loved it so much like the boat tour where the glaciers were calving was one of the most insane things my eyeballs have ever seen all the seals yeah all the wildlife whales the cute sea otters yeah just all the mountains out there and then the Harding ice field was one of my favorite hikes going down to the bottom of the glacier it was a glacier with incredible I mean the Seward area alone is just it's a great location for a park because Seward itself is really cool yeah easy to access the park I mean easy awesome boondocking yeah right there on that uh River area there yeah yeah it was just definitely the best one I don't think I smiled as much in Alaska as I did as when we were in that Park that was just unlike any experience I've ever had in my lifetime yup our top three experiences and this one again I ranked number one two three in order here so my first one is the ice climbing okay yeah me too yeah yeah mine's not necessarily in order but I did list ice climbing first yeah that one was just so much fun it was challenging exhilarating thrilling our guides were just so friendly and amazing and they made it even took it to the next level and yeah just kind of conquering your fear on that and just having so much fun even just walking on the glacier was a ton of fun it was just a complete cool experience start to finish literally cool it just it took me out of my comfort zone and I like a challenge and even though I cried a little and it was really hard and I cursed a lot it was I left feeling so proud of myself and it was just so rewarding and it's one of those uniquely Alaskan experiences that yes you can do it in other a few other parts of the US are known for ice climbing and you can do it around the world but it's one of those things that you know really just feels like an Alaskan experience to me so yeah I also agree yeah okay my second one was the major Marine Boat Tour yeah I figured he'd have the same on this one and we already kind of covered it but that was just it was my number one pinch me day it was the day where I my jaw was hitting the floor the entire day it was just phenomenal the crew is great the views were great it was you have to do it you have to do it I thought it was fun too just being on that big boat and going through that Gulf there with like the rocking waves and make sure if you're going on a rough day like that take the motion sickness pill to help you there but I thought it was a blast yeah it would feel like a ride my third experience is backpacking at ketchumac Bay is that yours too like nodding yes but no it's in my probably top four or five but it's not what I was going to say like I said in the video it just felt like an Alaskan experience taking that water taxi across the bay hiking up to that lake with the glacier across it beautiful setting awesome campsite and then the next day we hiked out to that tram which was too much fun and it was just super unique it was super unique and I definitely agree that was one of our top experiences but I was gonna say the backpacking trip to the mint Hut because it was very memorable in many ways uh the mud the water the Wasps but as I said earlier like that end point was just the best and so as an experience as a whole I will forever cherish that backpacking trip and remember it even though it didn't make my top hikes like just the experience yeah one of my best experiences and now maybe the most fun category the top three things we ate in Alaska I struggled with this one I had big time a good time with it it wasn't because I didn't enjoy the food everything we ate was good it was just too many choices Alaska's not really necessarily like unless you're eating Seafood we have been told that it's not really a foodie State and everything's pretty expensive so we didn't eat out a ton so everything we did eat out we made sure was going to be really good so maybe that's why it was all just equally good that it was hard to pick what was the best I still don't know my third I'm just gonna see how I feel soon all right you want to go first yeah sure so I didn't these aren't ranked so but the first one that came to mind was the spinach bread yeah that was my number one yeah it was so good yeah so garlic cheese carbs carbs so a crispy pillowy bread how do you what what more do you want I mean and then throw some spinach on there just some for some flavor yeah yeah you can't be we could eat like a whole tray of that like that was so good that was so good my uh second one was the baked Alaska ice cream cone at Wild Scoops that's my other one that's one of my other ones I struggled with because we ate uh wild Scoops a couple times in Alaska and then we also went to Carmen's gelato on the Homer spit and that gelato was Top Notch so I really struggled because I didn't want to pick two ice creams as my top foods but I went with the baked Alaska cone at Wild Scoops because it's just very unique they you know use their homemade marshmallow fluff they swirl and then they torch it it's just such a unique ice cream experience and very very delicious and the ice cream was great too and The Cone yeah the whole cup and scoop the whole experience there is