Alaska: Wilderness, Denali and the Last Frontier

Once a rugged outpost on America’s final frontier and the hub for Alaska’s legendary Gold Rush, Fairbanks today is a welcoming city with fascinating Indigenous history and wilderness access available to modern-day adventurers. Settle in your hotel and relax before enjoying a special welcome reception and dinner at the home of a local dog musher. Learn about life and art of mushing dogs in Alaska and cuddle some cute pups soon to be trained for sled-team duties.

View Alaska’s iconic oil pipeline before visiting with reindeers to learn about their lives and habits on a walk through a black spruce forest. Get a taste for Fairbanks’ Gold Rush days as you pan for gold during an exclusive visit to a local family-owned panning operation. After lunch, tour the city to discover the area’s rich background, visiting the Morris Thompson Center to learn about Alaska’s Indigenous cultures.

Step aboard a deluxe dome rail for a scenic ride to Denali National Park — with its more than 9,400 square miles of breathtakingly beautiful wilderness — enjoying breakfast en route. Once inside the park, visit the Denali Discovery Center for a presentation by a local Alaskan. Explore the area with a guided hike to learn about the wildlife and flora of this ruggedly gorgeous setting. Settle into your hotel, where you bring your well-earned appetite to dinner.

Venture through Denali National Park by land and air today on an experience that includes a search for bears, moose, caribou and other native species. Then lift off by helicopter (weather permitting) for a flight over a glacier that reveals the rolling tundra, as you keep an eye out for wildlife, and finishes with a landing on the Yanert Glacier to walk its surface as North America’s first inhabitants once did.

Set out on the road less traveled — the Denali Highway to Valdez — rolling across glacier eskers, sand and gravel formed by ancient glacial riverbeds. Look out at an array of breathtaking scenery with binoculars at the ready for wildlife sightings. Along the way, visit the Wrangell-St. Elias Visitor Center to explore exhibits that introduce you to the Ahtna culture and people. Continue to Valdez and settle into your lodge. Not only is it the southern terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and the gateway to Prince William Sound, it’s also a living laboratory for understanding climate change, glacial dynamics and ecosystem recovery, shaped in part by the legacy of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Having viewed the pipeline in Fairbanks, now take a look at the terminus of this 800-mile-long line for transporting oil from Prudhoe Bay. Then get up-close views of blue-ice glaciers as you head out on a substantial kayak exploration of Valdez Glacier Lake, and your kayak guide recounts moments in the history of the region. Back on shore, tour a local brewery to learn about the brewing process and taste some of their best brews. Follow up with dinner at a brewery featuring fare from local restaurants accompanied, of course, by more beer.

Valdez is a perfect place to explore the rugged Alaskan landscapes. Begin your day with a walk along the pipeline up to a lake. Return for a city tour of Valdez that includes a visit to the Valdez Museum and Historical Archive to learn about the Copper River Basin, Prince William Sound and the history of the area.

Embark by boat for a cruise through Prince William Sound, viewing marine wildlife and glaciers en route to the community of Whittier, where you travel through the one-way Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, a monumental piece of road engineering. Then visit the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, a sanctuary for injured and abandoned wildlife, to learn how some of Alaska’s most iconic species, including moose, caribou and bears, are nursed back to health and prepared for reintroduction to the wild. Continue to Girdwood, where you settle into your fabulous resort and later gather for a farewell dinner at Seven Glaciers Restaurant, set atop Mount Alyeska at a scenery-laden 2,300 feet.

After breakfast, take your transfer to the airport in Anchorage for your departing flight.