If you do one thing while visiting Alaska, it MUST be soaring through the mountains and above the glaciers that cover so much of the vast expanse of the state. It is one of my favorite things that we have ever done. And if you really want my opinion, you should do this in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the country’s largest national park, my personal favorite national park, and one that pretty much nobody I’ve chatted with has ever heard of.
We spent a lovely few days in Denali National Park and Preserve, probably Alaska’s most popular national park, in the South Central part of Alaska. Certainly it is Alaska’s most visited park if you don’t count the hoards of people who briefly dip their toes into Glacier Bay National Park from their massive cruise ships. Filled with wide open spaces, beautiful mountain ranges and roaming wildlife, we were excited to finally get to Denali, which we’ve heard so much about.
We get this question often – what exactly do you do all day on your road trip? What’s a typical day look like? Excellent question, and honestly it varies from day to day and area to area. But here I’ll break down some examples for you.
Kayaking amongst the glaciers, icebergs and wildlife in Aialik Bay, Kenai Fjords National Park has been one of my favorites on a trip full of truly magnificent experiences. It was a long weekend filled with breaching whales, thunderous calving tidewater glaciers, curious seals, fun conversation and (perhaps most thrilling to me) lots of new knowledge about glaciers and Alaska.
Women can be and are adventurous too. And that doesn’t make us an anomaly. If I have to hear one more time “You like to do this?! I would never get my wife out here!”, I might lose it. On this road trip we have met lots of people from all over the country and the world, from all walks of life, taking lots of different kinds of road trips. Over and over and over again, Ryan has been congratulated (almost exclusively by men) on finding himself a wife who would agree to a trip like this – the implication being that women aren’t supposed to like to do these kinds of things; outdoorsy, adventurous, rugged things. “Wow you’ve got yourself quite a wife, I could never get mine to live in such a small camper! She couldn’t live without her kitchen or her bathroom mirror!” Nobody is looking at me wondering how I managed to get my husband out on the road like this. Now there’s nothing wrong with not wanting to go camping and not wanting to live out of a tiny camper spending your days hiking and fishing. I know plenty of people for whom this would be miserable – both men and women. The problem is that solely because I’m a girl, people assume that these aren’t supposed to be my hobbies, and I’m not supposed to want to go adventuring and wandering like this.
Oh my, we have been blindsided by the beauty in Alaska. It is one thing to admire this place from photos and a documentary or two, but it is a completely different animal altogether to be confronted with the raw, breathtaking, seemingly endless expanse of wilderness that is Alaska. To say it is overwhelming is an understatement. We are also completely exhausted – there is so much to do and we are trying to fit as much as we can into each and every day. While I am a little behind in sharing the details of our adventures on the blog, I hope to have some time in the next week or so to catch up. In the meantime, here are some of my favorite photos from the last few weeks that we’ve spent in the Last Frontier, and as always feel free to follow along on Instagram at @thepursuitof_life.
Realities of living on the road – brushing your teeth outside with no water! Southern Utah
With 4+ months of living out of a tiny teardrop camper with no bathroom, it’s a fair question – what is your beauty routine on the road? This is a funny one for me to answer because I’ve never been great at making myself up in the first place. Despite watching my mom do herself up beautifully each morning before work my entire childhood, I didn’t use a blow dryer or tweezers until well into my high school years and didn’t discover makeup until my besties in college used to make me up for fun. I just never really had much of an interest in it. As I’ve gotten older I’ve started to wear some mascara, blush and eyeliner and make sure my hair looks decent before popping out the door for work or socializing with friends. I’ve never been a makeup-to-the-gym kind of girl, but aside from working out, I do usually make myself up a little bit before I leave the house. So – beauty routine on an extended road trip?!
Continued [See this post for Part I of the Olympic Peninsula!] Not at all having satisfied our desire to explore the western side of Olympic National Park, but needing to get moving because we are on a somewhat strict timeline, we headed up and around the Peninsula and parked Gelly in the Hearty of the Hills Campground, just outside of Port Angeles and near the main entrance to Olympic NP. This was a perfect place to camp for us to see our friends in Port Angeles, do some exploring in Hurricane Ridge, and also make our way out to Cape Flattery.
A few weeks ago we spent some time on the Olympic Peninsula, in Washington, and absolutely fell in love with the area. We adore it in every way, even if it did pour down rain on us.
The peninsula is mostly covered by Olympic National Park, with the very outside of the peninsula all around the Park dotted with farms and cute little towns, and the Coast Guard station, of course! Olympic NP might just be my favorite national park (in the U.S.) so far, for lots of reasons, including that it covers such a variety of environments. You’ve got the old growth rainforest, the beautiful Pacific coastline, the majestic mountain ranges in the center, and water – so much water – waterfalls, lakes, coastline, rivers, and lots of opportunities for wildlife viewing. It’s a playground for just about anyone who cares anything for the outdoors and I am certain that there is something here for everyone.
Hey Marmot, you’ve got something in your teeth! 😉
How on Earth is it July already?! We’ve been on the road for 4 months now, and still loving every minute … okay maybe not loving it when the rain’s been pouring on us for a bit, but we will take some rain if it means lovely waterfalls, rainbows and bright sunny days come afterwards! We are now embarking on the part of the trip that I have eagerly anticipated the most – Alaska! But for now, here is the tally of facts and figures from the last month – June 10th through July 10th:
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