in my top five of ice cream places the flavor was uh rhubarb crisp oh man it had so much fruit in there so many chunks and like little pieces and bits of the uh streusel bits in there oh it's so good that's one of my top flavors ever and then the cone was really good it was unique it had different spices in it so a different flavor and then the baked Alaska yeah so good all right my last one then is uh the moose's tooth Pizza unique flavors they had a ton of different flavors of pizza combinations you know and then we got the big one so I loved the volume of that pizza we didn't finish it all we ate it more like the next day or that night I think breakfast the next day was more Moose's tooth it was so good it was so unique and yeah it's just one of those iconic Anchorage spots so I almost picked that one I really struggled with my third I have a couple written down I have an honorable mention I might just go like solely because we ate here multiple times and it just makes me happy to think about Taco King oh really I don't know we went to this place called Taco King in Anchorage the first time was the day we got into Anchorage we did not film it and we were just so hungry we decided to go eat out and a subscriber of ours who lives in Alaska mentioned Taco King is a good like cheaper place to eat so we went and I just thought it was so good like maybe we were really hungry that day but the tacos were good the tortillas were good the salsas were good and then we went back again after Hatcher passed and yeah I almost said that El Gringo's place we went to in Anchorage the burrito we got the burrito with our friends yeah oh yeah that was I almost said that too yeah it's like a taco truck right by the famous snow City Cafe we went there with our friends the mandigies who were travel bloggers that were in town on a work trip and that was really good too so that was another one I was deciding between my honorable mention is is the um the burrito I had at the potato yeah yeah the potato was really good too and the fries were good I I wrote down like all of these it's like well this was good because of this it was hard to pick so it was hard to pick but yeah like we said we didn't eat out every meal in Alaska we really tried to be selective and all the spots we went to were top-notch all right our favorite coffee that we had in Alaska it's an important category very important y'all know we love our coffee we went to a handful of places a good amount both on the Vlog and off the Vlog but my favorite coffee drink and probably coffee shop was the Coffee Co in Valdez specifically for the Hipster moose mocha yeah I forgot that oh that was so good we loved it so much that we actually had that drink twice in one day that did not make the Vlog but it was chocolate Maple spice and pistachio I've never had any drink like it the pistachio took it to the next level it was so sweet so good I think we even shared an Americano we went again and we like worked and stuff so I think we had like a non-sweet drink and they were all so good just a super cool local spot I think I would pick that now thinking about it as my best coffee drink but my favorite coffee place I went to was Barrio and Seward the the mountains out and the water right there you can't beat that I think and then it just had fun and unique drinks too that's my spot yeah no that was a really cool spot and I don't think we've ever been to a coffee shop with as good of used as that one yeah and then my honorable mention is Goldie's coffee in Anchorage just cool little local spot and then also kaladi Brothers which they dominate the Anchorage area uh with coffee but we worked at one on the east side of town and it was just really big awesome Mountain views just right out the windows and free coffee refills next up is our favorite camping spot and this is specifically camping in our van not in our tent and so the way I kind of prioritize this is if it has the van life Trifecta so has epic views it has close to amenities and easy to access and then also has cell service so my pick is this Riverside campsite right on the matanusco river oh yeah yeah that was great yeah over by um it's like east of Palmer and Wasilla area you just pull up very easy access right off the highway but it's pretty quiet you don't hear much traffic you see the river yeah you hear the river rushing mountains across the way it's pretty secluded not very busy cell service you can work there hang out I don't think close to town 20 minutes to town I don't think we filmed that one ever we might have something on our phone we can put up right now okay yeah I think we have some phone footage but we didn't actually show that one in a video but it was a really good spot I have two I had a hard time with this one yeah I kind of did two because if we're being honest we stayed at a lot of parking lots and like just off the side of a road it wasn't as glamorous and we'll kind of touch on that more later but yeah it wasn't as glamorous of camping as maybe we envisioned in Alaska most of the time just because we need cell service but I have two kind of the first one is kind of the trifecta sort of but maybe it