Alaska

Epic Travel → North America → Alaska

The mention of Alaska evokes images of a wild and beautiful place where life exists much as it has for thousands of years. It’s a place unlike any other in the States, where you have to travel for hours to find people, not to get away from them. We came here to fish and experience one particular area (the northern part of the Alaskan Peninsula, around Katmai National Park). We saw very few of the iconic “Alaska” sites during our time there – the sort you see on a cruise ship or an organized tour – but I do think we experienced some of what Alaska really is. And to us, that’s much more important.

King Salmon

Becharof Lake

Northern Katmai National Park

Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes ♦ Intrepid Top Pick!

Geographic Harbor ♦ Intrepid Top Pick!

Where to stay

On the trip covered here, we were trying to get in as much fishing as possible, while having the flexibility to go to remote locations and do some hiking and see some of the area. For this reason, we chose to stay at Rapids Camp Lodge the whole time we were in Alaska (with the exception of a night in Anchorage after flying in), and it was perfect for us. We talk more about the lodge on this page.

Suggested Itineraries

We were here to fish, and that’s what we did. Here’s how we did it.

Day 1: Fly in to Anchorage, stay the night.

Day 2: Scenic flight via private float plane to Rapids Camp Lodge, arriving in the afternoon. Head out to fish on the river before dinner.

Day 3: Fish for salmon at Egegek, on the west side of Becharof Lake – if you’re wanting to take fish home, I recommend starting with a salmon fishing outing. That way if you don’t catch any on your first day, you can choose to spend the next day fishing for salmon instead of doing trout catch and release. What you don’t want is to wait until your last couple of days to visit the promising salmon sites, only to have a bad day and not catch anything and go home empty handed.

Day 4: Assuming you caught enough salmon on the previous day, fly to Northern Katmai National Park and spend the day hiking and fishing American Creek.

Day 5: Head back to Becharof Lake, but to the east side this time, and hike to Featherly Creek for more fly fishing, enjoying the scenery along the way.

Day 6: Return to Northern Katmai National Park for your biggest day of hiking and fishing at the Little Ku, where you’ll have the opportunity for lots of river walking.

Day 7: End your trip with a bang (weather permitting, of course). Fly across the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes for an aerial view of the absolutely stunning landscape before landing at Geographic Harbor for a day of fishing on the open sea. This is your last chance to stock up on fish to take home, and it’s great for variety. You can catch salmon, rockfish, halibut, and ling cod.

Day 8: Return home.