Some Facts About Alaska

 As you might have gathered by now from reading this blog, our travels thus far have been greatly impacted by our Alaskan experience. Even though we have now left the main Northwest, the memories we have from the 49^th American state have set the tone for our remaining four months of travel down the west coast and into South America: we now feel prepared for any weather, mountain hike and isolated wilderness that may come our way!

So to honour all that, here is a final piece about Alaska, some of which you may already know, much of which you may not. It’s a kind of Did You Know….

•      Most people assume that Alaska’s state capital is Anchorage. But it’s not! It is, in fact…….Juneau – the only state capital in the US which has no road access (so you can only fly in, or sail into its port, as we did)

•       The flag of Alaska was designed by a Native Indian boy, Benny Benson, when he was only 13 years old. Benny won a state-wide competition for the design back in 1927

The blue field represents the wide-open sky of Alaska, as well as the colour of the state’s flower: the Forget-Me-Not. The sole star in the top right corner represents the North Star, which shows the way of the future for Alaska, also the most northerly state in the USA. The other smaller stars represent the constellation of The Great Bear (or The Big Dipper), which reflects the state’s strength

•      Alaska is way bigger than you can even imagine! The combination of Texas, California and Montana does not even equal the land surface of the 49^th state! It is one-fifth the size of the entire United States!

Alaska measures a total of 586,412 square miles. (That’s 2,400 miles East to West and 1,420 miles North to South). Too much to get your head around, right?!

•    17 of the country’s 20 highest peaks are in Alaska! AND, all of those peaks, as well as another two, are over 14,000 feet. Mount Denali (also known as Mount McKinley) is the highest mountain in the USA at 20,320 feet

Denali is the Native Indian name meaning “The Great One”

•     There are more active glaciers and ice fields in Alaska than in the rest of the inhabited world. Alaska’s largest glacier is called Malaspina and measures 850 square miles!

Alaska has 6,640 miles of coastline AND a whopping 33,902 miles of shoreline (including all its islands). That’s double the amount of the ‘Lower 48’ (ie. the rest of mainland US)

There are more than three million lakes in Alaska. Its longest river is the Yukon River, which stretches almost 2,000 miles long. The Yukon River is the third longest river in the USA

•      Alaska is full of volcanoes! It has more than 70 potentially active volcanoes. The most violent volcanic eruption in the last century was back in 1912, when Novarupta erupted, creating the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes in Katmai National Park

•     North America’s strongest recorded earthquake happened in Prince William Sound, off the coast of Valdez. It occurred in living memory, in March 1964, wiping out the old town of Valdez and being felt as far afield as California, Hawaii and Texas

Alaska’s earthquake was the world’s second biggest ever and measured 9.2 on the Richter Scale