- 20| Kenai River For about six weeks starting in mid-July, thousands of fishermen migrate to the Kenai to catch a world-famous king, red, silver or pink salmon, trophy-size rainbow or Dolly Varden. ↓
- 21 | Chilkat River Ice-free waters and late salmon runs attract the world’s largest concentration of bald eagles each winter to this river as it flows from the Chilkat Glacier through British Columbia and Southeast Alaska to Lynn Canal. ↓
- 22 | Yukon River From its source in northern British Columbia, the river travels 1,980 miles across the Yukon and Alaska. It’s said that you haven’t really visited Alaska until you’ve dipped a toe in the Yukon. ↓
TOWNS & VILLAGES
- 23 | Seldovia The town’s motto is “Across the bay, a world away.” Take a water or air taxi from Homer to this quiet town. →
- 24 | Valdez At the tidewater end of the trans-Alaska pipeline, this is where tankers fi ll up with North Slope oil bound for the Lower 48 or beyond. Surrounded by towering mountains, Valdez gets the most snow of any sea-level community in North America.
- 25 | Sitka The town has a rich history under Tlingit, Russian and American rule. ↓
- 26 | Dutch Harbor Home base for the crab boats on Deadliest Catch, it’s one of the nation’s busiest fishing ports. ↓
- 27 | Metlakatla The southern-most community of note in the state, Metlakatla is on Annette Island, home to a largely Tsimshian population and the only Indian reservation in the state.
- 28 | Eagle At the end of the Taylor Highway, Eagle is a checkpoint for the Yukon Quest, one of the coldest inhabitable places in Alaska and an access point for the Yukon River, which stretches 1,980 miles to the Bering Sea.
- 29 | Meyers Chuck The town, part of the borough of Wrangell in Southeast, is offi cially home to about seven people.
- 30 | Chicken There’s a funky little former mining town 68 miles down the Taylor Highway, with an even funkier annual music festival. ↓
- 31 | Nome The end of the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race also has a fascinating Gold Rush history. →
- 32 | Talkeetna Visit Talkeetna for flight seeing, mountain climbing, fishing, boating and floating, great music, art and food. This is the place the town of Cicely in Northern Exposure was modeled after.
BARS, SALOONS RESTAURANTS , & LODGES
- 33 | Salty Dawg Saloon Once a post office, railroad station, grocery store, coal mining office and schoolhouse, it’s now a bar on the Homer Spit, with a lighthouse tower and thousands of hats and dollar bills hanging from the ceiling. ↓
- 34 | Skinny Dick’s Halfway Inn Halfway between Fairbanks and Nenana is a bar and grill that sells some … interesting T-shirts.
- 35 | The Double Musky Looking for New Orleans-style eats in Alaska? This is the place. Be prepared to wait after the 40-minute drive from Anchorage to Girdwood, because they don’t take reservations. And try the pepper steak, it’s to die for.
- 36 | The Howling Dog Saloon This establishment in Fox, just outside of Fairbanks, touts itself as the farthest north rock ’n’ roll bar in the United States.
- 37 | Kantishna Roadhouse It’s at the end of the Denali Park Road, 100 miles and a six-hour bus ride into the park. Definitely an overnight trip.