Alaska’s wilderness lures visitors from around the globe

Tourists from around the world travel to Alaska to enjoy nature in its wildest majesty.

Between May 2022 and April 2023, 2.7 million people visited the state known as the Last Frontier, according to the Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA).

While travel to Alaska is popular in summer — when daylight can last 18 hours — ATIA President and CEO Jillian Simpson says visitors to the state in winter are on the rise. “The number of visitors that come in the winter time has definitely been growing,” she told Alaska Public Media. “So Alaska is becoming more and more of a year-round visitor destination.”

Here is what many venture to Alaska to see or experience:

Adventure

Tourists can visit national parks and enjoy mountain and glacier views via cross-country skis. Other popular tourist activities in the state include kayaking, backpacking, glacier and mountain climbing and river-rafting trips. Fishing for halibut and king salmon in the ocean or fly-fishing for trophy-sized trout in Alaska’s abundant rivers, streams and lakes also attracts visitors.

Wildlife

Alaska is one of the best places for wildlife spotting. Rafting down the Kongakut River near the Arctic coast, for example, provides opportunities to view grizzly bears, caribou herds and golden eagles. Alaska’s numerous wilderness lodges offer secluded comfort with unlimited access to wildlife viewing.

Scenery

Railroad tours are one of the top tourist activities in Alaska, where travelers can enjoy an ever-changing view from a safe and comfortable window seat. The Alaskan railroad boasts 756 kilometers of track from Seward on the Kenai Peninsula north to Anchorage, Talkeetna, Denali National Park and Fairbanks.

Northern lights

From mid-September to late April, tourists flock to Alaska for the northern lights — nature’s spectacular light show in the Arctic regions. On clear nights, dazzling shades of green, blue, red and purple appear to “dance” across the star-studded night sky. The lights of the aurora are actually collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun’s atmosphere and the gas particles in the earth’s atmosphere.

Iditarod

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race draws tourists each March. The long-distance competition covers an estimated 1,688 kilometers of groomed trails from Anchorage to Nome and takes a musher (the sled driver) and a team of 16 dogs around eight to 15 days to complete. Most of the mushers (around 50 each year) hail from Alaska, but the competition also draws competitors from numerous other countries.