For some tourists, the Alaska they come looking for is only a three-hour ferry ride away from the crowds of cruise-ship tourists they experienced in Ketchikan. At 135 miles long and covering more than 2230 sq miles, Prince of Wales Island (POW) is the USA’s third-largest island, after Alaska’s Kodiak and Hawaii’s Big Island.
Category: Alaska Toursim
The glaciers may be melting but Prince William Sound, the northern extent of the Gulf of Alaska, is still flanked by mountains and features abundant wildlife, from whales and harbor seals to eagles and bears. Don’t pass through without splurging on a marine-wildlife boat tour or a kayak adventure.
When the ferry heads north from Wrangell, it begins one of the Inside Passage’s most scenic sections. After crossing over from Wrangell Island to Mitkof Island, the ferry threads through the 46 turns of Wrangell Narrows, a 22-mile channel that is only 300ft wide and 19ft deep in places. At one point, the sides of the ship are so close to shore you can almost gather firewood for the evening.
If you time it right, you can catch the twice-a-month state ferry to Pelican, a lively little fishing town on Chichagof Island’s northwest coast. The cruise through Icy Straits is scenic, with a good possibility of seeing humpback whales, and the two hours in port is more than enough time to walk the length of town, and even have a beer, in one of Southeast Alaska’s last true boardwalk communities.
From Eklutna Lake Rd, Glenn Hwy continues north, crossing Knik and Matanuska Rivers at the northern end of Cook Inlet, and at Mile 35.3 reaching a major junction with the George Parks Hwy. At this point, Glenn Hwy curves sharply to the east and heads into Palmer, 7 miles away. If you’re driving, a much more scenic way to reach Palmer is to leave Glenn Hwy just before it crosses Knik River and follow Old Glenn Hwy into town.
From 4000ft in the mountains, Pack Creek flows down Admiralty Island’s east side before spilling into Seymour Canal. The extensive tide flats at the mouth of the creek draw a large number of bears to feed on salmon, making the spot a favorite for observing and photographing the animals.
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Nome Alaska USA travel video clips
Nome, in so many ways, is the Alaskan archetype: a rough-hewn, fun-loving, undying Wild West ghost town, thriving at the uttermost edge of the planet. With America’s biggest concentration of Whites north of the tree line, the town is at once familiar and exotic: on one hand, with paved streets, grassy public squares, many saloons (more than in the rest of Bush Alaska combined) and palpable gold-rush history, it has the infrastructure like the rural West.
The Misty Fiords National Monument encompasses 3594 sq miles of wilderness and lies between two impressive fjords – Behm Canal (117 miles long) and Portland Canal (72 miles long). The two natural canals give the preserve its extraordinarily deep and long fjords with sheer granite walls that rise thousands of feet out of the water. Misty Fiords is well named; annual rainfall is 14ft.
Situated 26 miles above the Arctic Circle on the shores of the Chukchi Sea, Kotzebue – named after Polish explorer Otto von Kotzebue, who arrived here in 1816 – is one of Alaska’s northernmost hubs. It could also be considered the state’s biggest Alaska Native village. Unlike other aboriginal centers such as Bethel and Barrow, Kotzebue lacks a substantial white population. About 90% of residents are Inupiat, and – despite the financial injection provided by the massive Red Dog zinc mine, 90 miles north of town – eons-old hunting-and-gathering practises are the lifeblood of the community.
Kodiak is a worker’s town. Unlike many ports in the Southeast, tourism in Kodiak is nice but not necessary. That’s why there’s no hostel on the island, no campgrounds near the city and nobody running a shuttle service to the airport.