Moon Alaska

837 Pages·2017·30.06 MB·English

by  Lisa Maloney

ALASKA
LISA MALONEY

Contents
Index
List of Maps
Discover Alaska
Juneau and Southeast Alaska
Anchorage and Southcentral Alaska
Denali, Fairbanks, and the Interior
Kodiak and Southwest Alaska
The Arctic
Alaska Wildlife
Background
Essentials
Resources
Photo Credits
Copyright
baby bear in a tree St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Juneau
DISCOVER Alaska
15 TOP EXPERIENCES
Planning Your Trip
TRAVEL LIFELINES: ROADS, FERRIES, PLANES, AND REGIONAL
HUBS
Best of Alaska
IF YOU HAVE . . .
ALASKA’S TOP TOWNS
Best Hikes
BEAR VIEWING
Best Scenic Drives
THE ALASKA RAILROAD
The Inside Passage
CHASING THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
Explore the Interior
ALASKAN CRUISE PORTS OF CALL
Denali is North America’s tallest peak.
What are the first things that come to mind when you think of Alaska? Steep-
walled fjords, charismatic bears, soaring eagles, breaching whales, or glaciers
creeping down the side of a mountain and into the sea? Then you’re already in
tune with some of our state’s grandest sights. But there’s so much to Alaska that
it can’t possibly be summed up in just one image—and every part of the state is
a little bit different.
In Southeast Alaska the evergreen rainforest dominates the landscape and totem
poles stand silent witness to humpback whales, each one the size of a school bus,
cavorting in the glacier-fed waters.
Southcentral Alaska and the Interior are a road-tripper’s dream clad in boreal
forest, with paved two-lane highways leading from Fairbanks—land of gold
mining, the midnight sun, and the aurora borealis dancing overhead—to Homer,
the pinnacle of Alaskan art, food, and fishing in one small town.
Southwest Alaska holds some of the state’s best bear watching on Kodiak Island
—also known as Alaska’s Emerald Isle—and nearby Katmai National Park.
You’ll also find some of the continent’s best bird-watching at Unalaska/Dutch
Harbor and on the remote, windy Pribilof Islands, where millions of seabirds and
more than half the world’s fur seals congregate to breed.
seal in Valdez wolf in Denali National Park
seal in Valdez wolf in Denali National Park
dog sled in Denali National Park
In Arctic Alaska, people are outnumbered by the caribou that migrate en masse
between their winter ranges and summer breeding grounds. Small planes are the
only way to travel between remote communities that still hold deep roots in
traditional Native ways, and dog sleds are still a viable mode of winter
transportation, although the iron dog—the snowmobile to anyone else, but
“snowmachine” to Alaskans—reigns supreme.
As amazing, exotic, and even otherworldly as Alaska’s pristine landscapes may
be, our “peoplescapes” are just as special. Alaskans are known for being warm
and friendly despite—or perhaps because of—our cold winter temperatures.
Believe it or not, the number of people who visit Alaska every year is more than
double our year-round residents. Over one million people visit during the
summer alone, and winter vacations in Alaska are starting to catch up in
popularity as brave tourists come to see the Iditarod or watch the northern lights
dancing in the night sky. We never get tired of seeing people who genuinely
enjoy and are awed by their visit to Alaska.