During our 5 weeks in Alaska, we kept returning to the theme of extremes. From weather to landscape to people, we feel there are few words that can describe all of Alaska. It is truly a land of extremes.
Climate: We had temperatures as high as 93 and as low as 43. We had blazing sun, pouring rain and hail. We had wind that pushed the rain into every crevise, calm days that were so socked in you felt like you were in the clouds and weeks of rain that overflowed the banks of rivers and turned the gravel roads into streams. There were weeks when the sun circled the sky and never set and weeks of rain when we didn’t see the sun. And we only saw the moon twice during the time we were in Alaska and both nights it was full and bright.
Terrain: We traveled over the Brooks Range at Antigun Pass to the north slope and the tundra and were lucky enough to view all 20,310 feet of Mt Denali. We camped on rushing mountain rivers in the far north and sat on the ocean shore of Prince William Sound. We camped up in the clouds at the foot of glaciers and drove through huge areas burnt from forest fires.
Animals: We saw caribou and harbor seals, musk ox and orcas, moose and humpbacks, wolves and sea otters, ravens and black oystercatchers, reindeer and river otters, a stream choked with the salmon run and bald eagles, and mosquitoes the size of humpbacks.
Roads: There are very few roads in Alaska where the main mode of transpsortation is plane or boat. There are the roads of the far north that are made of rocks, gravel, and broken pavement that twist and turn and go up and down like a roller coaster. Roads that you can travel for hours without seeing another car or constantly meet trucks heading for the oil fields. And there is the triangle of paved roads in the south central that are choked with traffic, RVs and cruiseline buses that are in a rush to get somewhere and locals trying to get home or to work. And there are the narrow roads to the coast that are bumper to bumper with tourists all trying to get the most of their 2 week holiday. The coastal areas are linked by one of the largest road systems in Alaska, the ferry. You can travel to the southern areas and islands of Alaska easily with your car, RV, bike or on foot.
Bust or Boom: We met crews in the far north who were mining for gold and saw towns that were remnants of past gold rushes. We saw areas that were booming from tourism and small rundown towns and resorts that were from an era before RVs. We drove through areas where people were barely eeking out a living while tourists were flying by in their large RVs. There are large cities like Anchorage and Fairbanks and small communities like Eagle and the very diverse people that live in both. And there are large tracts of land that seem devoid of human population known only to hunters, trappers and the animals that call it home.
We barely scratched the surface of what Alaska has to offer since most of Alaska is only accessible via plane and boat and visiting during the few warm months deprives the traveler of the bulk of Alaska’s jewels.
If we were to return to Alaska, we would travel during an off season to avoid the crowds and to see the other sides of Alaska, they say the winter views are amazing including the Aurora Borealis, and we would travel in a hard sided vehicle since most of the camping in Alaska is roadside because of the permafrost, thick forests and ocean, and the climate can be unpredictable (read above). We would also venture off road and travel to some of the more remote parts of Alaska via plane or boat.
