Books, Bites, and Sights

When we finished, we drove from Anchorage down the Alaskan Highway through Alberta, Canada and reentered the United States in North Dakota. That took us nearly a week, but again, we made many stops along the way (one of my favorite parts of this 63 in 365 journey actually!). Again, we slept in parking lots and pull-offs along the way.

And yes, it is expensive. Amory and I saved money where we could, but we also splurged when we wanted. Look. Two people. A month in Alaska. Flights. Gas. Food. Lodging. Stickers (duh, a must). Plan to spend $15,000. Yup. You read that right. $15,000. You may spend less. You may be bougie and spend more. But I can confidently tell you that $15,000 is a good baseline for how much you’ll spend if you are like us and trying to check all the parks off your list in one go.

How can you save?

• Buy food from a grocery store rather than eating out: Eating in Alaska in general is expensive. But eating tuna, protein bars, oatmeal, etc can save you lots.
• BYOC, Bring your own car – if you can: You need a 4-wheel drive car to explore Alaska in the capacity we did, but sleeping in and driving our own car saved us the cost of a rental car and in lodging.
• Just hike instead of doing flight/boat/bus tours, when possible: Some of the parks you can not escape the dumb expensiveness of the flight tours and, truthfully, even though they were very expensive, the flight tours were my favorite parts of exploring Alaska, but if you needed to save, skip the tours and explore via foot.

#1. Denali National Park

July 1st and 2nd, 2026

Bites

Readers, if you know me – you know I am a hot dog girly. I love them, so when we passed Denali Doghouse (less than 10 minutes from the Denali Visitor Center), I couldn’t resist. Fast. Fresh. Affordable. And even accommodating – peep the lettuce bun Amory ordered below.

#2. Kenai Fjords National Park

July 2nd – 5th, 2026

To get to our second national park in Alaska, Amory and I drove to Seward, Alaska from Denali National Park – roughly 6.5 hours.

Camping

• Creek View Campground: simple campground with privacy walls between each site, potable water and electric hookups at each site, port-a-potties nearby, $55 a night
• Seward Municipal Campground: options for shoreline or wooded sites (we had one night in each type), bathhouse nearby with free showers and flush toilets – cleanliness of the bathhouse/restrooms was hit-or-miss, $20 a night

Attractions

Alaska SeaLife Center

• Downtown Seward; Walkable to from the Seward Municipal Campground
• $35 a ticket
• 2 hours is enough time for the complete experience
• Highlights: Touch tanks, up close puffin encounters, sea lions, seals

#3. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

July 6th and 7th, 2026

To get to national park number three on our Alaskan leg of the 63 in 365 journey, Amory and I drove up from Seward, Alaska, down the infamous 60 mile McCarthy gravel road, to Wrangell – St. Elias National Park – a 10.5 hour excursion.

Books, Bites, Insights? for driving down McCarthy road:

• Go slow – seriously. We had to stop and help someone who blew a tire along the way. At times, you may feel you can pick up the speed, but don’t. Just take your time and avoid the headache of a roadside emergency.
• It isn’t as bad as Reddit makes it sound. I didn’t feel the road was as bad as some users made it out to be in terms of conditions or windiness (but remember, Amory and I drive a 4Runner – not a sedan); Many portions were actually paved.
• Be prepared. There is no gas nor no cell service once you pass Chitina, AK.

Bites

• Ernesto’s Latin Cuisine in Glennallen, Alaska: One of the last places you can stop before heading deeper into the Alaskan backcountry on your way to Wrangell – St. Elias NP. The staff and owner couldn’t have been kinder – offering me upgraded menu items at no cost.
• Kennicott Glacier Lodge’s breakfast buffet and lunch/dinner menu: Books, Bites, and Insights? If Amory and I were to replan our visit to WSENP, we would purchase the food plan through the lodge. The food was fresh, varied, and overall tasty every time. Dairy-free, gluten-free, and other accommodations were available.
• The Meatza Wagon food truck: A must when visiting the Kennicott Mill Town – located right outside the lodge’s front steps. Choosing only one thing from the Meatza Wagon’s unique menu was the hardest part. I ended up going with their Salmon BLT – Wild caught sockeye salmon, local greens, hickory smoked bacon, wrapped in a pita bread.
• Strawberry smoothie at Koya’s Cup Espresso in Chitina, Alaska: The last stop before getting to the gravel portion of the McCarthy road. We didn’t stop on our way in, but snagged a smoothie on our way out. Nothing fancy. But hit the spot none the less.

