Just got back from my Alaska trip . Gone one week. This is what we did ( 17 year old son )  . Flew into Anchorage and got rental car. Went to Talkeetna for 3 days. Stayed at Dave Fish Dry Cabins. Drove up to Denali parks and did a Bus tour all the way to the END OF THE ROAD. Kitnia ??? Pretty cool. Saw every animal except a wolf. Big brown bear nursing her cubs , caribou, Dall sheep, eagles , Moose  and a lot of white guys hiking with dirty dread locks and a need of a bath .   Long ass bus tour with a few nervous spots on the rd. Long way down if the bus went off. Our bus brakes locked up once and wouldn't  unlock. But all went well .Drove back to Talkeetna and saw moose with young at our cabin when we pulled in at midnight .
 Our Denali plane tour got cancelled due to poor weather. The people at Talkeetan air taxi was very good with communication. So we rode some ATV's   . Ate twice at Roadhouse and twisted creek.  We now drove to Anchorage and got room there and next day went to Seward. Beautiful day and cool little town . Took a ocean wildlife touring boat . What a cool experience . Hump back whales and sea lions. Mountain goats  ,  and bald eagles and them Puffins . Got to see a Eagle getting beat up on by a Peregrine falcon. Right in front of our boat . I guess territory fight. The falcon was all over this eagle . The eagle finally hauled ass and left with the falcon chasing him .
 Finally me and son chose a park to do a day hike . Went to Eklutna lake . We wanted to do Bold Ridge trail . It was 17 miles total. Ass kicker mother fucker.    5 miles of gentle walking along side of lake. Get to trail head and 3.5 miles up Bold ridge trail. Damn .... I just want to say we did it. Made it to the top of the sonofabitch . The trail started off decently cleared.As we got further up it closed in on us to be very narrow and thick. I was thinking I was going to be bear shit. The park ranger told me to make a lot of noise . I did . I just sang a bunch of Allman brothers stuff to ward off them MFers . It rained on us going up. We was soaked. We pushed on. We had back packs with rain gear and food and water  .Plus jackets and dry clothing . But we pushed on . I could tell my son was quitting mentally .I told him the US Army 10th mountain group does this shit .So could we. If he was in pain we would stop. If he was tired was an excuse. Being tired is 60% mental.My book anyhow .  One step at a time. I gave him the How to eat an elephant quote. He sucked it up and did great .  Look im 50. He's 17 and decent shape. I was the lead or push man .Trail got really thick and was soaked with water. I sang louder and made a lot of horrible noises. Honestly was so fucken tired ,didn't give a shit about a bear. Not that I wanted to see one. I didn't. But it was us vs this fucken trail . It just kept going up and up. But we finally made it .I let a Rebel yell and acted like a tourist that just climbed  Mt. Everest . High fived and pissed on bush to establish dominance on who had been there .   The trip back down the trail was almost as rough. Different set of muscle that was screaming when we got back down . Its been about 3 days now. I'm still sore. I popped Advil several times a day . What was funny we stopped at a Carls Jr on the way back from the hike . Got out of the car to walk in and we was limping a hobbling like we was in a car wreck. Folks was staring . Id do it all over again. The hike  was the best thing of the trip. I pushed my son and he didn't break. He needed it . He didn't think he could do it . He learned he could . I told him  several times on the way up we could stop and turn around at any time he wants to . I told him stopping and quitting for pain was very exceptable  . Quitting for being tired is not .  Thank you Alaska , Wardawg

Glad you had a great time.

Sounds like you had a great time!  A forever memory for sure.

Glad you guys had a great time, were you surprised at how close Mother Nature is to the front door here?

Yes I was.

I like to read about people that come up here and do things. A family challenge will live with you both forever.Good job. Come back soon.