doesn't have the close to a town as much but I loved the one at Moose's Moose's pass moose pass yeah the Trail Lake pull out it is just this pull out off the road but it's kind of tucked away from the road is this huge open area the first night we stayed there was the Fourth of July and it was a humongous mistake they were like a million RVs there people playing music till 3am we were getting very annoyed but if scenery was epic you're right on this Lake that has this like blue milky water mountains all around we kayaked out there one day they're also um like the seaplane so the sea planes would take off and land from the lake it was just super cool and we had cell service there so that was a huge perk so I'd say like overall that was probably my favorite um the second time we stayed there was better people were not nearly as Rowdy so it got points back but if I'm going off of just like I don't know maybe even just awesome views I love the one on exit Glacier Road we were just right on that riverbed mountains all around but it did not have cell service so that's the only reason I did not pick that for our final category we have the best scenic drive and I'm fairly confident we have the same answer so so driving into Valdez yeah going over Thompson Pass going through Keystone Canyon waterfalls giant mountains Tundra landscape unreal yeah I knew we'd both take that one it was it was the best and we drove into it the first time around 10 something p.m around Sunset we did not plan to get there that late but it actually turned out to be the best thing ever because it was a clear day which was kind of rare and we had that Sunset lighting when we first like saw those insane just sharp Peaks over near Thompson Pass I I gasped it was just the most incredible thing you could see the Worthington Glacier which was so beautiful and the sunset light then yeah driving through Keystone Canyon it was just it's an unreal drive and even the whole drive from Anchorage to Valdez is just stunning so the whole drive itself but specifically that portion and for the next section of this video we're going to share some of our top tips for Alaska and over our time in Alaska we've just been taking copious notes in our phone kind of just brain dumping anything we could think of that might be helpful for those visiting Alaska and when we get back to Texas later this year we're gonna work on a bunch of really detailed guides and itineraries including doing all that info but we just cannot get that done until probably December or January so here are some of our top tips that we felt like sharing right now but stay tuned for those later this year our first tip is to download offline maps and this is a tip that we recommend for anywhere you go but cell service can vary a bit in Alaska we'll cover more about cell service in a bit but it's just always helpful to have Google Maps downloaded Offline that way you can navigate while you're driving without getting lost and then also download offline maps for all trails that way if you're going on a hike and you don't have service you can still know where to go and you do not get lost tip number two summer is construction season so there's a joke we heard a lot in Alaska that there's two seasons in Alaska there's winter and construction season so when you're planning your route be sure to plan in extra time because you could run into construction anywhere along that way so it was never a big hassle for us or a big delay but it could be there so make sure you plan in some extra time tip number three do not try to do it all not only is Alaska a massive state but most of of it isn't even accessible by a car you have to take a plane or a boat which gets expensive really really fast so we suggest if you're planning a trip to Alaska just try to focus on kind of one general area and explore that area more in depth we had two and a half months in Alaska but between us getting covered which kind of knocked us out for two weeks as well as just needing to work and edit videos we probably only had a month of actual exploring and we still feel like there was so much we missed we kind of did a what we're calling a scratch the surface tour of Alaska where we went to as many places as we could driving at least but we had to kind of rush around and so we spent a lot of time just in the car driving instead of spending more time in each place and so there was just a lot of stuff like little things like hidden gems that we didn't have time for we only really had time for the popular spot so next time in the future and for your trip we suggest kind of just honing in on one general area exploring it more in depth and then just trying to come back to Alaska in the future to see other spots because many people told us you cannot see Alaska in one trip tip number four don't sleep on the non-national park areas most places National Parks get a lot of hype and a lot of love and that's for good reason but with that they bring a lot of crowds and we loved visiting all three of the national parks we visited in Alaska but some of our favorite moments from our time in Alaska were not in National Parks so just don't forget and