#4. Katmai National Park

July 10th – 13th, 2026

Now for my favorite Alaskan park – Katmai. Biggest suggestion I have: stay a night or two either in the campground or at the lodge. If you can’t no biggie – go anyway! But if you can, it is a life changing experience. Once the day crowds dissipate, you can experience the park, the falls, and the bears, in a more unique, isolated way that just isn’t possible with the day time crowds and wait times.

Getting There

• Flight to King Salmon Airport from Anchorage, AK: Paid with airline points (roughly an $800 dollar equivalent) for two people round trip through Alaska Airlines
• Water taxi from King Salmon’s Lake Camp Boat Launch to Brooks Camp in KNP through Katmai Water Taxi: bus shuttle from airport to boat launch included, water taxi trip cannot be booked as a roundtrip and must be booked as singular trips to and fro, $410 plus tip for two people one way, 45 minute ride, weather dependent

Once you arrive at Brooks Camp, it is a short walk to the visitor center for check-in and mandatory bear school (the do’s and don’t while in Katmai amount the bears). Readers – I was worried about the logistics of arriving and checking-in, but it was one of the easiest processes of our Alaskan leg. Very self-explanatory and an abundance of helpful staff along the way.

Camping

Brooks Campground

• Very competitive
• Must apply via recreation.gov; however, sites sell out within minutes of becoming available – we secured our spots for July in February.
• $20 a night
• An abundant amount of gas canisters and bug sprays were left behind and up for the taking by previous campers, so if you’re flying and can’t bring those things, don’t worry.
• Worried about bears? Don’t be. I was. But after going to the bear school and setting up camp, I quickly realized how safe and secure the campground is. All campers were intentional with taking precautions and following the rules. Additionally, the entire campground was encompassed by an electric fence to deter the bears away and the food caches were secure and easy to use.

If you go during the day when the day crowd is there expect to wait 1 to 2 hours during peak times to be allowed onto the platforms. Yep. 1 to 2 hours. When you get to the platforms, you put your name on a list and your waiting game begins – which stinks, especially if you have a set time you have to depart the park. Because Amory and I camped multiple nights, we were able to go before and after the day crowds – which allowed us to go out onto the platforms immediately without any wait time for as long as we wanted.

Bites

• Watters Edge food truck in King Salmon: Across the road from the airport – we ordered the grilled salmon with pasta salad and white rice while we waited for our bus shuttle to the water taxi
• King Salmon Groceries: Again, a simple walk across the road from the airport – not expecting much but being pleasantly surprised, we found Kombucha Town’s (a semi-local company – brewed in Bellingham, WA) Blueberry White kombucha and their Live Seltzer Cucumber Probiotic sparkling water
• Katmai Lodge’s breakfast and dinner buffets: Let’s be honest readers – lodge food. Typically, historically, cliche-ily never good. And in a remote, water-locked part of Alaska? Forget about it. But shockingly not here. Not at Katmai. Katmai Lodge’s food was by far the best lodge food I have ever had in my life. Well worth the price. Everyday the menu changed and offered an abundance of choice with all the accommodations.

The ambiance at Katmai’s Brooks Lodge is unmatched. When escaping the rain, we found ourselves snuggled up by the fireplace, chatting with strangers from all over the globe, and playing dominoes. Such a respite from the grind of daily life in our modern world.

#5. Glacier Bay National Park

July 15th – 17th, 2026

Getting There

After flying back to Anchorage from King Salmon, Amory and I caught a flight into Juneau, exploring the city during our layover, on our way to our fifth Alaskan park – Glacier Bay.

Logistics:

• Fly to Juneau from Anchorage
• Fly from Juneau to Gustavus – $734.04 for both Amory and I’s round trip tickets

If you have a long layover like Amory and I did, Juneau is worth checking out. We had to Uber to and from the airport (~$40 round trip), but I highly recommend it. Juneau is a beautiful city, squished into the cloudy, misty mountainside. With loads of cafes, food trucks, and shops to explore: I put it at the top of my list of places to revisit when we come back to Alaska.

