Summer Visit
Summer Visit Trip Descriptions
The Summer Visit Program is an opportunity to experience life as an APU student and life in the state of Alaska. The cost of these trips is $350. This will cover any activity-specific gear, in-state transportation, food, lodging, and guides. In other words we'll take care of each participant from the moment they arrive in Anchorage until they depart. Individuals will need to provide airfare, $350 to register for the trip, and personal spending money.
There are frequent flights into Anchorage, Alaska (airport code ANC). We ask that participants arrive and depart within the specific times listed below. This minimizes the amount of time spent by the group at the airport and will make arrivals and departures easier for the participants.
JuneVisits (6/18 - 6/27):
Arrive - 12noon Tuesday (6/17) through 12noon Wednesday (6/18)
Depart - 10pm Thursday (6/26) night through 10pm Friday (6/27) night
JulyVisits (7/9 - 7/18):
Arrive - 12noon Tuesday (7/8) through 12noon Wednesday (7/9)
Depart - 10pm Thursday (7/17) night through 10pm Friday (7/18) night
Please call if you have any questions about the trip cost, or the departure and arrival times.
Remember: Do not make any travel plans without confirming with the Admissions Office that your spot has been reserved on the trip of your choice.
K-Bay Buccaneers (June 18-27)
Description: This year we're mixing things up and heading south to the beautiful Kachemak Bay (K-Bay).
- 6/18 - Participants will be arriving all day so we'll be shuttling people from the airport to campus for a good part of the day. We'll be staying in an on-campus apartment with the Lovin’ the Lakeside Lifestyle group.
- 6/19 - This trip begins by driving south to the city of Seward on the Kenai Peninsula. In Seward we'll visit the Sea Life Center, Exit Glacier (you might even be able to touch the glacier), and explore Seward-the quintessential coastal Alaska town. We'll come back to campus for the night for our kayak dress-rehearsal in the pool (bring your bathing suit!).
- 6/20 - This day will be spent on campus meeting students and faculty. The staff and faculty will join you for a BBQ. That night, we’ll explore Anchorage and see what the largest city in Alaska is all about. We’ll play “tourist” and tour the town.
- 6/21 – Happy Summer Solstice! Trip begins EARLY in Anchorage with a drive down the very scenic Seward Highway to Homer. We board our water taxi at 2pm for a 30-minute boat ride across the beautiful Kachemak Bay. This is really an incredible area. We’ll have a “mini paddle” out to Gull Island in the evening.
- 6/22 – The tide drops to a -1.1 at 11:30am so we’ll head out to the intertidal of China Poot Bay to find tons of sea stars, mussels and sea cucumbers! This afternoon we’ll paddle to the next bay over to visit an oyster farm and check out a different intertidal ecosystem.
- 6/23 - Spend the day in the boats paddling and exploring. We’ll stop by Halibut Cove – a town that’s accessible only by boat or float plane. We’ll hike around the area and then paddle to our next destination and set up camp.
- 6/24 – We’ll kayak to the Glacier Lake Train and hike back to Glacier Lake at the foot of the Grewingk Glacier. We’ll have lunch at the base and the head back to our boats.
- 6/25 – We’ll clean up the boats and get ready to meet our water taxi. Spend a little bit of time checking out the Homer Spit before we make our way to Hope for an overnight with the Lovin’ the Lakeside Lifestyle folks.
- 6/26 – The day will start with one heck of a white water raft trip! After our hearts stop racing, we’ll head back to Anchorage to finish cleaning up our gear and turning it in. We’ll have dinner at the Moose’s Tooth – what Alaskans consider the best pizza in the state!
- 6/27 - Time to say goodbye to APU, Alaska, and some new friends. We'll be taking participants to the airport to send them home all day.
Gear: Here is the list of required and recommended gear for the K-Bay Bucanneers trip.
Additional Expenses: There won't be any additional expenses with this trip, other than personal spending money.
Activity Level: On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being a casual walk and 5 being an all day hike
with a +40lb pack, this trip is a 4.
Availability: 0/8 spots are open, this trip is full.
Lovin' the Lakeside Lifestyle (June 18-27)
Description:
- 6/18 - Participants will be arriving all day so we'll be shuttling people from the airport
to campus for a good part of the day. We'll be staying in an on-campus apartment with the K-Bay Bucanneers group.
