Not on this go around for visiting SE, maybe next time though. Thanks for the info though

I'd go to Seward instead of Homer. Valdez is a must. Glennallen is nothing special. After seeing Santa it's time to leave North Pole. Forget Tok. I'd probably take an hour plus to drive the first 15 miles of the Denali Park road. I live in Fairbanks and wouldn't burn any time here.

If that Tacoma has a shell on the back I'd buy a couple of bags, an inflatable air mattress and pull over an sleep next to a river.

You shouldn't smell to bad after 5 days and laundromats often have showers.

Have fun.

Watch out for moose from Salcha to Paxson. They seem to appear from nowhere. They are really big and look even bigger when you finally get stopped 20 feet from them.

Thanks for all the helpful info WhiteDog!

Some joker on here told you to skip Homer. WHAT??? :-) Haha

I primarily came here for a woman, otherwise I'd be somewhere else too.

I understand though. We have a tourist town here - and in the summer, we don't like to go down there ourselves (Homer Spit). We avoid it like the plague.
September to May are much more suitable.
The Kenai Mountains across the bay are wonderful scenery, and it's all public - my personal playground.
I've been to all the areas you mentioned. Sometimes a good road trip is just what you need. But you got a lot of miles for not many days. Like somebody said, a blur of green, and maybe some yellow. Think Green Bay Packers.
I hunted all up and down the highway between Paxson and Cantwell, and hardly saw a Ptarmy - and that's with an excellent gordon setter. That was a few years ago though. I think the later the better for them. The few I saw were way up high and way off the road. I did see lots of spruce chickens though, especially on the Cantwell end.
As others said, there are grayling there - but I didn't try for them as I would rather hunt than fish.
Lots of hunters along that road. Mostly friendly and excited to be out. Some subsistence hunting there too, I think.

We don't have much for Ptarmigan in Homer, but we have a lot of Harlequin, and if you really want a good one, I could probably help you with that as I take out some duck hunters.
I also do tours on the bay, and I know right where to find them.
But now I might be screwing up your trip as others have told you to skip Homer. Decisions. Decisions.
If it were me, I would skip Tok and Glenallen and hunt birds.
Homer is better than Seward IMO.
Whittier is interesting and beautiful, but there isn't much there.
Personally, I prefer the wilderness areas - so I love Cantwell to Paxton, or Tok to Eagle, or the road to Valdez. Beautiful long stretches of nothing there.
Coopers landing is beautiful on the way to Homer. But that is touristy as well.
I'd skip Anchorage altogether but to fly in and fly out. That city is becoming a pit!

Good luck and let us know how you do.

Thanks for the info WH, appreciate it.

Hey ya’ll some of you requested an update, so here goes.

Arrived in Anchorage on Saturday and took a cab to pick up our Turo rental then buzzed up to Wasilla heeding the advice to “get out of Anchorage as fast as possible”. I didn’t think Anchorage was that bad of a city from the little bit I saw though but I’ve also been to Portland so anything is an improvement from that.

Sunday we drove from Wasilla to Valdez, gorgeous country. Really enjoyed that entire drive. In Valdez we had some burgers and brews and watched people catch Coho from the city dock and then checked out the other side of the river by the fish hatchery. THAT was impressive. Millions of dead pinks EVERYWHERE. We have salmon down here but nothing like that.

Monday we left Valdez and I traipsed around on Thompson Pass for an hour or two trying to find a ptarmigan. The wind, rain and fog was downright nasty and didn’t see a bird. Berries were thick though. After I threw in the towel we hoofed it up to Delta Junction, that was a scenic drive but the road conditions and traffic was terrible (labor day). I swung out of Paxson to Tangle Lakes for another hour or two and did some more bird hunting but got skunked. The drive from Paxson to DJ was my favorite and it go better the closer we got to Delta. As if I couldn’t have been enjoying things more, we absolutely loved Delta Junction. Small but scenic and I enjoyed seeing some farm country with the back drop the Alaska Range. We stayed up until 2 am watching the northern lights, it wasn’t a great show but we drove out of town and parked out in the boonies so we could really get a good view. Also saw at least 3 foxes driving at night.

Today we drove to Healy and called it a night. Also a nice drive, Fairbanks wasn’t too exciting but we stopped at the Christmas store and Creamers Field before departing. Watching the planes buzzing around at the air force base was pretty cool. Also stopped in Nenana and got invited on a tour of the old train depot. That was really cool, it’s short but was really interesting. The drive to Healy from Nenana was also pretty nice.

Anyways, you all are lucky to live here, I’d move to Delta Junction in a second if the opportunity presented itself. Heading to a lodge outside of Palmer tomorrow and then down to Seward for our last day. Hoping to see the dall sheep on Turnagain Arm.

Look for sheep on Panorama Mt just north of Cantwell.

Thanks Drasselt. We’ll be in Cantwell in an hour!

Glad you are getting to see so much. Sorry about the lack of birds. Our limited road systems are probably not the best hunting.
Maybe come again, and focus on bird hunting, and get to see a whole other part of Alaska.

I definitely could have put more effort in but this was a vacation more than a hunting trip. Bird or no birds I’ve had an awesome time. We’re already planning our next trip up here!