Nickname: Last Frontier
Area: 570 833 sq.mi. (1 478 450.7 km2)
Highest point: Mount McKinley 20 320 ft. (6 193.5 m)
Population: 627 400
Capital: Juneau
Largest city: Anchorage

Alaska, the state in the far North is the largest in the USA. It is bordered by Canada from East and Russia from West, on the other side of the Bering Strait. Large mountains, huge forests, glaciers, rapid rivers and snowy slopes characterize the land. Its climate features a long and cold winter and a short summer.

Photo: Alaska, USA, flickr.com, by Donna62

It’s hard to access on the road; therefore it’s better to take a plane or a ship from the larger cities on the West-coast. More than a million tourists visit Alaska each year, which became quite popular in the last 10 years. It’s worth to visit the state in summer time, which last from the middle of May to the middle of September.

Photo: Cruise Ships, Alaska, USA, flickr.com, by The Skillet Lickers

Juneau is the capital of Alaska, which is most famous of that is has got no roads that connect it to the external world, or to the rest of Alaska. This is one of the major ports in Alaska, so it’s quite a bustling place, especially in the tourist season. The city can thank its beautiful situation to the surrounding mountains and the forests. The Alaska State Museum is in the downtown, where we may find historical memories of Alaska, and collections from the native Eskimo tribes and the Old Russian memories as well. The Mendenhall Glacier is a majestic spectacle near the edge of the city. Icebergs continuously snap down from the receding glacier, which is 2 kilometers wide, into the water of the Mendenhall Lake.

Photo: Glacier, Alaska, USA, flickr.com, by bethanyll22

The largest city of Alaska is Anchorage, which is also the center of the state’s transportation and finance. It lies between chains of Mountains; to be more exact, between the Cook Inlet and the Chugach Mountains. It’s the most modern city of Alaska, since an earthquake almost completely destroyed the city in 1964, so it had to be fully rebuilt. Once we’re in the neighborhood, it’s definitely worth to visit the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, where beautiful paintings are put to display.

Photo: Anchorage, Alaska, USA, flickr.com, by Alaskan Dude

Fairbanks is the second largest city of Alaska. It is located not really more than 200 kilometers from the Northern Arctic Circle. It features long daytime in summer, and long lasting darkness in winter. If we take a tour in the Ice Museum, we will find ice statues with captivating beauty. The Pioneer Park basically shows a contemporary city from the 19th century, from the time of the gold rush.

We must take an excursion to the Kodiak Island, which is the second largest island in the United States. This is the home of the world’s largest brown- and Kodiak bears, which can grow to up to 3 meters, and their weights can reach 700 kilograms. The headquarters of the Coast Guard of the USA is to be found in Kodiak City. It’s also an important fishing center, and the oldest Russian building of the US can be found here as well.

The most famous sites of Alaska is non else than the Denali National Park. The largest peak of North-America is here, which is the Mount McKinley, with its 6194 meters. The wildlife and the vegetation of the park is rather various, me might come across moose and grizzlies. We can participate here in rafting and dog sleighing too.

Photo: Denali National Park, Alaska, USA, flickr.com, by ricardo.martin