- 6/19 - This trip begins by driving south to the city of Seward on the Kenai Peninsula. In Seward we'll visit the Sea Life Center, Exit Glacier (you might even be able to touch the glacier), and explore Seward-the quintessential coastal Alaska town. We'll come back to campus for the night for a safety and paddling skills session on University Lake.
- 6/20 - This day will be spent on campus meeting students and faculty. The staff and faculty will join you for a BBQ. That night, we’ll explore Anchorage and see what the largest city in Alaska is all about. We’ll play “tourist” and tour the town.
- 6/21 - Happy Solstice! Time to head out for the field. We're driving a couple hours north of Anchorage to our first destination. A 3 mile
hike will lead us to Red Shirt Lake. Canoes will be waiting for us to paddle out to our cabin on an island in the
middle of the lake. The scenery is amazing from the lake, and there will be fishing for pike for anyone who is interested.
There's a good chance loons will sing us to sleep at this lake.
- 6/22 - We'll take our time paddling and hiking out from Red Shirt Lake. In the evening we'll pitch camp in one of the
developed campgrounds in the area and conditions permitting have some 'smores that night.
- 6/23 - This morning we'll start the Lynx Lake Canoe Trail. We'll have plenty of chances to practice our portaging skills
as Lynx Lake is seven lakes down the trail with small land portages between each. We'll stay the night in lakeside cabins.
- 6/24 - We'll start early this morning to finish up the canoe trail (5 more lakes), which will still take most of the day. At the end of the trail we’ll drive north to the town of Talkeetna where view of Denali abound. We’ll overnight in a riverside campground.
- 6/25 - We’ll catch up on some much needed sleep this morning and make our way south to the town of Hope. We'll meet up with the K-Bay Buccaneers and stay the night at a campground in Hope with views of Cook Inlet from our tents.
- 6/26 – The day will start with one heck of a white water raft trip! After our hearts stop racing, we’ll head back to Anchorage to finish cleaning up our gear and turning it in. We’ll have dinner at the Moose’s Tooth – what Alaskans consider the best pizza in the state!
- 6/27 - Time to say goodbye to APU, Alaska, and some new friends. We'll be taking participants to the airport to send them home
all day.
Gear: Here is the list of required and recommended gear for the Lovin' the Lakeside Lifestyle trip.
Additional Expenses: There won't be any additional expenses with this trip, other than personal spending money.
Activity Level: On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being a casual walk and 5 being an all day hike
with a +40lb pack, this trip is a 5.
Availability: 3/8 spots are open.
Cadillac Camping (July 9-18)
Description: If you're a photographer than this is the trip for you!
- 7/9 - Participants will be arriving all day so we'll be shuttling people from the airport to campus for a good part of the day. We'll be staying in an on-campus apartment with the Fish On! group.
- 7//10 - This trip begins by driving south to the city of Seward on the Kenai Peninsula. In Seward we'll visit the Sea Life Center, Exit Glacier (you might even be able to touch the glacier), and explore Seward-the quintessential coastal Alaska town. We'll come back to campus for the night.
- 7/11 - This day will be spent on campus meeting students and faculty. The staff and faculty will join you for a BBQ and we’ll also have a chance to explore Anchorage and see what the largest city in Alaska is all about. We'll play the role of "tourists" and tour the town. That night we'll take you to the Bear's Tooth Theater Pub, a movie theater that has tables for our group to sit at while we eat gourmet pizzas and watch a movie.
- 7/12 – Our trip has a leisurely start with a drive south to Whittier which includes a 3 mile drive through a mountain. From Whittier we’ll drive onto a ferry to cross Prince William Sound. This is a stunning part of Alaska and our destination is Valdez. From Valdez we’ll drive north to a state recreation area to camp for the night.
- 7/13 – From our camping spot we’ll continue north through Fairbanks then east to the Chena River. We’ll take a dip in the hot springs and overnight in a rustic cabin on the river bank.
- 7/14 – If we feel up to it we’ll start the morning with a moderate hike along the river. The rest of the day we’ll be in Fairbanks, the 2nd largest city in Alaska. We may have a chance to do a relaxing canoe float down a portion of the Chena river. We’ll overnight in our tents.
