Favorite Places in Alaska???

Kodiak Island (Fossil Beach is VERY cool)
Afognak Island (for the fishing)
Talkeetna (cool town plus a great place for river jet-boating)
Kenai Peninsula (very pretty plus things to do)
Homer Spit (because it's the Homer Spit!)

Interesting to see the different opinions and great to see all of them. Found it interesting after the cruise ships left how these towns change. For me the drive into Skagway and the scenery in the Haines/Skagway areas was pretty spectacular. The short drive from Skagway to the head of the Chilkoot Trail was interesting and one can actually enjoy a nice dinner in the evening after the cruise ships depart with local entertainment as a nice surprise. Valdez and the drive into Valdez was unexpected, just wow. Did the Denali Hwy #8 and found the views of the Alaska Range were mostly unobstructed by trees, with the potholes one must take your time but then why not. Alaska is an alluring place.

If you can be in Skagway when no cruise ships are there it's a great place to explore. Agreed with the above post that driving to the Chilkoot Trail is a must and try walking it if only for a very short distance. You'll have a better understanding of what they went through.

The drive to Valdez is awesome and again, seek out the parts of town that tourists rarely see.

We enjoy the drive to Homer and Seward - but not on the weekend! Alaskans are campers/fisherpersons, too, and that road is packed and dangerous on the weekend and holidays.

Denali National Park and Teklanika campground, in particular, are real jewels. We spent 10 nights in the park our last trip.

Alaska is amazing but don't forget about exploring Canada and the Yukon, too. Some places are even more beautiful than Alaska.

bob_nestor wrote:

mike-uswest wrote:
Soldatna,
Valdez,
Homer spit,
Denali,
Any place fish are running.

Mike

It's Soldotna, not Soldatna -- please don't start that argument all over again! It was fought and won years ago.

Sorry, my fingers have a mind of their own. They are wrong more than I am, and that is getting bad anymore.

Mike

I mentioned earlier that Valdez is one of my favorite places in Alaska, but New Valdez is now a scenic, mature, 50 year-old town in a completely different location than Old Valdez. My first trip there was only 8 years after the 1964 Earthquake. A few parts of Old Valdez still existed while the Valdez we see today was still under construction. And back then most of the old city blocks were covered with stacks of 48" steel pipe for the planned, but not-yet-built, Alyeska pipeline.

When I recently returned to Valdez, I drove all the old city streets that are still open to the public and read the information signs about the earthquake. But most RVers who visit there probably don't even think about the old town or its demise. In fact, many probably weren't born when it occurred, so 1964 isn't even a memory for them. But it is sobering to drive those old streets and realize that the wreck of the Exxon Valdez wasn't even of the same "magnitude" as the damage and death caused by the earthquake.

It's now hard to find evidence of the earthquake in other heavily damaged places like Seward, Whittier, and the Turnagain Heights area of Anchorage, but Old Valdez is still there for those who look for it. And you won't find many other towns in the US that were so successfully moved to a completely new location after a natural disaster!

south of Denali at Willow,turn east on Fishhook road (I think that is the name). It ends at Palmer or Wasilla,turns to stone rd but good. Lots of places to just park and camp and the views are astounding.

harley4275 wrote:
south of Denali at Willow,turn east on Fishhook road (I think that is the name). It ends at Palmer or Wasilla,turns to stone rd but good. Lots of places to just park and camp and the views are astounding.

It is marked Hatchers Pass road on the Willow end, on the descent after the Independence mine park area you can go to either Palmer or Wasilla depending which Fishhook road you choose. Plenty of free camping on the Willow side of the Pass, the other side is controlled by the Park service for day parking.

In no particular order:

Ninilchik/Deep Creek Beach SP, for the eagles up close & spectacular sunsets.
Teklaneka CG.
Chicken, for Chicken Stock music festival.
Seward, for the killer view across the bay.

Towns: Sitka (by far the best for us), Valdez, Homer.
Campsite: Boondocking on the Denali Highway as shown in my signature.

1] Alaska
2] Alaska
3] Alaska
4] Alaska

In that order.