Alaska
In Alaska you can find fjords, frozen ice fields, steaming volcanoes and towering peaks, like Mount McKinley (6,194 m) and Mount Saint Elias (5,489 m). There are 15 national parks, including the six largest in the country: Wrangell-Saint Elias, Gates of the Arctic, Denali, Lake Clark, Katmai and Glacier Bay. The state capital is Juneau and Anchorage is the largest city.
Paleolithic families moved into northwestern North America thousand years ago, across the Bering land bridge in Alaska. Russia had a keen interest in this region, which was rich in natural resources and lightly inhabited. In 1725, Russian Czar Peter the Great dispatched Vitus Bering to explore the Alaskan coast. Russian settlements began in the late 18th century. The United States purchase Alaska from Russia in 1867, marking the end of Russian efforts to expand trade and settlements on the Pacific coast of North America.
Alaska became a US state on January 3, 1959.
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City of Juneau as seen from Mount Roberts (© Travel Juneau).
Whales in Alaska (© Travel Juneau).
Scene in Wrangell, a borough in the island of Wrangell, in southeastern Alaska.
View of Mendenhall Glacier from brotherhood bridge in Juneau (© State of Alaska/Mark Kelley).
Alaska
Scenery in Prince William Sound (credit: State of Alaska / Chris McLennan).
Train over bridge, entering tunnel in Skagway, White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad (credit: State of Alaska / Reinhard Pantke).
Cruise ship docked in downtown Skagway (credit: State of Alaska / Reinhard Pantke).
Credit: State of Alaska / Reinhard Pantke
