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No
other region in North America
possesses the mythical aura of ALASKA;
even the name – a derivation of Alayeska,
an Athabascan word meaning
"great land of the west"
– fires the imagination. Few who
see this land of gargantuan ice
fields, sweeping tundra, glacially
excavated valleys, lush rainforests,
deep fjords and occasionally smoking
volcanoes leave unimpressed. Wildlife
may be under threat elsewhere,
but here it is abundant, with
grizzly bears standing twelve feet
tall, moose stopping traffic in
downtown Anchorage, wolves prowling
through national parks, bald eagles
circling over the forests and
fifty-pound-plus salmon leaping
upstream.
The
sheer size of Alaska is hard to
comprehend: America's northernmost,
westernmost and, because the
Aleutian Islands stretch across the
180th meridian, its easternmost state
would, if superimposed onto the
"Lower 48" (the rest of
the continental United States)
stretch from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. This vast expanse covers
more than double the area of Texas,
and its coastline is longer than the
rest of the US combined. All but
three of the nation's highest peaks
are found within its boundaries and
one glacier alone is twice the size
of Wales. To put it in practical
terms, Alaska is so vast that its
907 telephone area code prefix must
be used when calling long distance within
the state.
A mere 570,000 people live in
this huge state – over forty
percent of them in Anchorage –
of whom only one-fifth were born
here. As a rule of thumb, the more
winters you have endured, the more
Alaskan you are, and recent arrivals
are known by the mildly abusive
nickname of cheechako. Often
referred to as the "Last
Frontier", Alaska in many
ways mirrors the American West of
the nineteenth century: an endless,
undeveloped space in which to stake
one's claim and set up a life
without interference. Or at least
that's how Alaskans would like it to
be. Throughout this century tens of
thousands have been lured by the
promise of wealth, first by gold and
then by fishing, logging and, most
recently, oil. However, Alaska's
86,000 Native peoples, who
don't have the option of returning
to the Lower 48 if things don't work
out, have been left behind in the
state's economic boom.
Traveling around Alaska still
demands a spirit of adventure. To
make the most of the state you need
to have an enthusiasm for striking
out on your own, and to be prepared
to rough it. If you plan to camp,
you'll need the best possible gear.
Binoculars are an absolute must, as,
rather more mundanely, is bug spray;
the mosquito is referred to
as the "Alaska state bird"
and only a repellent with 100
percent DEET keeps it away. On top
of that, of course, there's the climate,
though Alaska is far from the
popular misconception of being one
big icebox. While winter
temperatures of -40°F in Fairbanks
are commonplace and northern towns
like Barrow see no sunlight for
nearly three months each year, its
most touristed areas, the southeast
and the Kenai Peninsula, enjoy a
maritime climate (45–65°F in
summer) similar to that of the rest
of the Pacific Northwest, meaning
much more rain (in some towns
180-plus inches per year) than snow.
Remarkably, the summer temperature
in the Interior often reaches 80°F.
Experiencing Alaska on a low
budget is possible, but requires a
lot of planning. The peak period of
mid-June to August sees crazy room
prices; May and particularly
September, when tariffs are relaxed
and the weather only slightly
chillier, are just as good times to
go, and in April or October you'll
have the place to yourself, albeit
with a smaller range of places to
stay and eat. Except for around
forty summertime hostels,
mostly in the major towns or popular
regions, there's little budget
accommodation; ground transportation,
despite the long distances, is less
expensive, with backpacker shuttles
ferrying budget travelers between
major centers; but eating and
drinking are at least twenty
percent more expensive than in the
Lower 48. Winter, when hotels
drop their prices by as much as
half, is becoming an increasingly
popular time to visit, particularly
for the dazzling aurora borealis.
Click here
to go to
Alaska
State
web site |
