Planning an Alaska Trip

Hi all!

I'm starting to plan a 2 week trip to Alaska for next September. was thinking of flying into Anchorage and spending the two weeks down in the Kenai peninsula area, is that too much time to spend in that area, I'm hoping to do a mix of wildlife and landscape photography, I've got a bunch of questions including what type of vehicle I should rent, should I try to hire one of you as a guide for a few days or a workshop? along with the important questions of what not to miss and what guide books I should be looking at.

Thanks for any information you all can give me.

Hali,
You could spend two weeks just photographing in the Anchorage area! Prime colors for the Anchorage area (Chugach State Park) is mid September (forest). The alpine colors will be prime on the Kenai but mid September is a little early for forest though there are always pockets. Prime wildlife that time of the year is the Glenn Alps area of Chugach State Park. The moose rut is just beginning, its better later in the fall though. Mountains goats are regulars at Crow Pass and the Harding Ice field in September.

The list of opportunities is endless, if you give us more detail on what you really like photographing, we could probably help you plan your trip better.
Carl

Hali: I just went on my first ever trip to Alaska and spent the first two weeks of September touring South Central Alaska and the Kenai. What Carl said is right about the fall color. The color in Denali peaked right around the first couple of days of September. The color on the Kenai was just starting when I left there on the 14th. One of the things that I did was a day flight out of Homer to Katmai National Park to photograph bears on the Brooks River. Early September is the fall salmon run and there were bears everywhere. Wow, was that ever great. I rented an RV out of Anchorage and an RV has it's advantages and disadvantages. Nice that you have your food and lodging with you, but most rental places do not want their RVs on unpaved roads (and there are a few). The weather on the Kenai was rainy for about 4 straight days and this area is a temperate rain forest so be prepared for wet weather. I could add even more, but suffice to say that I loved Alaska and cannot wait to go back. Tom Haxby

Hi, Hali. As previously mentioned some additional information would help others help you. Which two weeks in September will you be here? Are you more interested in large wildlife or birds? Mountain vista type landscapes or tighter compositions? Do you prefer/need to shoot from the road or are you up for hiking and if so how much? Fall colors occur in early september in the interior, mid-september in the Anchorage/Chugach State Park area. IMO the more interesting fall colors in Alaska are the colors in the alpine tundra. There are accessible areas for that either by car (e.g.Hatcher Pass or Glenn Alps) or by hiking. If you're into wildlife I would definately recommend at least a day trip to fly across the inlet and photograph bears. Flights can be taken out of Anchorage, Soldotna, or Homer for that purpose so it's easy to work into an overall plan. Mid September is the beginning of the Moose Rut just outside Anchorage in Chugach State Park with the peak of the rut around Oct.1, If you fly into/out of Anchorage you should include a day to give that a shot. That does require a bit of hiking. Good news is that you don't necessarily need a long/heavy lens. 300mm is plenty. A Canon 100-400 or Nikon 80-400 is ideal. Opportunities to shoot Moose in the area are as near certain as anything can be with wildlife.

Let us know how we can help further.

Thank you all for your responses. I am flexible with with the dates in September, anywhere from the week after labor day through the first week in October are open for me right now. As for what we like to shoot, we both enjoy shooting large wildlife and birds, and I'm hoping to be able to get some time to shoot both, we definitely want to get to shoot bears and if we can work in some shots of Moose that would be great. We both have 500's that we were thinking we would need to bring, which would probably slow us down hiking unless we store them where we stayed, we were originally thinking of renting an RV but it's looking like renting a 4wd and staying at local lodging would be better. Do we need any permits to photograph the bears or to take the plane over to photograph them? As for landscapes I do tend to like the wider view, mountains and lakes and such, but I'm not wedded to shooting only those. So as you can see I'm kind of all over the place Thank you all for the help so far I guess I have to start planning a bit more and then ask for more specific help.

No special permits needed for bear photography. There may be park use fees of a few dollars per day. Many of the fly-in/guide services include those fees in their prices.

I think that renting a rv is the way to go - you definitely won't need 4 wheel drive, and if you are thinking of sticking with the Kenai Peninsula, gravel roads aren't much of an issue. Hotel prices do drop a lot by then, but in general, hotels and restaurants here are very expensive in the summer. Not too mention, there aren't lodging options in some areas.

With an RV, you can camp along the ocean here in Seward. Same goes for Homer and some of the other places on the West side. There are some other great campgrounds like the one in Portage Valley, and some up in the pass which will put you in great areas without long early morning / late night drives.

Make sure you do at least one full day Park Tour into Kenai Fjords National Park when you are in Seward. You will get up close to some spectacular tide water glacier, and have almost a 100% chance of seeing whales.

A word of warning - that is a really wet time of year, it is our wettest month. When we do have beautiful days in September, they are really beautiful. But, we average about 10 inches or rain during that month, so it can rain day after day.

For a guide book, the Milepost is a must.

This write up is a bit old now, but still useful: http://www.wildnatureimages.com/FAQ%201.htm

I'd add a couple of thoughts:

- You'll probably want to get to Seward early enough to get one of the commercial charters into Kenai Fjords N.P. I recommend one of the longer commercial trips first; then charter target areas once you have a sense of what is around. There are only four commercial trips in September: September 2, 5, 9 & 16, 2012.

- Ron isn't kidding about the rain.

- That late isn't a great time for birds, but if you are a birder another indispensable reference is A Birder's Guide to Alaska, by George West.

Have fun!

I agree with Jim that you definitely want to take the longer tour into the National Park, and I also prefer the earlier departure, but the 11:00 a.m. boat goes to the same places and runs daily until September 30th - that is a good option.