I first lived in Alaska during the summer of 1992, working as a reporter in the beautiful coastal community of Sitka, on the state’s soggy southeast. To my surprise, I returned in August 2004, driving the Alcan highway from Seattle, to take a new job working for the Consulate of Canada, Anchorage. I left the same way I came in, driving the exact same route in August 2010.
Alaska is larger than life, even in an era of nonsensical Alaska reality TV, an over-saturated media diet that strip mines Alaska for visual tropes, and myths and tall-tales that form the Alaska of our imagination. In Alaska, I found, time is measured in winters, and I had six of them. I made great friends, ate and caught the best seafood of my life, skied on trails that blew my mind, ran and hiked in places as pretty as any found anywhere in the world, and had life-changing encounters with wildlife that I will forever treasure.
Many things about Alaska still bother me, such as the shameless killing of bears and wolves for profit by the sports hunting guide and airplane guide businesses that are, in my educated opinion, doing irreparable harm to all that is wild and wonderful about Alaska. I will not dwell on the political corruption, which was wilder than its wildlife. I miss the state and my friends. I will always miss the Great Land and the people who call it home. It is something that once it burrows inside of you, it stays forever.
Keywords: Alaska, Alaska Photos, Alaska Pictures, Anchorage, Ketchikan, Sitka, Totem Poles, Sitka, Chugach, Chugach Mountains, Denali, Fall Colors Alaska, Travel Alaska, Alaska Native, Tok, Kotzebue, Prince William Sound, Raven, Moose, Iditarod, Sled Dog, Eagle River, Wrangell, Barrow, Tlingit