Help! Ideas for 10 day trip in S. Alaska?

My wife and I are planning to take our first (and hopefully not only) trip to Alaska this spring. We are pretty adventurous (hiking, wandering around, etc.) and are not big into group tours/cruises, etc. We are thinking about going in the ealry spring before all of the big cruises come in. Is it too cold to spend some serious outdoors time between end of March and early May? Will we still get the chance to see the wildlife - bears, whales, eagles, etc? We were possibly even thinking of going to the Itiderod at the beginning of March.

Any thoughts on an itinerary? We would like to see Denali, Anchorage and the Juneau/Haines area, if possible.

I%26#39;ve been doing some preliminary reading online, but have always gotten the best advice on my trips from these forums.

Thank you so much!

Andy

Help! Ideas for 10 day trip in S. Alaska?

Good morning from Haines

We usually still have snow on the ground at sea level in March......hiking can be done, but would involve the use of snow shoes or cleats and is very strenuous......by May the snow has melted and the trees are starting to leaf out, wildflowers start appearing in Mid May........eagles are present here all year around, but they appear by the thousands Nov-Jan to feed on the last run of salmon......you may see whales from the ferry......I have seen them all year too......the bears will start coming out of hibernation in May, but they will be in the high country eating grass.....we usually start to see them along the coast in early June...........

The best time for you to see Juneau/Haines/Skagway would be in mid to late May...... Fly into Juneau, rent a car, tour Juneau and the Mendenhall Glacier, take the ferry to either Haines or Skagway.....they are only 13 miles apart by water, but over 300 miles by land.....the land route is called the ';Golden Circle'; and the scenery is jaw-dropping....you may see the bears up on the pass, eating clover or a herd of elk crossing the road.......lots of hiking trails, too......break up the ';Golden Circle drive by spending at least one night in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory enjoy the history museums and the hot springs just west of town, return to either Haines or Skagway and then ferry back to Juneau................

I%26#39;m not into the Iditarod, but I think they have a similar race out of Whitehorse sometime in the spring, sorry I don%26#39;t have any details, maybe someone else could help out on that one.

Help! Ideas for 10 day trip in S. Alaska?

Mombear, thank you so much! Based on your advice, we have booked a trip for mid-June instead of early spring. The trip around the Golden Circle sounds amazing and is definitely on our itinerary. I can%26#39;t wait! How am I supposed to be productive at work over these next 9 months when all I want to do is search for more and more information for my trip?!?!?!?!