2. Alaska

Alaska just so happened to be the 49th state I had ever visited, but I think I wish it was number 50.

From the moment I got to Alaska as we went to celebrate my college graduation, I knew that I was in the premise of one of the most amazing spots on earth. Just being so much farther north than I had ever been before filled me with excitement. I would probably hate this if I lived there, but the fact that the sun didn’t set until 11:30pm and it never got fully dark was really cool. I could handle it for a week.

But then waking up the next day and seeing where we camped out. Wow! It didn’t matter where we were, everything looked like the kind of pictures you’d see on a screensaver on your computer. But it was real. I was experiencing it right here, and it was even grander than I had imagined.

The Kenai Peninsula is wild with the thousands foot high mountains going directly into the ocean. Elsewhere, you can see Denali from over a hundred miles away. The town of Valdez is nestled into one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever been on. But there were two primary highlights of my trip that stand out above nearly anywhere I’ve been in the US and the world.

The first is Whittier. I remember on some lazy Saturday when I was in high school lounging on the couch playing Minecraft while my mom had on NPR. There was some radio show on that was doing a full deep dive into the life in this little town of 200 people in Alaska called Whittier. Whittier is a town where nearly all of the residents live in one 14-story high condominium. A relic of the Cold War when the town was intended to be a military base, the building has the town’s grocery, police, fire department, and post office all in one. It was designed this way because the place gets so much snow that it needed to be kept all together. The school, not inside the building, is connected by a tunnel in case of snow making children unable to walk there .

This place sounded so cool that I had to go. This was the number 1 priority of the trip for me. To start off, the only way to access the town outside of a ferry is to go through a 1-way 2.5 mile tunnel shared by a train track. The tunnel is wild and carries you to the other side where you come out in a mountain paradise. This place is one of the most wonderful little spots. Even better than I imagined. You are right on the bay with a great hike to a glacial lake. And you can see the old building that everyone lived in before the new one was constructed, kinda like a ghost town. My dream vacation home would be a condo in those towers.

The other location I will never forget is McCarthy and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. I never thought I would find such a small cool, tight-knit community as Polebridge, but McCarthy felt like that. I was so intrigued how everyone staying at the town needed to park across the river near the foot bridge, but the locals had their own bridge that they could traffic. The town is walking distance to the ghost town called Kennecott. The town was abandoned nearly 90 years ago and the copper mine has been standing for much longer. The only road to get to McCarthy is gravel over a former railroad track which they used to haul out the ore. They recommend bringing multiple spare tires with you in case a railroad spike pops one but it was no match for our 30ft RV.

From McCarthy we go to take a flight tour of the park from someone who had been flying his entire life. The park is really only able to be seen from the sky, so it gives you such a neat perspective. Flying 10s of feet away from mountains the height of Mt. Rainier and witnessing the largest ice sheet outside of the Arctic and Antarctic felt like I got to be a part of a unique club of explorers. Maybe only a few thousand have gotten to see what I saw. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

I know I keep alluding to this list of the states I want to visit the most again. #1 is far and away Alaska. The thing about Alaska is that it is so big that there is no way you could ever possibly cover all that you would want to in one trip. Anchorage to Fairbanks alone will take you about 7 hours.

I think next time I go to Alaska, I’m going to try and hit up most of the towns on the panhandle because there are ferries that will take you from one to another. These towns are at where the Pacific Northwest meets the extreme mountains of Alaska all on the coast. I imagine it to be a must see. I also want to do a road trip up to Alaska someday. It seems like such and amazing adventure.

So many places to see to. I want to see Nome and the other small fishing villages along the coast. I want to see Utquiagvik, the northernmost settlement in the United States. I want to see Kodiak Island. Not only that but I want to go back to Whittier and Wrangell St. Elias National Park. But what I want to do the absolute most is to drive the Dalton Highway all the way to the north coast. The 400 mile drive from Fairbanks is one of the most dangerous roads in the whole country because there are only 2 or 3 places you can get gas the whole time. It’s all unpaved and polar bears can be a real threat. It’s the type of thing that if I were to do it, I would need to plan for months. Probably my number 1 bucket list item.

I would say that Alaska’s biggest strength is also its biggest weakness. There’s so much to see of it, but the state is so undeveloped that you can’t access most of it unless you have a pilot license or do some intense snowmobiling. And both of those are incredibly dangerous. Alaska is untamed. But I do wonder if I’ll get to the point where I’ll see everything I can.

I don’t know if that is necessarily a bad thing though. What makes Alaska so special is how remote it is. There are places you can go where it feels like you are the first human ever to lay eyes on it. And who knows, in many places you might be right. That’s why Alaska is so awesome. It’s an endless expanse of beautiful untouched environments that you get to experience all to yourself if you want it. It might be incredibly dangerous, but that’s the charm right.

Alaska is a wonder. I can’t state it enough how much I fell in love with it while I was there. I would encourage everyone to go, but I can’t go ruining my secret little locations I have all to myself! Seriously though, if it weren’t for my supreme love of one other state, Alaska being at the top would be a no brainer. See you tomorrow for that very state!

1. Montana

3. Washington

The Autumnal