I’ve played midnight golf on the Kenai golf course; Alaska rules apply. I also played one spring morning when my ball bounced off the water hazard and onto the green.
Dig clams on the beach in Ninilchik; most people go to Clam Gulch, but the razor clams are bigger in Ninilchik.
Peninsula Moose Family Center in Kenai really is the friendliest place in town. Most of the locals are members, and can get you in as a guest. Good cheap meals most nights, breakfast every Sunday morning, cheap drinks always and live music most summer weekends.
The Kenai Visitor Center has a very interesting museum with lots of artifacts from local history, and programs throughout the summer.
I lived in Alaska (after relocating there from Memphis) for 13 years: 11 years in Anchorage, & 2 years more in a nice fourplex smack-dab between Palmer & Wasilla, in the Mat-Su Valley.
You can’t take a bad photo in the state unless your camera’s broken! Absolutely stunning scenery, all-year-round. If you visit in the spring, you MUST RE-VISIT in the fall & winter. Otherwise your trip won’t show you the “real” Alaska!
TIP: Don’t FLY to Alaska. Drive up the Alcan Highway & through Canada … (How I relocated this spring to Belfast, ME. We drove thru Canada until the State of Maine showed up.)
OR: Don’t take a “cruise” up the Inside Passage. Check out & book your trip up there on the Alaska Marine Highway … big ferryboats that take the same route, but are MUCH MORE FUN. You don’t even have to book a cabin on the ferry … you can CAMP OUT ON THE BACK DECK! (Just be sure to duct tape your tent down or the wind might carry it away.) There are National Park Rangers on board who give talks about the state and nature, etc., pretty good food, either cafeteria-style or in an actual sit-down restaurant onboard. There is a bar, also. Awesomely beautiful scenery the whole way. The ferry leaves from Bellingham, Washington. If you can afford it, take your pickup truck (or whatever vehicle you may have) on the ferry; then you’ll have land transportation when you get there.
That’s how I spent my three weeks’ vacation, 13+ years ago. Then I took the Big Leap and moved to Alaska, exactly one month later
Well, what does “the real <place>” really mean? Does it mean “That part of the area that conforms to commonly held stereotypes about the place”?
What is “The Real Virginia”? Is it only the tobacco fields of central and southern Virginia, only the Appalachian hillbilly country of the western part of the state, only the DC suburbs and the Pentagon, or only Norfolk and Virginia Beach, or only the Eastern Shore? Isn’t it all Virginia?
I agree with driving up. Alaska is beautiful, but British Columbia is spectacular, and you’ll see more wildlife. Okay, both are spectacular, but in different ways. If you go to Southeast (Juneau, Sitka, Haines, Petersburg, etc., try to get there during summer, which usually falls on a Tuesday.
Alaska biomes go from temperate rain forest in Southeast, to deciduous in South Central, to taiga in the Interior, and finally tundra in the Arctic. It’s the most diverse state climatically, with extremes in the Interior going from -60F in winter to 90F in summer. The mosquitoes are legendary and ferocious in many areas, and there are stories of caribou so driven mad by them that they have run off cliffs.
I highly recommend reading Coming Into The Country, by John McPhee, as someone else mentioned. I’d also subscribe to Alaska Magazine (or buy back issues on ebay), although it’s not as good as it used to be. It will give you (the OP) an idea of life up there. I have a set of books that was published by the state which cover all of the various areas , including geography, mineral, climate, peoples, etc. But unless you have $300 to spend, I guess I’ll keep them. If you can find copies of Alaska Geographic on ebay, they are great references about different aspects of the state. I used to have a lot of those, but gave them to my grandson.
I’d believe it. When we were at Aleyska waiting for the tram up, d8uv pointed to my arm and said, “hey, look at that.”
I did look at that. Perched on my arm was a mosquito roughly the size of the Spirit of St. Louis, which I then flapped at like mad to remove. It seemed like it was over an inch tall. I didn’t know that they made them that big!
After this, I mentioned that further mosquitoes were to be exterminated without the tour guide spiel. . .
