Traveling Through Alaska Day 2026 Day 7, 8,

Day 7...It's a travel day today...42 degrees this morning. Refreshing! We started out by seeing a moose carcass on the side of the road. About 17 miles outside of Valdez, we saw a female moose! Another female moose a little further down the road was trotting from the roadside up into the woods! We kept going...then two MORE young moose, they looked like twins and were hanging out together. Total: FIVE moose on the Glenallen Highway today. 

Eldy decided to drive all the way from Valdez to Seward for a total distance of 420.7 miles! We decided to stay at the KOA campground outside Seward for one night, and then move over to the Seward City campground on Resurrection Bay for the next night. The price for the KOA was 77.00 for a back row spot, level, full hookups, nice laundry and beautiful stone showers and the eagles were back at the nest this year, raising fledglings. We saw a LOT of activity last time we stayed at the campground, this year, not as much. The magpies are around, we did see quite a few of those....They are a big bird!

As part of the "up and around" circuitous trip back to get to Seward, the drive is spectacular through the Copper Center area and the Wrangell Mountains which are in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park area. If you are wanting to visit this national park, you CAN drive into it, but access is limited to two unpaved gravel roads and do not connect to one another. Most standard rental companies do NOT allow driving on these rough, unpaved gravel roads. Both roads are historic, riddled with potholes, and occasional exposed railroad spikes. Flat tires are common. One of the roads, the 60 mile McCarthy Road, leads partway to the famous mining town of McCarthy, home of the Kennecott mines. You have to park your car when the road ends, cross a footbridge, then take a local shuttle or walk into McCarthy/Kennecott. The other road, the Nabesna Road, is 42 miles, and travels into the northern, more remote wilderness. There are no gas stations or services along either of these roads. Talk about remote!

As always, the views take your breath away...This is Mt. Wrangell....14,163 feet high...It's an active shield volcano! The range is almost entirely volcanic with Mt. Wrangell the only currently active volcano. Extensive snow fields feed long glaciers. We saw quite a few glaciers on our drive!

Sparky was hoping for lupine blooms, but only saw dandelions and little patches of forget-me-knots just starting to pop out.

Exit Glacier

Day 8...The KOA campground outside Seward is just a few miles from Exit Glacier and Sparky was determined to do a decent hike while traveling through Alaska. The next morning, we headed to the Exit Glacier visitor's center, in the Kenai Peninsula. The glacier sits inside the Kenai Fjords National Park. It's the only part of the park that is accessible by road. The glacier is about 8.6 miles off the Seward Highway, and about 12 miles northwest of the town of Seward.

You can take the easy way up.... It's about .9 miles directly to the overlook, or you can take the scenic route, which has a more strenuous rock clambering route as you get towards the top of the overlook. Sparky took the more challenging route and hiked a total of 2.4 miles round trip. It was fabulous! It got much more chilly and VERY windy as the trail climbed, Sparky almost lost her cap!

The trail is cool because it shows the rapid retreating glacier over decades with marked signs, starting in the entrance to the park at the year 1815. Just relatively recently, aerial and GPS tracking began in 2005. The glacier's pace of retreat is rapidly accelerating, and Sparky could remember the difference from two years ago....

Exit Glacier is not one of the prettier glaciers, it's silt laden and dirty looking, but to be able to walk towards it, is still pretty cool.

The view near the end of the trail looking down was beautiful as well.

We drove back to the town of Seward, and checked into our camping spot for the night at the Seward City Campground which is situated right on Resurrection Bay. Tomorrow, we start winding down our travels, it's almost time to head home, but we are going to close out in style by taking a Kenai Fjords boat tour to hopefully see some whales and other wildlife! 

Sparky explored around the beautiful town of Seward..There is a lot to see in Seward..

on Resurrection Bay

The library....It's a beautiful building...the tiles on the building sides change reflection color all day long, depending on the sun.

A viewpoint on the bay....

There is a free shuttle that will take you all around town and you can pick it up at many different locations near the campgrounds and in town. When cruise ships come in, the shuttle starts earlier in the morning but ends at 7:00 PM no matter what. (Ask us how we know, and how we found out there ARE taxi companies in Seward, about three that we know of!).  It's a mile walk from the campground on the bay to downtown, but if you are tired, a ride is most welcome, so keep the free shuttle in mind.

mural downtown Seward

Seward has great food trucks, great restaurants, and great stores to get Alaskan souvenirs. Sparky got in 20, 697 steps that day! Whew! Her tootsies were TIRED!

We will see you on the cruise out on the bay tomorrow......