don't sleep on those non-national Park areas yeah you'll miss out on some real gems by just going to the national parks in Alaska and to be honest all of Alaska feels like a national park let's make the whole state of national you just you just can't go wrong with any Savannah tip number five the real buzz on mosquitoes so this is more of an observation than a tip but we had heard you know on our way to Alaska the mosquitoes were going to be super annoying a big nuisance state bird of Alaska all this stuff but that really wasn't our experience at all yeah we did not encounter very many mosquitoes in Alaska we hear that they're worse more Inland kind of near Fairbanks and we did experience them more near toke and it's Denali but once we got south of there like we hardly noticed any mosquitoes at all we found them be way worse on the drive up to Alaska through British Columbia and the Yukon like when we were in the Yukon they were humongous mosquitoes and I was like this is not going to be this is not going to be good if Alaska is like desperate yeah but then we got to Alaska we like barely even experienced them so a lot of people have been curious like how did our thermacell work because we talked about how we got a thermocell for the trip but we can't even tell you how it worked because we hardly even used it we used it like twice yeah to be honest we didn't sit outside and just hang out a lot you know when we're filming we're filming and then when we're done we come in the van and we're working so we didn't really use the thermosol yeah we're not just like outside sitting there where they can come attack us maybe as much as other people are but you know we hiked we were outside a lot and we barely even wore bug spray so I don't know we don't want people to not be prepared for the mosquitoes definitely bring some bug spray the thermacell probably is good to have we also have these wristbands but I just think they were over hyped a bit we've been to places where there were worse like Minnesota the the Wind River range was worse so I don't know we're very thankful this was our experience and hopefully it wasn't just a one-off but yeah we just don't think we just think it was we were we were scared and it ended up not being nearly as bad tip number six nowhere to shop before we came to Alaska we had heard that grocery prices were going to be a lot higher and the selection was not going to be very good and while this was true in the smaller towns meat and produce a lot more expensive not very much variety to choose from but in the Anchorage area we didn't really have much of an issue with it Anchorage has a lot of really large grocery stores they have like Fred Meyer so they have a ton of selection there the prices didn't seem that much higher to us they probably were higher but not enough that we were like gasping unless you want like asparagus which is like nine and avocados yeah those are really high everywhere get those here but our tip would be because you're most likely if you're flying into Alaska you'll fly into Anchorage so stock up on groceries in Anchorage if you can if you have a way to keep it cool if you're going to be in an RV or you have some sort of cooler you can bring you know you can bring a cool on the airplane just try to stock up on as much stuff as you can in Anchorage because you'll save money you'll have a better selection that way you're not having to buy a full like weeks worth of groceries down and you know I don't know hope they don't I don't think Hope Has a grocery store but you know the grocery store by Denali National Park was was not the best so um we would suggest you know just stocking up an Anchorage also if you are a Costco member go to Costco in Alaska a good way to stock up yeah we so we normally like bulk goods and Van life do not mix at all so we actually canceled our Costco membership when we moved from Seattle into the van but we are now Costco members again baby we rejoined we rejoined Costco in Alaska because as you may remember we have our hanger box under our bed where we can store more goodies and before we came to Alaska we stocked up on a bunch of stuff from Costco highly recommend that if you're driving up and then we ate it all because we like to eat so we were out of all of our tasty snacks acts we wanted them again and we figured with the price savings at Costco we could make back the membership cost and a few visits and I'm I think we did three visits and I'm pretty sure we already made it back that's a good deal yeah and if you can buy you know meat they have like already cooked meals you can make it if you're staying in an Airbnb or have an RV it would be such a good way to just save some money and cook some meals so yeah we're proud Costco members again you can also get some pizza a hot dog that's the best pizza value out it'll be like your cheapest Alaska meal if you go to Costco tip number seven be prepared for rain it's no secret looking at our videos that we had quite a bit of rain and gloomy weather in Alaska when we got to Alaska in mid-june it was really sunny and it was quite a bit warmer I think we had some days that hit the 80s which I know