Nature:Alaska

NATURE: ALASKA



The name „Alaska” comes from the word Alyeska which means greater land in the language of its native Aleut people. Alaska fist its name perfectly.

It is the 49th state of the United States an it is the largest state in America. Alaska covers 570, 374 square miles (about 1 50 000 square km). It has the longest coastline of any state. Alaska is one of the two states that are not boarded by another US state - Hawaii being the other.
It is boarded by Yukon Territory and British Columbia, Canada to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bearing Sea and Chukchi Sea to the west, and the Arctic Ocean to the north.
It has the highest mountain in Alaska and North America – Mount McKinley (6096 km) which is located in south central Alaska. Thousand of tourists visit this place every year and many of them try to climb it. Some of them have died trying. In 1991 the 12 year old boy climbed Mount McKinley. He is he youngest person who did it.

Frozen water forms glaciers and ice bergs, which are huge pieces of glaciers that fall into the water. There are more than 100 000 glaciers in south Alaska. The largest is Malaspina Glacier. There are also more than 3 000 000 lakes in Alaska and almost 3 000 rivers.
It has the longest in the word chain of volcanoes. Many active volcanoes are found there, for example Mount Shishaldin.

Traveling through Alaska is quite difficult because there aren’t many roads and tourists usually have to use small planes or boas. To the capital city Juneau you can only get by ship or air because there aren’t any roads to or out of the town.

Alaska is legendary for its winters but most victors come in the summer when the days are long and the temperatures are higher. The best time to visit Alaska is between May and early September because there are long days, clear skies and warm afternoons. The longest days are around the 21st of June. The sun is above the horizon for about 20 hours and north part of Alaska, has 24 hours of daylight. Winter brings 24-hour darkness to the part of Alaska above the Arctic Circle. Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks and the rest of the state have some pale sunlight for a few hours each day. The longest nights are around 21st of December. Alaska’s long, cool summer days are great for vegetables. Cabbages have been known to weight 92 pounds and carrots to be 3 feet long.

Alaska has also many beautiful national parks. In these protected areas are glaciers, mountains, active volcanoes, lakes, rivers, forests. There are the largest world’s brown bears, called Kodiak bears. In the north part of the land live polar bears, walrus and fur seals. The view of grizzly bears, moose, caribous and wolves isn’t unusual. You can see those animals close to the roads and cities. The Bald Eagles are as common as pigeons in Warsaw; they usually sit on the freeway lamps. You can meet squirrels almost everywhere; they are grey and twice big as this found in Europe.

The most famous National Parks in Alaska are:

1. Denali National Park which is the best known for Mount McKinley and the grizzly bears.
2. Glacier Bay National Park is famous for its glaciers, and kayaking as a favorite activity in the park.
3. Kenai Fjords National Park has many beautiful glaciers, but its famous for the whales and birds which live there. Alaska has almost 450 kinds of birds.

The biggest tourist’s attraction is fishing. People from all over the world come to catch the biggest fish in their lives, usually salmons or halibuts, but sometimes they can even catch a shark. The largest salmon on record was caught in 1985 in Alaska Kenia River and it weight 98 pounds.

Alaska has a very small population (626,932) for its big territory.
Most of Alaskans live in the cities, such as Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau where they work for oil, mining, timber and fishing companies.
Some of Alaskan’s natives still live the way they ancestors did; hunting and fishing in the wildness.