1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (101 page)

On the eastern edge of the Kenai, the towns of Seward and Whittier serve as jumping-off points not only for dozens of cruise ships but for more elemental exploration. From Seward,
sightseeing boats take you out to Kenai Fjords National Park, where waves and tectonic forces have carved the coast into a rugged natural cathedral filled with whales, seabirds, waterfalls, and brown bears. From Whittier and Valdez, boats and kayaks head out for day trips onto Prince William Sound, full of wooded islands, tidewater glaciers, and wildlife.

Steller sea lions lounge on Prince William Sound.

W
HERE
: beginning about 50 miles southeast of Anchorage.
Visitor info:
Tel 907-283-3850;
www.kenaipeninsula.org
.
S
ALTY
D
AWG
S
ALOON
: Homer. Tel 907-235-6718;
www.saltydawgsaloon.com
.
S
ALTRY
R
ESTAURANT
: Halibut Cove. Tel 907-235-7847.
Cost:
dinner $20.
K
ACHEMAK
B
AY
W
ILDERNESS
L
ODGE
: China Poot Bay. Tel 907-235-8910;
www.alaskawildernesslodge.com
.
Cost:
$2,100 per person for 3 nights, includes meals and activities; Loonsong $1,500 for 3 nights.
K
AYAKING IN
H
OMER
: True North Kayak. Tel 907-235-0708;
www.truenorthkayak.com
.
Cost:
guided day trips from $90.
When:
May–Sept or Oct.
K
ENAI
F
JORDS
T
OURS
: Seward. Tel 877-777-2805 or 907-265-4501;
www.kenaifjords.com
.
Cost:
from $129.
When:
May–Sept.
K
AYAKING ON
P
RINCE
W
ILLIAM
S
OUND
: Prince William Sound Kayak Center, Whittier. Tel 877-472-2452 or 907-472-2452;
www.pwskayakcenter.com
.
Cost:
day tours from $80.
When:
May–Sept.
B
EST TIMES
: May and Sept for smaller crowds.

Bear Viewing in Paradise

Alaska

For bear lovers, there is no better place than Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge or nearby Katmai National Park. The second-largest island in the U.S. after Hawaii’s Big Island, Kodiak is sufficiently separated from
the mainland that Kodiak bears are considered a distinct type within the brown bear family, noticeably larger (owing to their protein-rich diet) than their cousin the grizzly. About 3,000 Kodiak browns live on the island, mostly within the 1.9-million-acre refuge, which encompasses a full two-thirds of Kodiak’s landmass. In spring, they tend to favor the high country, but beginning in mid-June visitors can view them fishing in the island’s hundred-plus rivers and streams. As there are no roads in the refuge, you’ll need to hire a boat or floatplane to take you in. You can come as part of an organized bear-viewing trip, but you can also be dropped off at one of the eight forest service cabins (available by lottery) or at remote fishing spots on Kodiak’s rivers and lakes. Along with the wildlife,
you’ll find rich rain forests, a craggy coast of wide bays, glacially carved valleys whose green summer coat rivals Ireland’s, a mild maritime climate, and a genial main town with reminders of its history as Russia’s first permanent settlement in North America.

On the mainland, across a 30-mile channel, the bear viewing is even better at the Katmai National Park and Preserve, where planes from Kodiak may travel to watch bears dig for clams in the tidal flats. Away from the coast, the main focus is on the Brooks River, where as many as 50 browns can be seen at a time during the peak sockeye salmon season. Three viewing platforms are set up within walking distance of the Brooks Lodge, the most comfortable accommodations in the park. In addition to bear viewing, the lodge offers plenty of opportunity for fly-fishing.

W
HERE
: About 290 miles southwest of Anchorage.
K
ODIAK
N
ATIONAL
W
ILDLIFE
R
EFUGE
: Tel 888-408-3514 or 907-487-2600;
www.kodiak.fws.gov
.
Cost:
$30 per cabin.
K
ATMAI
N
ATIONAL
P
ARK
: Tel 907-246-3305;
www.nps.gov/katm
.
B
ROOKS
L
ODGE
: Tel 800-544-0551 or 907-243-5448;
www.brookslodge.com
.
Cost:
1-night air/lodging package, $844 per person, double occupancy.
When:
June–Sept.
B
EST TIMES
: July–mid-Aug for bear viewing and salmon fishing in Kodiak; July and Sept in Brooks River. Salmon runs vary year by year but typically occur June–Sept.

Just to Say You’ve Been There

Alaska

Nome is almost synonymous with “the middle of nowhere,” though in fact it’s really the
edge
of nowhere: on the coast of the Bering Sea, equidistant from the Russian border and the Arctic Circle, and a whole lot farther
from everything else. People began coming here in 1899 after three lucky Swedes discovered gold on Anvil Creek, and within a year the city hosted a full third of Alaska’s non-Native residents. Large-scale mining ended in the 1980s, but individual panners still live in tents along the beach, hoping for the next big strike. Wander through the dirt streets and take in the frontier ambience. A fire in 1934 destroyed many of the old buildings, but there’s still a string of rough-and-tumble saloons (and a sign marking where Wyatt Earp’s saloon stood in 1899), a platform that’s the official end-point of the annual Iditarod race (see p. 909), and a few shops that sell art from nearby Native villages.