isn't that hot but for Alaska it felt kind of warm and then after like the first week of July things just kind of took a turn and it got really rainy and gloomy and also much chillier most days were I'd say 50s or 60 degrees as the high with chiller temperatures in the mornings so we have heard that August is definitely the Rainier season in Alaska July can also be pretty rainy I think I had heard that this July was a little Rainier than normal and then the June was drier and sunnier than normal so if you want like the best chance of the best weather try to come to Alaska in June but keep in mind like higher elevation stuff might still have a good amount of snow so you might be more limited that way but if you come during the Rainier months just have a good attitude because it's still so beautiful even in the rain not every day with a complete washout most days were not a washout we still had sunny days sprinkled in it's not all a lost cause and just be flexible if you can we rearrange stuff quite a bit to try to have better weather as many days as we could so if you have some flexibility just try to be flexible there are things you can do when it's rainy you can go check out like a cool Museum or go check out a cool town we visited hope in the rain and it was still nice you can go to waterfalls you can do things that aren't as dependent on like sweeping views so maybe go to a glacier or something that's a little bit like under the clouds that you can still see so there are options but yeah if you hate the rain just maybe don't come in August for sure but with that said the forecast might call for rain all day and it might not rain at all yeah or it will rain on or you know be very sporadic you can always find like I feel like it's not always rainy everywhere you can find somewhere to go that may not be as rainy yeah and so with that said you're going to want to bring layers and you're going to want to bring some waterproof boots or some kind of shoes you know for the trails so layers you know it might be hot in the morning and then a rainstorm might come vice versa so you'll be taking off putting back on layers and then also waterproof shoes so walking around here we saw a lot of people with those extra tough boots on so and we just couldn't figure out why is everybody wearing them but after a few days we learned why everyone in Alaska wears extra tough yeah so I mean you could even just bring you know cheap rubber boots from any kind of store that'll get you by for your vacation and it would have been nice for us to have them but we got by but waterproof shoes in some form will be really helpful and then maybe some waterproof pants as well because walking through Trails there's lots of brush and your pants are gonna get wet and then walking around town raining stuff like that so layers and waterproof stuff yeah you definitely want to make sure you're going to be as comfortable as possible with all the weather changes there and yeah there were some days I wore a tank top to start out and I ended up in four layers at the end of the day but be comfortable being uncomfortable because you're going to be taking all these layers and you're gonna have to carry it on the hike yeah you might just want to leave it on or or whatever so so yeah weather's a thing in Alaska just be open-minded just be just stay positive and you will still have fun tip number eight get the mile post but also use other sources one thing you hear when planning a trip to Alaska is that you have to get the mile post which is it calls itself the Bible of North Country travel and it's this real thick book with basically mile by mile descriptions for a ton of different routes in Alaska and what we did find it helpful I don't think we found it as helpful as others may find it helpful for us we used it more as like a pre-planning research tool so we would just look at the row like the Alaska Highway for example and see just kind of what stops IT recommended along the way anything we needed to know and we would use it before we actually went on the Alaska Highway where some people apparently I've heard a lot of people are like oh I haven't opened the whole drive and I'm reading it mile by mile as we're driving and we never once opened this thing when we were driving yeah I'd say it's a good like we said a research tool and then also a good backup so if you're you don't have cell service you didn't download that Google Map or something and you need fuel it's going to have a bunch of fuel stops in here so it is it is a very valuable resource but we did find like reading travel blogs and watching YouTube videos to also give us the supplements yeah to kind of supplement the research we found some spots because of the mile post we found some spots because of blogs and YouTube videos so don't just rely on this get it but also use other stuff too so number nine not all camping is glamorous when we pictured camping in Alaska we picture these epic nature spots mountains all around you know glaciers while some spots were like that the reality was most of these spots are hard to get to really far from amenities and just have no cell service and so in other