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Formed by tectonic plates colliding with the North America land mass, pushing up the Saint Elias, Alaska, Brooks and Chugach mountains, Alaska is so big that it would stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific if it were superimposed on the Lower 48. Anchorage got started with the building of the Alaska Railroad from Fairbanks to Seward. Its good connections by road and rail – and by bushplane, from the largest seaplane base in the world, Lake Hood – make it an ideal starting point for touring – and for trips to the likes of Kodiak Island and Katmai National Park, where bear watching involves not so much as searching for bears as keeping out of their way, and Valley of 10,000 Smokes, which was created from one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history. Our Great Drive involves a thrilling sequence of scenic routes – Parks Highway to Fairbanks, Richardson Highway to Valdez, and Seward and Sterling Highways on the Kenai Peninsula, a haven for wildlife. Heading north from Anchorage, look out for 20,320 ft. McKinley, which towers over a wildlife-rich tundra. You aren’t allowed to drive the road inside the park, but tours feature its full 90 miles, and there’s the option of staying at a lodge secluded deep within it. Air tours in the Land of the Midnight Sun from Fairbanks take you to Barrow and Prudhoe Bay, and road tours on the Dalton cross the Arctic Circle to remote communities in the Brooks Range; you can drive yourself to steamy pools of Chena Hot Springs. The Richardson Highway follows the Tanana river, crosses the Alaska range and the Copper River basin, and climbs over the spectacular Chugach Mountains to Valdez, an ice-free port, terminus for the Alaska Pipeline carrying crude 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay oilfields. Seward is home to Alaska Sealife Center, a cold-water research and rehabilitation centre for marine wildlife, where you can watch frisky sea otters and puffins. It’s also the gateway to Kenai Fjords, a huge stretch of coastline where glaciers from the Harding Icefield pour down to the sea in narrow fjords. Tour boats ply the waters, passing blue tidewater glaciers, seabird rookeries with puffins, murres, and kittiwakes,humpback and killer whales, sea otters and Steller’s sea lions. Some tours stop for a salmon bake on Fox Island, cooked native style over alder wood.
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