Living here apparently gives people an offkilter sense of humor. In March, the monthlong Iditarod celebration includes the six-hole par-41 Bering Sea Ice Golf Classic, in which competitors walk out onto the frozen sea to hit orange golf balls off old shotgun shells, aiming for Astroturf greens. If the ice has broken up by June, bathers can brave the 40-degree water of the annual Polar Bear Swim—or they can wait a few months, put their bathtub on wheels, and compete in the Labor Day Bathtub Race down Front Street. Each team must finish with a bar of soap, towel, bath mat, and at least ten gallons of water; the winners get to keep the “Miss Piggy & Kermit Taking a Bath” trophy for a year.

Outside town, Nome’s 250 miles of roads make it the jumping-off point for exploring the area’s amazing subarctic wilderness. Drive 30 miles north on the Nome-Taylor road to reach the awesomely beautiful and incredibly
undervisited Kigluaik Mountains. This is real wilderness, but many of its most scenic vistas can nevertheless be viewed on long day-hikes, or even from the road.

Another 40 miles will take you to the Native village of Teller, population 247. You’ll be rewarded with spectacular scenery along the way (plus a chance to see some of Seward Peninsula’s 25,000 reindeer) and friendly people and good craftwork when you arrive. Farther north, beyond the road system, the 2.7-million-acre Bering Land Bridge National Preserve is some of America’s most remote and little-visited national parkland, offering wilderness trekking in a harsh landscape full of lava flows, tundra, and granite spires. In the other direction, southeast along the coast of Norman Sound, the Unalakleet River Lodge is a living dream for fly-fishers, with room for only 14 guests and more than 100 miles of fishable water. Nights are spent nestled into the warm, woody, hilltop lodge, offering a view of the Unalakleet Valley below and gourmet meals served near its stone fireplace.

W
HERE
: 540 miles northwest of Anchorage.
Visitor info:
Tel 907-443-6624;
www.nomealaska.org
.
B
ERING
L
AND
B
RIDGE
P
RESERVE
: Tel 907-443-2522;
www.nps.gov/bela
.
U
NALAKLEET
R
IVER
L
ODGE
: Tel: 800-995-1978 or 662-234-6535;
www.unalakleet.com
.
Cost:
7-night package $4,150 per person, double occupancy, includes meals and guided fishing.
When:
mid-June–Aug.
B
EST TIMES
: Mar for Iditarod events; mid-June for Polar Bear Swim; summer for fishing and weather.

A Wildlife Shangri-la, Remote as Timbuktu

Alaska

Once volcanic mountain peaks on a 1,000-mile grassland steppe that stretched from Siberia to Alaska, the Pribilofs became islands at the end of the last ice age, when melting glaciers caused the oceans to rise
. So cut off were these peaks, some 300 miles from the Alaskan mainland, that stranded wooly mammoths survived here for some 3,500 years after their species became extinct on the mainland.

Russian navigator Gerasim Pribilof discovered the uninhabited islands in 1786, while searching for fur seal breeding grounds. He struck the mother lode: St. Paul and St. George (the two largest islands, along with smaller Otter Island, Walrus Island, and Sea Lion Rock) are the summer pupping grounds for 700,000 Northern Pacific fur seals, the greatest such concentration in the world. The commercial seal trade, worked by transplanted Aleut laborers under Russian and then American control, continued on the islands until 1985, when pressure from animal rights groups scaled it back to a subsistence harvest for Natives.

Today, you can see thousands of seals at their rocky seaside rookeries, the male beach-masters roaring, the smaller females belching, and the babies mewling—while nearby some of the islands’ 2.5 million seabirds build their cliff nests, circle overhead, or fish in the frigid Bering waters. Experts typically count the Pribilofs among the top birding sites in the United States (if not the world), with nearly 254 species either in residence or passing through on their migrations. Tufted and horned puffins, common and thick-billed
murres, crested auklets, red-faced cormorants, and northern fulmars are common, and 82 percent of the red-legged kitti-wakes in North America choose the Pribilofs for their nesting ground. Because of the islands’ proximity to Siberia, Asian species are commonly sighted as well. On land, you may spot arctic blue fox or one of the islands’ secretive reindeer, while harbor seals breed on Otter Island and Steller sea lions haul out on St. Paul and Walrus Island.

Representing the vast majority of the islands’ human population, the 650 Aleut residents make up the largest remaining Aleut population on earth. They survive in an environment that is exceedingly harsh. Volcanic and treeless, the Pribilofs are constantly hounded by winds, rain, and heavy fog, though summer’s comparative warmth brings lush green grasses and more than 100 species of wildflowers.

Thousands of fur seals bask on the coast of St. Paul.

W
HERE
: in the Bering Sea, 750 miles southwest of Anchorage.
H
OW
: Most visitors arrive by tour, arranged through St. Paul Island Tours, tel 877-424-5637 or 907-278-2312;
www.alaskabirding.com
.
Cost:
from $1,406 for 3-day tour, includes transportation from Anchorage and shared accommodations.
When:
May–mid-Sept.
B
EST TIMES
: late June–July, when seabird chicks are abundant, fur seal pups are active, and the islands are greenest.