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| Ranking Among U.S. States: #2 |
| Venturers: 10 |
| Mid-Venturers: 10 |
| Centrics-Venturers: 10+ |
| Centrics-Authentics: 10 |
| Mid-Authentics: 10 |
| Authentics: 9 |
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| •Alaska has more active glaciers (100,000) than the rest of the inhabited world.
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| • The state sport is dog mushing. |
| • The largest U.S. city by area is Juneau, with 3,108 square miles. |
| • The state’s lowest recorded temperature was -80 at Prospect Creek Camp in 1971. |
| • Alaska has 3 million lakes and more coastline (47,300 miles) than the entire lower 48. |
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Folly indeed!
Alaska was called Seward’s Folly when U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward agreed to purchase Russian America for $7.2 million in 1867.
The critics were dead wrong. The 49th state provides many and valuable resources, including an unspoiled and breathtakingly beautiful natural environment that enchants visitors worldwide. They love this peaceful, relatively unpopulated retreat from life’s cares.
That’s not to say there isn’t plenty for those who love an adrenaline rush. In that regard, the place seems made for adventurous travelers, but even the least venturesome — who often visit by cruise ship or train — love the beauty, clean environment and welcoming locals.
About Alaska
Unlike other vacation choices, America’s northernmost state offers no sandy beaches, a cold climate and little in the way of luxury. Clearly, those who choose Alaska want something different, and Alaska’s fans are as rhapsodic as are Hawaii’s.
They talk most about Alaska’s “indescribable” beauty. They love its clean and untouched character, and they perceive that Alaska has done a lot to protect the environment.
Further, for many, Alaska creates a sense of peace and serenity. Visitors say the experience — of largely unspoiled nature, distance from home and limited human contact — helps them get their lives into better perspective.
Much of that inner satisfaction comes even as visitors pursue very active vacations. The state — with its bays and rivers, mountains, wildernesses, wildlife — does seem made for the most physically active among us.
These vacationers exult about fishing, hunting, hiking, mountain climbing and skiing. But the list goes on and on: kayaking, bear watching, camping, trekking on a glacier — or traveling on the ice by dogsled, etc.
Others, including centrics, find plenty to occupy their time in cities, towns and national parks. Indeed, just getting to and from many attractive spots in the largest state requires something of the adventurer’s soul. Flightseeing — sightseeing by air — is a distinctively Alaskan solution to the logistical challenges, plus a way to grasp the size and grandeur of the place.
The more cautious traveler may feel overwhelmed by this big, vigorous and sometimes cold young state, but they, too, appreciate the scenic beauty, and they can see it in more passive ways aboard dome-covered trains traveling the countryside or on large and comfortable cruise liners in the Inside Passage. Authentics are drawn to the state’s unique history and to a place that seems like a throwback to earlier times in the lower 48.
Alaskans are welcoming, and — while winters can be dark and cold and the mosquitoes numerous on still summer nights — the weather gets favorable reviews from those who like the crisp, clear feeling in the spring and fall. Besides, it’s a great place to eat salmon and other fresh fish.
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Organized bear watching is an option in several parks and sanctuaries, often involving access by charter • Organized bear watching is an option in several parks and sanctuaries, often involving access by charter aircraft, floatplane or boat, camping out and visitor permits (with a maximum number of permits issued in each summer season).
The most adventurous of all would be polar bear trips departing from Barrow or Kaktovik.
• Go glacier trekking, or traverse the ice via dogsled.
• Get active in Gustavus. Your choices include mountain biking, a guided hiking tour, sea kayaking, fishing or wildlife viewing.
• Go fishing in a state that claims 386 species of fish including five kinds of salmon. Sportfishing can involve chartering a boat or flying into a remote area; it can involve luxury fishing lodges or fish camps. (It definitely requires knowledge of state fishing regulations).
• Hunting is an option, as well, also within the framework of state law to preserve game for the long term.
• Stay at the Chena Hot Springs Resort and ask to stay in one of the four rooms that are made of ice. By blowing REALLY cold air on metal walls, the place keeps its ice and operates on a year-round basis.
