Alaska by RV in 6 Days

Written By Laura O'Brien

  

Alaska by RV in 6 Days

Day 1: Arrive in Anchorage, Drive to Girdwood

  • 3PM: Arrive into Anchorage

  • 4PM: Picked up 32' RV rental from ABC Motorhomes, went to Wal-Mart to stock up on groceries for the week & hung out in the airport parking lot. This is a great place to park and watch the water planes land on the water! Not to mention, the views are incredible!

  • 7PM: Our friends arrived in Anchorage, we picked them. up from the airport and headed to Girdwood for the night 

  • Overnight: We stayed at Bird Creek Campground (no reso necessary)




Day 2: Girdwood, Coopers Landing & Nikkiski

  • 8AM: Made breakfast in the RV, headed out for a 6 mile hike at Upper Winner Creek Trail

    • Note: We parked in the parking lot of Alyeska Resort and walked through the lobby to get to the trailhead. Winner Creek Gorge was so beautiful! We also made sure to pack a white claw (or 4) with us for our hike so we could #hydrate mid-hike

  • 12PM: Post hike, we went to Girdwood Brewery and played some Uno and enjoyed the mountains

  • 3PM: Headed to Cooper Landing 

    • PIT STOP! On our way to Cooper Landing while we were driving we caught a glimpse of the most beautiful mountain and lake, so we found a place to park our RV, grabbed 4 folding chairs (we rented from the RV company), made some french press and hiked down to what will forever be known as the *only* way to drink french press coffee henceforth! We sat in our folding chairs and just took in the Kenai Lake and mountains. The spot is called Cooper Landing Cliffs if you want to earmark it!

  • 5PM: Made a pit stop at Wal-Mart to get some additional foodies & goodies for our trip

  • 6:30PM: Headed to Discovery Campground at Captain Cook

    • We watched the sunset in Nikkiski and made s'mores over the campfire 

Day 3: Nikkiski, Kasilof & Homer

  • 5:30AM: Early wake up call & head to Kasilof from campground to go silver salmon fishing!

  • 7AM-1PM: Silver salmon fishing on the Kasilof River!

    • We caught 7 silver salmon (shameless brag, I caught the biggest and caught 3 of our group's 8 total salmon). 

    • Note: Silver salmon season is during September (when we went to Alaska) and before you're allowed to fish, you MUST register online for a fishing license (here). Also to note -- there is a 2 salmon/person limit. I grew up fishing with my dad and this was a different fishing experience than I've ever had! Our guide paddled our canoe and we floated down the Kasilof river as we cast our lines. 

  • 1PM: Our guide cut and cleaned our salmon for us so it would be ready to take to a processor.  We went to Homer Fish Processing to get our fish processed and shipped back to Texas. 

    • The salmon we caught amounted to about 30 pounds of fresh salmon! Since there were 2 couples, we split the salmon caught in half, they pre-sliced and packaged them into individual filets, froze them and had them delivered to our doorstep within a week! The total process per couple was about $300; however, we felt this was an expense TOTALLY worth it because how often can you dig your fork into a piece of salmon and say "I caught this myself on the Kasilof River in Alaska!" #goals

  • 2PM: Continued south to Homer Spit to our campground at Heritage RV Park. 

    • Note: MAKE A RESO FOR THIS CAMPGROUND!  We played each day by ear for the most part and didn't make resos for this until the day of & they sell out quickly (you'll see why once you see the views). This place is pricier compared to most campgrounds but they have hot showers and a coffee bar which was a treat after 3 days!

    • Dinner: grilled our fresh caught salmon over our campfire with some asparagus!

Day 4: Homer & Cooper Landing

  • 9AM: Made breakfast tacos over campfire

  • 11AM: Headed to South Homer Spit to try and take the water taxi to Kachemak Bay State Park

    • Note: water taxis book up quickly (we were also there over a holiday weekend) and everything was sold out so we couldn't go to the state park.. womp womp. 

  • 12PM: In lieu of going to the park, we walked around Homer Spit into the various souvenir shops and ate a place called Captain Patties Fish House

    • Tip: the charbroiled seafood sampler was delish! The King Crab was also wonderful.

  • Post-Lunch: Ice cream at Spit Licks & drinks at Salty Dawg Saloon

  • 3PM: Hiked Diamond Ridge Trail

  • 6:30PM: Beer & wings at Kenai River Brewery

  • 8PM: Headed to Cooper Landing & stayed at Russian River Campground for the night. Made grill cheese & tomato soup in the RV for dinner


Day 5: Cooper Landing & Seward

Day 6: Seward & depart in Anchorage 

  • 8AM: Left campground to head to Whittier. Stopped & made coffee at Kenai Mountains at the Turnaround Arm National Heritage Area

  • 10AM: Arrived at Portage Pass Trail to hike (but was too rainy). Got coffee & tea at Lazy Otter Cafe. We walked around some & headed back to Anchorage. Returned RV

    • Note: We checked our bags into a locker at the airport so we could walk around Anchorage without carrying our bags with us. 

  • 3PM: Ubered to Moose's Tooth for pizza, beer & cards. Meandered through some souvenir shops!

  • 11PM: Took red eye flight from Anchorage to Denver back to Austin! 

Laura O'Brien
Next

Vancouver & Whistler in 2 Days