You’re pumped, you’re excited, you’re on your journey to Alaska for this once-in-a-lifetime trip. We totally buy it. Most of us started our Alaskan tenure exactly the same way. We visited, fell hopelessly in love, and ended up being calling our family to see them that many of us just weren\’t returning home. While you will not visit that extreme, there’s a fair quantity of ideas to experience before you can go back home legitimately claiming to own visited Alaska. Check these off, for then are you going to have earned your true Alaska badge.
1. Brave weather conditions.
Regardless of whereby hawaii that you are, Alaska weather conditions are a wild ride that will push even roughest and toughest on the associated with reason. Inside the far north, it’s the bowels of winter with howling winds and negative digits so cold even Jack Frost gets a popsicle. Inside southeast, it’s rain, rain, and a lot more rain. Within the interior, it’s so dry in summer that forest fires rage. But, around May and early August, there’s a sweet spot that sweeps across every inch from the state reaffirming what all Alaskans call truth — that Alaska’s unequivocally a good place on Earth.
Make it through a whole year of Alaskan weather sans frostbite, hypothermia, SAD or insomnia and truly say you’ve visited and earned a gold star or two in the operation.
2. Survive combat fishing.
If you can keep your fish, and live to determine the story, you’re already further along than most in staking your “I visited Alaska” claim.
Locals can smell a tourist on the river faster over a bear can sniff out fish. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll leave behind your very first elbow-to-elbow battle for salmon unscathed, but keep it up and, eventually, you’ll prove yourself deserving of somewhere inside line-up.
3. Experience a moose stalking.
Alaskan moose sightings are certainly one thing, but Alaskan moose stalkings undoubtedly are a completely kettle of fish. Alaskan moose can be a persnickety, short-tempered lot. Particularly at risk of stalking humans, it’s not uncommon to come across locals and visitors alike who’ve been bullied multiple times by the moose. In truth, many claim multiple incidents with the same moose. Heck, for all those we all know, Alaskan moose should probably their very own mafia-type racket taking place where they get rewarded to the number of individuals they stalk on virtually any day.
4. Eat local Alaskan produce.
Be it baby ferns sautéd in butter with garlic, a bushel basket of 1 of our many wild berry varieties, or something meatier from the finned- or fur-clad variety, nobody can truly say they’ve experienced Alaska without busy consuming at the very least much of our seasonal produce.
5. Participate in a race.
Alaska celebrates costumed-reindeer races, dog-sledding races, marathon races up mountains via city streets. We’ve got races to observe that\’s speediest at donning survival gear and races to view who can drive the easiest snowmachine or catch the greatest fish. Alaskans can be a fun-loving but highly competitive bunch and we don\’t have reservations about pushing ourselves, our gear, and our crews for the limits. We do this, not surprisingly, while intentionally adding loads of weird and wacky independently. In fact, spend a full year in Alaska and you’ll begin to discover how and why the looniness doesn’t stay tucked looking for long.
6. Attend an exceptionally Alaskan festival.
With Alaska being what it\’s, we now have no choice but to obtain creative with your downtime activities. Over time, we’ve created a range of very Alaskan themed festivals. A few of which have quite large fan bases — here’s a handful of to clue you in to the kinds of things we love to to complete:
- Chickenstock Music Festival in Chicken
- The Blueberry Festival in Girdwood
- Salmonfest Alaska in Ninilchik
- Alaska State Fair in Palmer
- Fish Fest in Juneau
- Bear Paw Festival in Eagle River
- Fur Rendezvous (AKA Fur Rondy) in Anchorage
- World Eskimo-Indian Olympics in Fairbanks
- Cabin Fever Reliever in Trapper Creek
For more info on Alaska’s large list of annual festivals, Alaska.org has got the low-down on most.
7. Do your small business within the outhouse.
And get peeped on because of the local residents — the fur-clad, four-footed residents to be precise. Seriously, there’s anything Alaskan than getting caught with all your pants down around your ankles with a bear on a stroll. What you may do, don’t run. That’ll result in the situation worse on a lot of levels.
8. Purchase spray cans.
And nope, we’re not talking spray paint and weekend DIY projects. Two of the most important sprays in Alaska have nothing regarding paint or blocking direct sunlight. We’re talking bear spray and bug spray. You’ve not truly experienced Alaska before you can tell you’ve bought at least considered one of each and yet, used both.
