Regions in Brief

Alaska's immensity contains several distinct regions with their own climatic conditions, ecological settings, cultural background, and interest for travelers. Here I've provided a simplified explanation of what's where. The following section explains the natural history terms highlighted in this summary.

The Southeast

Alaska's Southeast Panhandle is the relatively narrow strip of mountains and islands lying between Canada and the Gulf of Alaska. To Alaskans, it's Southeast, but to the rest of the country, it's more like the northernmost extension of the lush Pacific Northwest. This is a land of huge rainforest trees, glacier-garbed mountains, and countless islands ranging in size from the nation's third largest to tiny, one-tree islets strewn like confetti along the channels and fjords of the Inside Passage. That waterway is the highway of Southeast Alaska, as the land is generally too steep and rugged to build roads, but there are lots of towns and villages reachable by the ferry system or cruise ships. Southeast contains Juneau, Alaska's capital and third-largest city, and Ketchikan, next in size to Juneau. Southeast's towns are as quaint and historic as any in Alaska, especially Sitka, which preserves the story of Russian America and its conflict with the indigenous Native people. Alaska Native culture -- here, Tlingit and Haida -- is rich and close at hand. No other region offers more opportunities for boating or seeing marine wildlife. Likewise, no other region is as crowded with tourists. More than a million visitors flood into Southeast annually aboard cruise ships, jamming the little towns all summer. The weather is wet and temperate.

The Gulf of Alaska Coast

The coastal region extending westward from Southeast's Inside Passage across the Gulf of Alaska to Kodiak Island shares its characteristic of steep seaside mountains that stop clouds, build glaciers, and water rainforest trees, but it is a wilder, harsher region where the North Pacific's storms pound mostly on uninhabited shores. Going north and west, the forested coastal strip grows narrower and the trees smaller, until tundra comes nearly down to the water. The towns of the region rely on the sea and tend to occupy its more protected corners: Valdez, Cordova, and Whittier in Prince William Sound, a complex inland sea; Seward, Homer, and Kenai on the Kenai Peninsula, which extends southward dividing the Sound and Cook Inlet; and Kodiak Island, a kingdom of its own. Roads reach towns in the Sound and Peninsula, making the area an easy route to fishing, boating, hiking, wildlife viewing, and many other outdoor activities. Kenai Fjords National Park, on the Peninsula near Seward, is a premier attraction.

Southcentral

The coastal mountains create a rain shadow with drier weather and the boreal forest ecosystem. Passes and broad river valleys between the mountains and the lowlands of Cook Inlet made the region relatively easy to settle and it contains the majority of the state's people. The population is concentrated in Anchorage, the state's modern, major city and its environs, and the Matanuska and Susitna valleys, an agricultural and suburban region of broad flatlands between steep mountains. Southcentral dominates Alaska as a commercial and transportation center, including a network of highways and the Alaska Railroad, and has the largest cultural attractions and best visitor facilities and restaurants. Despite the urbanization, however, outdoor activities are always close at hand. The proximity to the ocean influences the weather, making very cold winter temperatures infrequent.

The Interior

The vast central part of the state is crossed by highways and by rivers that act as highways. Big river valleys lie between great mountain ranges, the largest of which are the Alaska Range, which contains Mount McKinley, North America's tallest peak, and the Brooks Range, the northern end of the cordillera that includes the Rockies. McKinley is the centerpiece of Denali National Park, Alaska's premier road-accessible wildlife-viewing destination. The region's dominant city is Fairbanks, Alaska's second largest, which lies on the lazy Chena River, roughly in the middle of the state. The natural environment is drier and less abundant than nearer the coast. Summer days can be hot and winters very cold in the Interior, because of the distance from the ocean. Permafrost lies under much of the region and the land is largely covered by stunted boreal forest or by brush and tundra. The Athabascans, the Interior's first people, still subsist on this sparse land in tiny villages and river fish camps.

The Arctic

Technically, the Arctic is anything north of the Arctic Circle, the line at 66° 33[pr] latitude, north of which the sun fails to set at least one night a year. In practice, Alaskans define the region more by the ecosystem of treeless permafrost and sea ice and the Eskimo people and wildlife who live there. The tiny communities here are reached only by air; Nome and Barrow are relatively accessible to visitors. For true adventurers, float trips through the Brooks Range and Arctic tundra beckon on in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or the Noatak National Preserve.

Western Alaska

The vast wetlands and endless riverbanks of the western portion of the state are populated by Alaska's most traditional communities, mostly by Yup'ik Eskimos. Few visitors go to the region.

The Southwest & the Aleutians

This is a wild, remote, and sparsely populated region rich in salmon and brown bear, extending from the west side of the Cook Inlet westward to the International Dateline. Visitors mostly take in Katmai or Lake Clark national parks on bear viewing or fishing excursions from Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula, or Kodiak. Serious anglers seek the famous salmon runs of Bristol Bay, staying at lodges dedicated to fishing. From the fingertip of the Alaska Peninsula, small, broadly spaced islands span the productive waters of the stormy North Pacific. For those few who venture there, the bird and wildlife viewing on the Pribilof Islands and Unalaska/Dutch Harbor is exceptional.