• Rent a plane with a good bush pilot and flightsee over remote areas of the Great Land.
• Go whitewater rafting in Denali National Park.
• A number of native villages offer packages to their remote communities where you can sample local foods, watch arts-and-crafts demonstrations and learn more about Alaska’s first inhabitants.
• Mush the dogs yourself. Operators offer tours ranging from half-hour rides to weeklong excursions into remote areas, and you are in charge.
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• At Wrangell, take a jetboat up the Stikine River. Or, at Haines, sign on for a float trip or a jetboat trip through the Bald Eagle Preserve.
• From Bartlett Cove, take a full-day cruise up Glacier Bay aboard the Spirit of Adventure. View the glaciers, but also watch for seal lions, seals, sea otters, whales — and even puffins. Also, on land, you may see black bear, brown bear, moose, mountain goats, as well as abundant bird life.
• From Skagway, take a tour along the White Pass and Yukon Route, a Gold Rush era narrow-gauge railroad linking Skagway to Whitehorse in the Yukon. Today, visitors enjoy narrated excursions in traditional parlor cars.
• Take a ranger-guided walking tour through the restored buildings of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Skagway.
• Pan for gold in Fairbanks, Girdwood, Juneau and Nome, among other places.
• Attend the Moose Dropping Festival in Talkeetna. Shellacked moose nuggets are dropped (their second dropping, as it were) from a balloon onto revelers below; also on offer are souvenirs like Moose Poop Earrings and Gourmet Poopon Mooseturd plus the Mountain Mother Contest.
• For a fishing experience without chartered transport and overnight camps, try your luck bringing in salmon on Ship Creek in downtown Anchorage.
• Visit the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, called a “living museum,” where you can attend dance and music events, hear elders tell their stories, watch arts-and-crafts demonstrations.
• Ask your concierges or guides about your chances of seeing an Eskimo blanket toss. (The blanket toss originated as a way to raise a hunter in the air for a better view of faraway game.)
• To see the eagles in the wild, go to Haines where, each October, the birds flock to the nearby Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve. Eagles come for the late run of salmon and tourists come with their cameras.
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• Attend the amusing, educational, corny but well-done Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show in Ketchikan. It pits professional lumbermen against one another in various competitions based on the lumberjack’s duties. Members of the audience may then be asked to compete, after a fashion.
• Travel the Inside Passage aboard a top cruise ship; cross the countryside between Anchorage and Fairbanks aboard a glass-domed train.
• In Sitka, visit the Alaskan Raptor Center, a bald eagle hospital and educational center.
• Ketchikan has a definite Wild West feel to it. Using a walking-tour map, explore the historic areas, being sure not to miss Creek Street, once the town’s infamous red-light district. At its height, there were 30 houses of prostitution that are now a string of colorful shops plus Dolly’s House Museum, named for the town’s most famous madam. A Dolly impersonator greets museum visitors.
•Take the tram to the top of Mount Roberts in Juneau for a look at the landscape. Take tours of the McCauley Salmon Hatchery and the historic Alaska Juneau Gold Mine.
• Take a riverboat cruise on the Chena or Tanana River. This is an option in Fairbanks.
• Get a taste of Russia in Alaska: At Sitka, the historic capital of Russian America, visit St. Michaels Cathedral, the Russian cemetery, blockhouse and the Russian Bishops house.
But, don’t miss the dramatic lineup of totem poles in the Sitka National Historical Park not far outside of town.
• Take a whale watching tour.
• Take the walking tour of Fort William H. Seward in Haines, now a center for native arts, and see a performance of the Chilkat Indian Dancers,
• In Fairbanks, visit the University of Alaska Museum of the North, where you can see musk ox, an ice-age survivor, and reindeer at the university’s Large Animal Research Station.
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For more information, consult the Alaska Travel Industry Association at www.travelalaska.com
To find a travel agent with Alaska expertise, called an Alaska Certified Expert, go to www.travelalaska.com/specialist/search.aspx
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