Hiking/Attractions

• Casually walk the shoreline to the campground: Otters on otters on otters!
• Ranger Evening Program at 6 pm upstairs at the visitor center: TBH, and as mentioned above, experiences in Glacier Bay are limited, so why not sit in on an evening program? We learned more about GBNP, glaciers in general, and how glaciers shaped the geological and historical history park.
• Xunaa Shuká Hít (Huna Ancestors’ House): Open 1 – 5:30 with a recorded program running every 30 – 45 minutes; worth a stop if you are free, especially to learn more about the native people of the area. And if I am being honest, while listening to the speakers, I found myself emotional and crying – quickly feeling deeply spiritual in the space and overly connected to my own ancestors and past.
• Forest Loop Trail (1 mile loop): A gentle hike through lush forest with viewing decks where wildlife often feed and rest – we saw a mama moose with claves eating water lillies at the blackwater pond
• Tlingit Trail (0.5 mile one way along shoreline) which connects to the Bartlett River Trail (4.5 mile in-and-out): The skeleton of Snow, a 45.5-foot-long female humpback whale, outside the visitor center at the start of the Tlingit Trail is a must see while the trek through the spruces and hemlocks to the mouth of the Bartlett River via the Bartlett River Trail is certainly skippable – but enjoyable nonetheless.

Books

The boat tour is an all day affair – so I spent a good portion of it with my feet kicked up reading and learning about both the plants and animals of the park.

#6 + #7. Kobuk Valley National Park and Gates of the Arctic National Park

July 20th – 23rd, 2026

After returning to Anchorage from Glacier Bay NP, Amory and I headed toward two of the most remote, two of the least visited, and two of the most expensive of all of the US National Parks – Kabuki Valley and Gates of the Arctic.

Want my unsolicited, hot take? These two were my least favorite of all the Alaskan parks, and, personally, both parks would rank significantly low on a list of all 63 national parks.

Before you go on and on about how I could have trekked more in both or rafted or whatever, those were not feasible or timely options for us. We visited these parks in the capacity most do (a touchdown flight tour), so keep in mind that my write up of these parks reflects my experience. Do these parks have more potential and have more to offer than what I experienced? Duh – which parks don’t? But I personally would hard skip visiting these two unless you are trying to check them off your park list.

Flight Tours

Step 4: book a flight tour with Golden Eagle Outfitters – a whopping $3900 for two people.

This experience was very underwhelming. And I would not recommend unless you really want to check off all the parks on your list. Was being in the remote wilderness, miles away from anyone, in legit silence a once in a lifetime experience? Yes – totally. Would I spend $4,000 or even $500 to do it again, nope. Absolutely not.

• 4 hours total
• We did see muskox from the sky
• Because of good weather, we were able to touchdown for about 30 minutes in both parks

#8. Lake Clark National Park

July 25th, 2026

Last, but not least – Lake Clark National Park. And boy did she gave use a lot of trouble. Because of weather, we had to reschedule our flight tour not once but twice. Luckily, we had loads of flexibility – with LCNP being our last scheduled park in Alaska, so we were prepared to wait the weather out.

Unfortunately, we did not get to go to Lake Clark itself – our flight tour taking us only to Chinitna Bay, a remote coastal estuary in the southern portion of LCNP. However, this is one of the Alaskan parks that I will gladly quote the terminator on, emphasizing: “I’ll be back.”

And that’s a wrap love bugs. It has been a wild last two months. Amory and I finished our journey. Signed a lease. Moved into our new apartment. I got a job teaching first grade! Ah! All the things. The transition has been overwhelming, but I am glad to be settling down for a spell. Keep reading below for my quick, hot take on Kristin Hannah and her novels – and be on the look out in the weeks to come for write ups on the final few parks of our 63 in 365 journey: Theodore, Wind Cave, and Acadia. XOXO, until next week (hopefully).

My Kristen Hannah Hot Takes

• Personal favorite? The Four Winds
• Over-hyped? The Nightingale
• Quick take? Her newer novels are significantly better than her older novels

Agree? Disagree? Hash it out with me in the comments, please.