Alaska in winter

utexas_61

utexas_61

500+ Posts
is it even worth thinking about planning a trip to Alaska in January or is it just too cold to do anything?
 
Weather in Anchroage and SE Alaska is just unreliable. Might be 30 below, might be clear and around zero, might be near 30 and sloppy as hell.

Winter tends to have more clear days than summer, though the days in Jan are awful ly short. The scenery, I thought, was better in winter especially in snowy times.

Bottom line, if you are not equipped to deal with snowy weather, or cold weather, that is you don't have the right vehicle or clothing, then you had better have a plan to have fun in town. That is, bar hop. You are about 25 years late to have a rousing good time bar hopping in Anchorage.

At least the tourist busses won't be around.

Perhaps Macanudo can discuss the winter time joys of Fairbanks and thereabouts.
 
thanks for all the advice so far.

the reason i am asking is because a friend of mine might be in Alaska working for about 4 weeks starting sometime in January, and when he finishes he will get 2 weeks off to do whatever. I am thinking about flyin up there at the end of his shift and play in the snow.

round trip tickets from houston to anchorage around the time i am planning on going are little more than $300 round trip. doesn't that sound pretty dirt cheap?
 
Dirt cheap? That's freaking insane. Whenever I checked flights out of there, I could never find anything cheaper than 600+.

BTW, check your pms.
 
yeah I just saw a round trip flight from Delta for $278. hopefully those prices stay the same in a month or so




thanks for the pm.
 
well the prices are up to $600 again. Maybe Delta was running a special or something.

I am probably heading up there early February. Haven't decided between Anchorage and Juneau (though it will most likely be Juneau). Should I bring a jacket with me?
 
Someone once told me that Fairbanks was the Lubbock of Alaska - in summer and that winter was just horrible.

Why do you want to go to Fairbanks or Juneau? The boy and I had a great trip to AK this summer, but those two destinations never were considered. I'm not being critical (I've never been), I'm just curious.
 
I don't think that I have suggested that I was planning on going to Fairbanks. I was thinking maybe Juneau because of the brewery, Mendelhall Glacier, and Glacier Bay National Park. Also the fishing, but I guess it would be too cold for that anway.

But I have decided on flying into Anchorage.
 
i have never been to vegas. alaska is more my style.

i am not really into things that are fake and over done.
 
Sorry. My reading comprension skills have slipped.

We drove all over the Kenai Peninsula and found it to be much prettier (and populated (shrug)) than the Denali area. Another poster raved about the trip to Valdez. We just didn't have the time.
 
we are planning on making the drive to seward one day. i guess we can book a place down there and spend like a day and a half in the area.

i have an ex girlfriend from kenai whom i am sure can give me ideas of things to do.
 
We had a great day fishing in Seward. We saw glaciers and whales and eagles while fishing. I think the time for good fishing has passed, but I really don't know. We went to the Aquatics museum and it was really boring, but we were tired.

That's all I got about Seward.
 
Seward is a nice little town but there isn't much in the way of accommodations. For your purposes, there might be a motel or two. Once you're in Anchorage, you might want to call down there and see if they have availibility. It's a 3+ hour drive in the summer if you drive 5-10 miles over the posted limit. No way you can (or should try that in the winter.) Take your time and enjoy the drive. Some monster scenery down there.
 
While we were in Kenai, my son and I witnessed many, many overturned vehicles. We even pulled two women out of their SUV. The deal is that the roads are 2 lanes and they have bar ditches on the sides and no shoulders. If someone stops to turn left, the driver who is going 70 and is surprised has no choice but to pull into the ditch. If someone is turning left then there is almost surely a road on the right and the bar ditch ends and becomes a culvert. Boom - rollover. We saw either 6 or 7 in a 3 or 4 day period. Go slow. We almost got into a head-on collision, but the surprised driver coming out of Soldotna gratefully decided to roll over on the right instead of hitting us head on or the car trying to turn left.

Another interesting quirk about AK is that they post on highway signs how many moose are killed by drivers, but nothing about how many drivers are killed.
 
I grew up in Anchorage, so my perspective might be somewhat skewed. That said, I probably wouldn't recommend going to AK in the winter unless you love winter sports - skiing, snowshoeing, whatever. There's really not a great social scene (if that's your thing - it really isn't mine), or that much to do indoors. If I were to go back, I would probably find some cheapass place in Girdwood or Valdez and hit the slopes all day. If that's not you, I would recommend saving the trip until summertime, when Alaska is one of the greatest places on earth.
 
Wow Richard, Anchorage sounds like more fun than I ever had there.


biggrin.gif
 
The only times we slowed down in Anchorage was to gas up the rent car and to stop at the Ulu factory. The son has an affinity for knives. He's not old enough for strip clubs and I'm too old.

We did go into the Salty Dog long enough to buy a sweatshirt for the daughter. The Spit is VERY touristy. There is a good place for pizza on the outskirts of Homer. Something like Fat Olive's. There is also a place to rent ATV's in Ninilchik on the way to Homer. In winter, I'm sure there are places to rent snowmobiles. There are also numerous dogsledding kennels that will give tours.

Denali is a LONG drive from Anchorage and I wouldn't do it again unless I were camping in the park and I wouldn't be camping in winter. We did fly over Alex's bus from Into The Wild on the 15th anniversary of his death. That was the best part of Denali for me. The boy and I spent $40 on 2 burger's for lunch. They sucked. Denali rapes tourists. We had much better meals about 10 miles south of Glitter Gulch at Creekside.

Talkeetna was the inspiration for Northern Exposure. It's got quite a few places to eat.

Alyeska was OK. I wish we had visited the mine. Don't really know why I wish or why we didn't.

Try to time the Tide Bore at Turnagain Arm. Look it up.

All of these are based upon one summer visit so take it all with a grain of salt.
 
Spent many an evening at the Bush Co. in the 80's. More than once with the gf now wife. I can vouch for the place.
 
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