Never been to Alaska, however I have heard the view is fantastic, one day I may visit during the summer months… Living in Florida, the coldest it gets is in the thirties. I would not want to be there in the winter—too cold.
It rarely drops below the thirties in southern southeast AK, but the constant rain, very little daylight and fifty mile an hour winds make things less than pleasant.
I used to live a block away from Lake Spenard, and I once saw a pump jockey pump 30 gallons of avgas into a mosquito before he figured out it wasn’t a Cessna.
Thanks for your responses everyone, I’m going to pick up Coming Into The Country soon. I’m tempted to get an Alaska travel guide but I’ve not got a clue when or really if I’d be going. The Alaska Railway looks fantastic but its tours seem very pricey. Would y’all say visiting Alaska is a typically pricey endeavour?
I don’t know how agile or self-reliant you are, but if you can manage it I’d bring camping gear and rent (or drive) a car. Otherwise, it can get pretty expensive. If you drive up there and stay on the road system, the absolute best guide is The Milepost. This phonebook-sized guide will get you from the southern US-Canada border all the way up to AK and over every road there (all maps included). It will also tell you where to camp, fish, and what to see. It’s indispensable for a non-native.
It wasn’t that pricey for me–but I stayed on someone’s couch.
The Railway is totally worth it. At least for one trip. You get to see a lot more of the countryside that way, and, as there aren’t many trains where I am, it was nice to get to ride on a really awesome one. I can’t stress enough how awesome the train is, though. Absolutely worth it.
The driving will also help, I’m sure. However, even d8uv got a little freaked out by the Seward Highway at times, and I wouldn’t have driven it, so some of it’ll depend on your comfort level. Personally, I liked getting to see the route the train took and the route that the road shows.
My cousin went to Alaska last month, as part of a tour group, and spent somewhere north of three thousand dollars a person. I didn’t spend nearly that much.
Re: Seward Highway. It should be noted that it’s not a bad road, and the scenery is spectacular. In the summer, however, people spend long hours in their outdoor activities. With up to 20+ hours of daylight, they tend to stay up much of the time they have off, fishing, boating, etc., then try to drive back home on no sleep and too much booze. That’s when the head-on collisions start, and there are several each year.
You don’t sound lame at all. That stuff is super fun. I have done it and would do it again.
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Dont forget about the lower Kenai Pennesula, expecially Homer. I love my town and think it is the greatest place ever. Flying into Anchorage and driving down to Homer talking stops along the way will be a drive of a lifetime. Take small detor to Sewerd if you like. And for oddities Wittier, one of the strangest towns ever.
Nothing to do but gawk and leave. Good story fodder though. Beautifull rivers along the way. Cooper Landing is amazing. Hiking and fishing galore. Homer is at the end of the drive.
I was not trying to single out Anchorage as a bad place. It is just a city. I honestly think that the photos you take and the folks you meet in Anchorage are not the ones you will be showing and telling your friends and family about back home. That is all. it still is intresting and as Alaskan as any other place.
Highways in Alaska, for those without a point of reference, are largely two-lane roads without a barrier between. The part that we’re talking about, the Turnagain-Arm portion, is carved into cliffside. So, at 55 MPH, on one side, immediately to your right, there’s either a guardrail which leads to a maritime death, or a mountain that leads to a earthy death. And on your left? Oncoming traffic, also coming at you at 55 MPH. Adding to the fucking amazing scenery all about you, and it leads to a slightly stressful drive. I know that if I were a tourist here, the siren call of gawking at the scenery would be too strong for me, and I’d totally plow into oncoming traffic.
(Then again, watching that video might just put the idea that I’m a giant pussy into your mind. Which quite possibly is the exact case.)
I highly recommend driving the Seward, mind you. It’s gorgeous. Even better by car than by train. But… don’t be in the driver’s seat the first time you take it. Be a passenger, so you can get the gawking out of your system, so that any future excursions, you can focus on driving.
As for cost… yeah, you can very easily do Alaska on the cheap. You’re coming here for the scenery, which only require the gas money to drive around our highways. If you have some coin to spend, that package thing I linked you to is an incredible bang-for-your-buck. But it’s not mandatory, you can just drive, and be completely sated.