words they do not meet the van life Trifecta at least for us we rely on having cell phone service so we can work at night and you know a lot of the rvers and Van lifers we met in Alaska are also working full-time and need service so I think we were all in agreeance that Alaska does have a lot of free places to camp you can basically Camp it and you like pull out along the highway as long as it's not noted that you cannot camp overnight there yeah as long as there's no sign so there are a lot of options and it tends to be a little bit more flexible there than other states we've been to but it feels like most the time we were camping in parking lots whether we're on the turning in arm next to the busy road great views but really loud or at the Cabela's we stayed there a few times off and on which has like 50 RVs every single night maybe it wasn't as glamorous as we envisioned so we just kind of wanted to share that so maybe you go into it with more realistic expectations of where you'll stay there are some beautiful nature spots that do have cell service but for the most part we were parking lot hopping tip number 10 cell service does exist but it may vary when you picture Alaska the Last Frontier you might think there's going to be no cell service out there but we have a t and Verizon and for the most part in all the towns we had cell service one of those worked and then for most of the drives we had cell service too I think the two drives that really stand out to me that we did not have cell service was driving through the Kenai Peninsula you kind of didn't really have cell service until you hit a town and then also on the Glen Allen highway from like the Matanuska Glacier to actual Glen Allen we didn't really have any service and then near Denali it was kind of spotty but fun fact fun for us I guess because we worked there for like three days the Denali Visitor Center yeah that area of the park has amazing cell phone service and many of y'all had suggested or asked like why don't you get starlink but starlink actually does not work north of like Midway through British Columbia and up so it does not work in Alaska currently we did look into it but it was not going to work for us so that's why we did not have it tip number 11 do not let Bears scare you from visiting Alaska to be honest I had really bad bear anxiety leading up to Alaska like the months leading up to getting to Alaska I was just really scared of hiking in Alaska because anytime we're gonna go hike somewhere where there are bears especially grizzly bears I just get really anxious and I just in my mind I I just feel like there's gonna be bears everywhere like we're gonna be walking this we just buried around everything there's like squirrels like when you see squirrels all over the place I just envisioned that many bears but the reality is we saw barely any bears we saw two grand total of two one was from the car the other one the potential Grizzly was on a trail and that was pretty scary and I was pretty nervous the rest of the time but we never had a bad interaction with the bear and from talking to other people it's really really rare to have a bad interaction with a bear so don't let the fear of a bear scare you from visiting Alaska you may have a different experience than us you might see a hundred Bears we'd be very jealous but you may see none so I just would be sad if anyone decided not to go to Alaska because they were afraid of bears I feel you I know how that feels but it's really there aren't bears everywhere like you think they'll be they kind of know to stay away from like the popular Trails because they don't want to see humans just as much as you don't want to see them so just know what to do if you see a bear carry bear spray know how to properly store food and just make a lot of noise while hiking and you should be okay although our adventures in Alaska are over well sort of stay tuned for what we mean by that we still have so many incredible Adventures planned for the rest of the year both here in Canada and some brand new spots in the lower 48. but if you have any questions about visiting Alaska let us know in the comments we're happy to help answer anything we can and then stay tuned for later this year or maybe early next year we crank out a bunch of guys itineraries and other helpful info about Alaska well now what was your favorite thing we did in Alaska was it the boat ride was it the tram was it swimming in all the glacier Lakes oh did you like cuddling in our tent did you like hiking do you want to go for a hike oh you love hiking [Music]

Channel: Adventures of A+K

Views: 29,452

Keywords: alaska travel, travel alaska, alaska trip, alaska travel guide, what to do in alaska, top 10 things to do in alaska, things to do in alaska, alaska places, best places to visit in alaska, alaska 2022, alaska things to do, alaska trip planning, visit alaska, alaska tourism, top places to visit in alaska, alaska travel tips, places to visit in alaska, alaska road trip, van life alaska, rv alaska, best place to visit in alaska

Id: ZsN34gNdbzc

Length: 39min 36sec (2376 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 29 2022