- 7/15 – From Fairbanks we start our journey south to Denali National Park. This gem in the interior of Alaska encompasses over 6 million acres. We’ll be tent camping along the Savage River and should have time to visit the local sled dog kennels.
- 7/16 - We’ll continue south today towards the Matanuska Susitna Valley. This beautiful drive takes us past the best vistas of Denali on our way towards Talkeetna. This small town booms every year as visitors and climbers flood in as the snow melts.
- 7/17 - From Talkeetna we’ll continue south into Palmer. One of the few agricultural areas of Alaska, this town is home to record setting vegetables. If oversize veggies aren’t your thing we’ll also be visiting the reindeer farm to feed and pet some of Santa’s finest. Depending on how we’re feeling we may follow our visit to the farm with a beautiful hike up the Butte which provides views of nearly the entire valley. After our hike we’re headed back to campus. The last night will be spent with a sendoff dinner, with the FishOn! group, at Anchorage's famous pizzeria the Moose's Tooth.
- 7/18 - Time to say goodbye to APU, Alaska, and some new friends. We'll be taking participants to the airport to send them home all day.
Gear: Here is the list of required and recommended gear for the Cadillac Camping trip.
Additional Expenses: If you would like to fish it will be $30 for a license. Otherwise the only expense will be personal spending money.
Activity Level: On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being a casual walk and 5 being
an all day hike with a +40lb pack, this trip is a 2.
Availability: 6/8 spots are open.
Fish On! (July 9-18)
Description:
- 7/9 - Participants will be arriving all day so we'll be shuttling people from the airport
to campus for a good part of the day. We'll be staying in an on-campus apartment with the Cadillac Camping group.
- 7/10 - We're leaving EARLY this morning to either Whittier or Seward for a day-long ocean fishing charter. This
will be a long day of fishing, and an exciting one at that. We'll head back to campus for the night.
- 7/11 - This day will be spent on campus meeting students and faculty. The staff and faculty will join you for a BBQ. That night, we’ll explore Anchorage and see what the largest city in Alaska is all about. We’ll play “tourist” and tour the town.
- 7/12 - Time to head out for the field. We will leave campus and head north to beautiful Talkeenta, Alaska.
From there we will board Mahay's Riverboat Service and head up the Talkeetna River to
Clear Creek. Fishing will be for salmon, trout, grayling and char. We will camp overnight
on a sandbar at the mouth of the river.
- 7/13 - After another action packed day of fishing at Clear Creek, we will be picked up by Mahay's and taken back to
Talkeetna. From Talkeetna we will begin the drive to the beautiful Kenai Peninsula. We will arrive
at the Quartz Creek Campground on Kenai Lake and settle in for the night.
- 7/14 - Fishing will be on the world famous Russian River. We will fish primarily for sockeye salmon and
rainbow trout.
- 7/15 - Fishing will be on the Kenai River in the town of Soldotna, Alaska. Sockeye salmon are the
name of the game and it should be at the peak of the run.
- 7/16 - Open day. We will determine how the fishing is at the various spots we hit and determine the best place to spend our last fishing day. If we have had our fill (and limits) of sockeye, we can hit Hope and the Resurrection River for some awesome pink salmon action. If it's sockeye you love, we can continue to fish the Russian or Kenai River.
- 7/17 - After a good night's sleep we'll head back to campus to gear down, and clean up ourselves in preparation for our departures.
Our last night together will be spent with a sendoff dinner, with the Cadi Camping group,
at Anchorage's famous pizzeria the Moose's Tooth.
- 7/18 - Time to say goodbye to APU, Alaska, and some new friends. We'll be taking participants to the airport to send them home
all day.
Gear: Here is the list of required and recommended gear for the Fish On! trip.
Additional Expenses: $50 is required for a fishing license. $30 is required for tackle and bait.
Some visitors opted to ship fish home via FedEx last year and it worked well. The fish was packaged and shipped and
100# of fish cost around $180 to pack and ship. Please call and I will explain options (800 252 7528).
Activity Level: On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being a casual walk and 5 being an all day hike
with a +40lb pack, this trip is a 3.
Availability: 4/5 spots are open.
Please note: Wilderness travel and recreation have inherent risks, especially with conditions present in the state of Alaska.
Please carefully review the Participant Agreement form and the statement on
the Registration Forms page.
