Friday, June 18, 2010

Places that you should visit in your Lifetime

7. Alaska


Places to visit in Alaska:

Alagnak Wild River - King Salmon, AK
The headwaters of the Alagnak Wild River lie within the rugged Aleutian Range of neighboring Katmai National Park & Preserve. Meandering west towards Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea, the Alagnak traverses the beautiful Alaska Peninsula, providing an unparalleled opportunity to experience the unique wilderness, wildlife, and cultural heritage of southwest Alaska.

Alaska Public Lands - Anchorage, AK
Alaska's parks, forest and refuges are rich and varied. The Alaska Centers, interagency visitor centers located in Tok, Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Ketchikan, allow visitors to stop by or write to just one spot for all the information needed to plan an Alaskan adventure. The centers also educate adults and children about the cultural and

Aleutian World War II National Historic Area - Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, AK
Perched on Mount Ballyhoo in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, the concrete remains of the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area speak silently of a time of war. This magical place was the stage for two American tragedies: here, servicemen fought both the Japanese and the extreme weather, as hundreds of native Unangan people were interned a thousand miles away, longing to return to their island homes.


Bering Land Bridge National Preserve - Nome, AK
Where today there is sea there was once a vast treeless steppe. The Bering Land Bridge allowed the migration of plants and animals, including humans, to spread beyond their home continent. Today Bering Land Bridge National Preserve provides archeologists and paleontologists a chance to explore the past, while the native Inupiat still utilize the land as their ancestors did long ago.

Cape Krusenstern National Monument - Kotzebue, AK
North of the Arctic Circle, Cape Krusenstern National Monument stretches 70 miles along the Chukchi Sea shoreline. Beach ridges provide evidence of 5000 years of human activity. Inupiat people continue to use the resources today. Vast wetlands provide food, water, and shelter for migratory birds. Hikers and boaters can see carpets of tundra wildflowers and sometimes musk oxen, moose, or caribou.

Denali National Park & Preserve - Denali Park, AK
The second weekend after Labor Day each year, Denali hosts an annual "Road Lottery." Four hundred names are drawn for each of the four days of the lottery, and winners may purchase a day-pass to drive as much of the Park Road as weather allows. Folks may apply to the lottery between June 1 - June 30, online or via regular mail.

Gates Of The Arctic National Park & Preserve - Bettles, AK
The floatplane disappears, leaving you on the lakeshore. For the next two weeks you must survive using the knowledge, skills and gear you bring with you. Traveling through this vast wilderness you will discover craggy ridges, glacier carved valleys and fragile flowers. You will walk or float through intact ecosystems where people have lived with the land for thousands of years. You will experience ...


Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve - Gustavus, AK
The marine wilderness of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve includes tidewater glaciers, snow-capped mountain ranges, ocean coastlines, deep fjords, and freshwater rivers and lakes. This diverse land and seascape hosts a mosaic of plant communities and a variety of marine and terrestrial wildlife and presents many opportunities for adventuring and learning about this unique and powerful place.

Inupiat Heritage Center - Barrow , AK
On the rooftop of the world, the Iñupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska tells the story of the Iñupiat people. They thrived for thousands of years in one of the harshest climates on Earth, hunting the bowhead whale whom they call "Agviq." In the 19th century, these lonely seas swarmed with commercial whalemen from New England, who also sought the bowhead for its valuable baleen and blubber.

Katmai National Park & Preserve - King Salmon, AK
Katmai National Monument was created in 1918 to preserve the famed Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, a spectacular forty square mile, 100 to 700 foot deep ash flow deposited by Novarupta Volcano. A National Park & Preserve since 1980, today Katmai is still famous for volcanoes, but also for brown bears, pristine waterways with abundant fish, remote wilderness, and a rugged coastline.

Kenai Fjords National Park - Seward, AK
At the tip of the Kenai Peninsula lies a land where the ice age still lingers. In Kenai Fjords, glaciers, earthquakes, and ocean storms are the architects. Ice worms, bears and whales make their home in this land of constant change. Native Alutiiq used these resources to nurture a life entwined with the sea. Explore this site to discover Kenai Fjords, its history, science and remote splendor.

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park - Skagway, AK
Gold! Headlines read in 1897, starting the rush. Thousands, hoping to ease the woes of economic depression, sold farms, dropped businesses and boarded ships to follow their dreams north. They braved icy passes to reach the interior of Canada, only to find the gold claims staked by prospectors who preceded them. A few struck gold; many more returned home penniless, yet richer for the adventure.

Kobuk Valley National Park - Kotzebue, AK
Caribou, sand dunes, the Kobuk River, Onion Portage - just some of the facets of Kobuk Valley National Park. Half a million caribou migrate through, their tracks crisscrossing sculpted dunes. The Kobuk River is an ancient and current path for people and wildlife. For 9000 years, people came to Onion Portage to harvest caribou as they swam the river. Even today, that rich tradition continues.

Lake Clark National Park & Preserve - Port Alsworth, AK
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve was created to protect scenic beauty (volcanoes, glaciers, wild rivers and waterfalls), populations of fish and wildlife, watersheds essential for red salmon, and the traditional lifestyle of local residents. Lake Clark's spectacular scenery provides a true wilderness experience for those who visit.

Noatak National Preserve - Kotzebue, AK
As one of North America's largest mountain-ringed river basins with an intact ecosystem, the Noatak River environs features some of the Arctic's finest arrays of plants and animals. The river is classified as a national wild and scenic river, and offers stunning wilderness float-trip opportunities - from deep in the Brooks Range to the tidewater of the Chukchi Sea.

Sitka National Historical Park - Sitka, AK
Alaska's oldest federally designated park was established in 1910 to commemorate the 1804 Battle of Sitka. All that remains of this last major conflict between Europeans and Alaska Natives is the site of the Tlingit Fort and battlefield, located within this scenic 113 acre park in a temperate rain forest.


World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument - Honolulu, HI,AK,CA
Spanning nearly all of the Pacific Ocean, World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument preserves and interprets the stories and key events in the Pacific Theater leading up to the U.S. entering World War II, its impacts on the mainland, through to the Peace Treaty in Tokyo Bay, Japan ending the war.


Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve - Copper Center, AK
The Alaska, Chugach and Wrangell-Saint Elias ranges converge in what is referred to as the "mountain kingdom of North America." This spectacular wilderness includes the continent's largest assemblage of glaciers, and the greatest collection of peaks above 16,000 feet, including Mount St. Elias (18,008'), the second highest peak in the United States.


Yukon - Charley Rivers National Preserve - Eagle, AK
Located along the Canadian border in central Alaska, adventure begins in Yukon-Charley Rivers. Whether you choose to leisurely float the water of the mighty Yukon River in a state of the art vessel or homemade raft, or experience the premier whitewater of the Charley River in a sturdy and suitable inflatable, you will make memories to last a lifetime. Geology, cultural history, remnants of the ...

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