Cruises to Alaska

Cruises to Alaska

Many tourists might like to take cruises up to the state of Alaska where they can see the coastline of the great state, and explore the the great coastal views of the state. There are majestic mountains and islands and snowy areas you can see from cruises. You may want to see the islands or the coastal settlements. You may want to see the wildife of the region.

Alaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait.

Alaska is one of two USA States not bordered by another state; Hawaii the other. Alaska has more ocean coastline than all of the other US states combined. It is one of two non contiguous states in North America; Hawaii the other. About 500 miles of Canadian territory separate Alaska from Washington State. Alaska is thus an exclave of the United States that is part of the continental USA. but is not part of the contiguous USA. Alaska is also the only state whose capital city is accessible only via ship or air. No roads connect Juneau to the rest of the state.

The state is bordered by Yukon and British Columbia, Canada to the east, the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Chukchi Sea to the west, and the Beaufort Sea and the Arctic Ocean to the north.

Alaska is the largest state in the USA in terms of land area at 570,380 square miles, over twice as large as Texas, the next largest state. If the state's westernmost point were superimposed on San Francisco, California, its easternmost point would be in Jacksonville, Florida. Alaska also has more coastline than all of the contiguous US combined.

One scheme for describing the a state's geography is by labeling the regions:

Southcentral Alaska consists of the portion of the US state of Alaska from the shorelines and uplands of the Gulf of Alaska. Most of the population of the state lives in this region, concentrated in and around the city of Anchorage. The area includes the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak Island, the Kenai Peninsula, Cook Inlet, and Prince William Sound. Fisheries and petroleum production are important economic activities. The major city is Anchorage. Other towns include Kenai, Valdez, Homer, Wasilla, Palmer, and Seward.

The Alaska Panhandle, also known as Southeast Alaska, is home to many of Alaska's larger towns including the state capital Juneau, tidewater glaciers and extensive forests. Tourism, fishing, forestry and state government anchor the economy.
Southwest Alaska is largely coastal, bordered by both the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. It is sparsely populated, and unconnected to the road system, but incredibly important to the fishing industry. Half of all fish caught in the western U.S. come from the Bering Sea, and Bristol Bay has the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery. Southwest Alaska includes Katmai and Lake Clark national parks as well as numerous wildlife refuges. The region comprises western Cook Inlet, Bristol Bay and its watersheds, the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. It is known for wet and stormy weather, tundra landscapes, and large populations of salmon, brown bears, caribou, birds, and marine mammals.
The Alaska Interior is home to Fairbanks. The geography is marked by large braided rivers, such as the Yukon River and the Kuskokwim River, as well as Arctic tundra lands and shorelines.
The Alaskan Bush is the remote, less crowded part of the state, encompassing 380 native villages and small towns such as Nome, Bethel, Kotzebue and, most famously, Barrow, the northernmost town in the United States.

The Kenai Mountains are a mountain range in the U.S. state of Alaska. They extend 192 km (120 mi) northeast from the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula to the Chugach Mountains.

The Harding and Sargent Icefields, as well as the many glaciers that originate from them, derive in the Kenai Mountains. Several prime fish-producing rivers, including the Kenai River and the Russian River, also flow from the mountains.

The name "Kenai" was first published by Constantin Grewingk in 1849, who obtained his information from I. G. Wosnesenski's account of a voyage to the area in 1842. The Kenai Indian's name for the mountain range is "Truuli."

The Talkeetna Mountains are a mountain range in Alaska. The mountains help form the Matanuska and Susitna Valleys and are surrounded by towns such as Wasilla, Palmer, Sutton, and Talkeetna.

The Talkeetna Mountains are home to Hatcher Pass, a popular ski and snowboarding area in winter, and hiking and berry-picking area in summer. The historical Independence Mine is also in the Hatcher Pass area of the Talkeetna Mountains.

The Chugach Mountains of southern Alaska are the northernmost of the several mountain ranges that make up the Pacific Coast Ranges of the western edge of North America. The range is about 500 km long, running generally east-west. Its highest point is Mount Marcus Baker, at 13,176 feet, but most of its summits are not especially high.

The Yukon Ranges are a mountain range comprising the mountains in the eastern part of the USA state of Alaska and most of the Yukon, Canada.

The Saint Elias Mountains are a subgroup of the Pacific Coast Ranges located in southeastern Alaska (United States), southwestern Yukon and the very far northwestern part of British Columbia (Canada). The range spans Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in the USA and Kluane National Park and Reserve in Canada and includes all of Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. In Alaska, the range includes parts of the city/borough of Yakutat and the Hoonah-Angoon and Valdez-Cordova census areas.

The Coast Mountains are a mountain range of the Pacific Cordillera, running along the north western shore of the North American continent, extending south from the Alaska Panhandle and covering most of coastal British Columbia. They are part of a larger grouping, the Pacific Coast Ranges, which includes the Alaska Range, the Chugach Mountains, the Saint Elias Mountains, the Cascade Range, the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico.

The Pacific Coast Ranges are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the west coast of North America from Alaska to northern and central Mexico. They are also known as the Pacific Cordillera, especially in Canada, where this term also includes the Rocky and Columbia Mountains and other ranges.

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