Alaska - Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge

It's time to trade in our hotel rooms for individual log cabins! Why am I suddenly craving pancakes and maple syrup? ;) The Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge is like a small town with a main building containing the usual needs like guest services and excursion tour desk. It also includes a bar & grill space and a full restaurant space. There is tons of trails to walk around and shops to wander through.  The main highlight is that instead of a giant building full of individual hotel rooms, the accommodations on this property are doubled up log cabins. By doubled up, I mean that each lot has a shared porch but two completely separated rooms inside. They also feature a nice side porch only accessible from inside your room.

We were lucky enough to arrive at the lodge a day before a large tour group arrived so we had the place to ourselves until the next afternoon. Our itinerary was the only one that gave us the arrival day and 2 other full days here. The entire space from the parking lot to the main building to the cabins are paved so it makes for easy walking or rolling. There is however a steep incline to go from the main building to the cabins as you're heading up a paved hill.

One of the shops on the property featuring Alaska themed gifts as well as snacks. The hill to the cabins is to the left of this photo so once you push up the hill, you can walk across to the shop bypassing this long staircase in front.

The view looking back toward the main building from the top of those stairs - the bored guy sitting there is a dad humoring his daughter's need to take pictures of everything.

And my let's be artistic with my then brand new camera photos:

Is this the Sea Witch's way of embodying the windblown Cruise Hair/Don't Care mantra?

Our guide Lori had arranged for everyone in our group that wanted to could meet up on the back patio of the main building about an hour after our arrival and receive a voucher for a free alcoholic or non alcoholic drink as you so choose. I don't recall if we had to use the voucher then but I'm pretty sure everyone did. The patio had several places to sit and the staff rounded up as many extra chairs as our group needed. The vantage point back there provided a great view of the mountains and creek below. There was also telescopes and we all soon were calling out wildlife spotting to everyone else.

Since it's also an extension of the bar and grill, there is a couple tables for dining al fresco:

This cabin was at our eye level across the river. The consensus was that it's where the director of the lodge lived.

The bar and grill - tables with regular chairs were inside and around the corner. You stepped back into the bar and grill when you come back in from the patio. Picture taken from the main hallway when you enter the main building from the front door.

If you turned right, a short hallway led to a lounge space with computers and the main information desk. It was cool to see these benches in the hallway that were heated.

You've heard of Disney's "Hidden Mickey" decorative touches? BTW in case you're reading this Disney Cruise Line - I wouldn't object to the chance to experience your cruise line as well. #equalopportunitycruiselover You could spend a whole day finding all the little places where Princess has added their Sea Witch logo:

Since you were already on Princess property, they were great with keeping guests informed about the schedule and routine for going from here to the ship:

The hill leading up to the cabins:

After some socializing and getting settled, Dad and I opted to check out the trails leading behind the main building down to the creek. It is all paved but can be a steep decline down the first hill and a steep incline back up. Once you reach the river area there is another deck setup to walk through with steps down to lower levels and railings to stop and enjoy the view. 

Dad modeling the provided walking sticks that were free to use and return when you finished the hike:

Our view of the back patio where we'd been enjoying drinks with the group as we descended down the trail:

The path becomes more of a paved with gravel road but plenty of shade as you move on:

There is benches and a pavilion at the base of the first hill in case you need a rest break.

On the right side of this pavilion is a mounted phone. There are instructions posted on how to call guest services so you could call for staff to come pick you up if you didn't feel like making the walk back up to the main level. Dad chose to do this once we'd come back from seeing the river and someone showed up with a shuttle van about 10 minutes later.

The deck for walking down closer to the river edge. If you just want a view of the river, you don't need to go further but there are small clusters of steps to lower sections as you keep walking. There was a couple benches at different spots so there is a place to sit and rest or just relax watching the water.

And the hiker's reward:

Still to come - what it looked like to spend our last nights on land in our own log cabin!