Alaska

Super-sized wilderness

By Catherine Bodry & Lisa Maloney

Things to do
Guides
Itineraries
Travel Companies
Places

If you thought everything about the USA was big, well, Alaska is just... bigger.

It's the country's largest state, home to both the country’s biggest national park, Wrangell-St Elias, and highest peak, Denali.

Everything here is on an epic scale and there's adventure everywhere you look. You can paddle across silent fjords with snowy peaks towering above you, watch huge grizzlies pluck glistening salmon from icy rivers, hear the howl of wolves from your cabin in the dark of night and gaze skywards at the shimmering fireworks of the Northern Lights.

There are few roads, so you'll need to hop aboard a light plane to enter the wilderness where musk oxen, grey wolves, bears and caribou roam wild and free. Alaska is a place to encounter nature in all its raw, ethereal beauty ‒ and perhaps to find yourself again as you do so.

Hidden gems in Alaska

Alaska

Alaskan Arctic

Sarah Riches

Place

Most cruises in Alaska explore the sub-Arctic Inside Passage. Few sail into the Arctic Circle, but the ones that do – such as Hurtigruten Expeditions, National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions and Seabourn – sail past Point Barrow. They may also stop at Herschel Island, which has Inuvialuit dwellings and a 19th century whaling station. Alasdair sailed this stretch in the opposite direction, from Canada’s North West Passage. He says, “I saw a herd of musk oxen on Herschel Island, and got tipped out of my dingy while going ashore for fuel at Barrow Point. “Alaska’s north coast is fairly dull. There are no mountains, glaciers or icebergs like in Greenland, and you can have days where the horizon is just grey. The water is quite shallow and not particularly well chartered, so big ships can ground there."

Alaskan Arctic

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Alaska travel guides

Guide

Alaska's Best National Parks

Lisa Maloney

There’s the great outdoors and then there’s the wilderness. And then, in a category all of its own, there’s Alaska.

Guide

Things To Do In Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Lisa Maloney

If you think of sprawling coastal plains and seemingly endless streams of caribou, you're probably thinking of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR to locals).This massive refuge may be best-known for the highly public battle over whether to open its borders to oil drilling, but this vast, trackless wilderness is also home to more than 200,000 caribou and a smattering of polar bears, best seen from the tiny village of Kaktovik.

Guide

What To Do In Gates Of The Arctic National Park

Although it's one of the most visited parks in the Arctic, Gates of the Arctic is still populated by far more caribou and birds than human visitors. This enormous park, sandwiched between Noatak National Preserve and Kobuk Valley National Park (to the west) and the Dalton Highway or Haul Road (to the east) supports one of the last completely intact Arctic ecosystems.

Guide

What To Do In Kobuk Valley National Park

Located entirely above the Arctic Circle in the western Brooks Range, Kobuk Valley National Park is a broad valley encircled by the Baird and Waring mountain ranges, with the Kobuk River snaking through its middle for 61 miles. It’s best known for the desert-like sand dunes that cover most of its southern reaches.

Guide

Things To Do In Denali National Park

Denali National Park and Preserve is a sprawling, 6-million-acre land of snow-clad peaks, tundra-carpeted hills and rushing glacier-fed creeks. Easy access from the road system and being home to Denali (formerly Mt.

Guide

What To Do In Wrangell-St. Elias National Park And Preserve

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park may be best known for its enormous size; this 13.

Guide

What To Do In Katmai National Park

Broad river flats, looming mountains, and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes -- the stunning, desolate remains of the 20th century's largest volcanic eruption: That's what you'll find in Katmai National Park. Alongside the park's famous brown bears gorging on floods of incoming salmon, visitors also come here for the paddling, backcountry hiking and fly fishing, although some of the fishing is catch and release only.

Guide

What To Do In Prince William Sound And Kenai Fjords National Park

Prince William Sound (PWS) sits in a calm, well-sheltered inlet on the Gulf of Alaska. It hugs the state’s south coast, cradled between the Kenai Peninsula and the Southeast panhandle and protected by three large barrier islands.

Guide

How To Get To Lake Clark National Park

Lisa Maloney

If you live in or near Anchorage and want a quick day of bear viewing, you head for Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, which is just a short hour's flight away. But you can see much more than bears here: Lake Clark is also famous for its volcanoes and Richard Proenneke's historic, hand-crafted cabin, and it's a popular destination for fly fishing and paddling, too.

Guide

Things To Do In Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve

The six-mile-wide caldera in the heart of Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve showcases what's left when a mountain literally blows its top. But that's not all you'll find in this 600,000-acre park perched in Southwest Alaska near the start of the Aleutian Chain.

Guide

What To Do In Chugach And Talkeetna Mountains

Extending for roughly 495,000 acres north, south and east of Anchorage and connected to the Southcentral Alaska road network, Chugach State Park is one of the state’s more accessible adventure spots. The Chugach Mountains offer several dozen excellent hiking and backpacking trails, much of which across high tundra landscapes, all within easy reach from Anchorage.

Guide

Packing list

Packing for an Alaska trip depends entirely on the activities you’ve got planned but the common theme is to hope for the best, plan for the worst. If you’re planning on skiing, paddling or technical climbing you’ll need specialized equipment: consult your operator.

Guide

When to go to Alaska

What are the four seasons in Alaska? Answer: Winter, June, July, and August. So goes the oldest Alaskan joke in the book, and while not strictly true — May and September can be beautiful times to visit America’s Last Frontier — the old joke does have a basis in fact.

Article

Getting awe-inspired in Alaska

On my first visit to Alaska, in 1999, I was so overwhelmed by its vastness and beauty that I cried. I had never been in a space that was so huge, wild and dramatic, and the miles and miles of wilderness were incomprehensible.

Guide

Best Places For Backpacking In Alaska

Lisa Maloney

Alaska is a backpacker's paradise, where your trail cred will reach new levels. Whether you’re cutting your teeth on classic tried-and-true routes, or flexing more advanced backpacking skills, Alaska is the place to gear up and get out there.