Things to do in Alaska

Imagine flying into Katmai National Park on a floatplane and a curious grizzly swims out into the bay to meet you. Or sailing around the fjords and a humpback whale creates some extra waves by projecting into the icy air. Or you are so taken by the magnificent sight of salmon heading upstream on one of nature’s most miraculous migrations, that you forget the fate that awaits many of them, as they find their fate in the claws of awaiting Kodiak bears and otters. Welcome to Alaska. It’s wild out there.

Enormous muskox plod the icy tundra to the far north and west, looking a bare evolutionary step away from the woolly mammoth that once roamed here. Keep your eyes peeled – the ever-shrinking carpets of permafrost are polar bear territory, too. However, you’re more likely to encounter moose and caribou that munch their way around the whole of mainland Alaska.

Birds range from regal eagles (Alaska has the biggest population of bald eagles in the USA) to albatrosses that get their kicks sailing the air currents of the south coast. Metre-tall sandhill cranes nest in the tundra in the summer. And the state bird is the most unassuming of all – willow ptarmigans that swap their chestnut summer coats for white winterwear.

About 16 percent of Alaska’s residents identify as Indigenous Alaska Native peoples. Many have strong traditions of subsistence living, so activity, cultural and nature-led tourism are now becoming a growing part of community life. Especially in wilderness areas, where Alaska Native people are the majority.

Museums like the Alaska State Museum are a good place to start getting your head around the history. But you’ll learn even more by joining a tour that puts you directly in touch with the diverse Alaska Native communities. Everything from dress to hunting habits change from village to village. The reason is simple: their near total geographical isolation.

The Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples in the southeast live in a climate ideal for totem pole and kayak carving. Some Athabaskans in the interior, on the other hand, weather out the harsh climate by seasonally moving their camps from warmer forests in the winter to salmon rivers in the summer. And coastal communities continue to make their living from the sea. Subsistence hunting still exists, especially up north where Alaska Native people are permitted to hunt whales for meat, skin and oil that’s shared between neighbouring communities.