Planning a trip to The Bush
Alaska's Bush is better defined by what it's like than by where it is. The most common and convenient conception says the Bush is everything beyond the road system. On a map, almost everything north and west of Fairbanks meets that definition, but many Bush villages lie elsewhere in the Interior, in Southcentral, and in Southeast Alaska. In fact, there are some Bush villages you can drive to. No simple definition works. You know a Bush community by how it feels. It's a place where the wilderness is closer than civilization, where people still live off the land and age-old traditions survive, and where you have to make a particular effort to get in or out.
Getting Around
With a few exceptions for strongly motivated travelers who might take the ferry to Kodiak and Unalaska or drive to Prudhoe Bay, getting to each town in this area will require flying. Alaska Airlines (tel. 800/252-7522; www.alaskaair.com) offers the only jet service to Bush hubs. Other, smaller operators serve these towns with prop aircraft. Throughout the guide, we've listed the plane fare to various communities from Anchorage, based on flying coach and getting a significant discount for advance purchase and some restrictions. Full fares cost more. You may be able to save by including a flight leg to a Bush hub community as part of your round-trip ticket to Alaska, making Anchorage technically a stopover on the way. With the way fuel costs and airfares are fluctuating, we hesitate to mention firm prices for plane tickets at all. Generally, getting to these towns will cost $400 to $1,000 round-trip from Anchorage. To get a current fare, use a travel agent or the Internet.
Kodiak, which barely fits in a guide on the Bush, is the most accessible of the communities in this region, but it still requires either a 10-hour ferry ride from Homer or a $400 flight from Anchorage. This charming, historic town is similar to towns in Southeast Alaska or Prince William Sound, but it is also a hub for Native villages on the island and remote wilderness. Unalaska and Dutch Harbor, in the Aleutian Islands, is an interesting place to go way off the beaten path while staying in complete comfort. From Anchorage, a visit requires a 3-hour flight on a turboprop aircraft -- fares less than $950 are rarely seen. Otherwise, only a ferry ride that lasts most of a week will get you there. Prudhoe Bay, an industrial complex without a real town associated with it, lies on the Arctic Ocean at the end of the 500-mile Dalton Highway and receives Alaska Airlines service. Otherwise, the places in this region can be reached only by plane. Barrow, the Pribilof Islands, Kotzebue, and Kaktovik are the most purely Native of the communities in the area. Nome has the advantages of Arctic surroundings easily accessible on gravel roads, but is more of a gold rush town than a Native village. Fares from Anchorage range from $450 to $850 for these communities.
Regions in Brief
The Arctic -- The Arctic Circle is the official boundary of the Arctic. The line, at 66° 33[pr] north latitude, is the southern limit of the true midnight sun -- south of it, at sea level, the sun rises and sets, at least a little, every day of the year. But in Alaska, people think of the Arctic as beginning at the Brooks Range, which is a bit north of the circle, including Barrow and Prudhoe Bay. The northwest Alaska region, which includes Kotzebue and, south of the Arctic Circle, Nome, also is Arctic in climate, culture, and topography. The biggest geographic feature in Alaska's Arctic is the broad North Slope, the plain of tundra that stretches from the northern side of the Brooks Range to the Arctic Ocean. It's a swampy desert, with little rain or snowfall, frozen solid all but a few months a year.
Southwest Alaska/Aleutian Islands -- Stretching from the Aleutians -- really a region of their own -- to the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak Island, and the southern part of the mountainous west side of Cook Inlet, this is a wild maritime region. The hub of the wet, windy Aleutians is Unalaska and its port of Dutch Harbor. Katmai National Park and the adjoining wild lands are the main attraction of the Alaska Peninsula, although there also are fishing lodges on the salmon-rich rivers and on the lakes to the north, including areas in Lake Clark National Park and Iliamna Lake. On the peninsula's west side, Bristol Bay is known for massive salmon runs, and avid anglers may be interested in its wilderness lodges, using Dillingham or King Salmon as a hub. The lakes and west side of Cook Inlet are accessed primarily by Kenai, Homer, and Anchorage flight services for fishermen and hunters. Kodiak is hardly a southwest Bush community, but it fits better in this region than anywhere else, and the town is a hub for villages and bear viewing on Kodiak Island.
Western Alaska -- This is the land of the massive, wet Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, or the Y-K Delta, as it's known. Their land never exploited by white explorers, the Yup'ik people here live in some of Alaska's most culturally traditional villages. In places, Yup'ik is still the dominant language. Bethel is the main hub city of the delta but holds little attraction for visitors.