Northern Lights; Cold Nights

By Tom Secrest

There are at least a thousand good reasons to visit Alaska, and the city of Anchorage is just one of them. It is the largest city in Alaska, with about one half of the entire state’s population; however, it’s not the capital. The capital of Alaska is Juneau and is a much smaller town.

Alaska was the 49th state to join the union and was purchased from the Russian Empire in 1867 for a pack of smokes and a bottle of vodka, or so they say. From the Russian point of view, it has to be, by far and away, the worst real real-estate deal ever! The sale price was about 1 Kc per hectare, and at that price the U.S. bought 172 million hectares.

Anchorage is sub-artic, but not by much. It sits on a peninsula protruding into Chickaloon Bay in the foot hills of the Chugach Mountains; at latitude 61 degrees, it is a bit further north than other well know northern cities like Oslo, Helsinki, and Stockholm. However, unlike these other cities, Anchorage does not benefit from warming influence of the Gulf Stream to moderate its winter temperatures. Oslo has an average January temperature range between –2 and –7 °C, while Anchorage has a range between –5 and –13 °C, although summer temperatures are about the same in all four cities.

Anchorage is not a place you drive to, even if it was an easy drive, which it’s not, the distances in this part of the world are enormous, which makes driving impractical at best. Fortunately, Anchorage has an airport with a variety of major carriers providing service on both national and international routes.

In the summer Anchorage looks like any other medium to large city. With a population of about 300,000 you can expect to find lots to do, great restaurants, and plenty of hotels. But while Anchorage may look fairly typical, it is, none the less, a frontier town. Alaska is a frontier state and virtually every town is a frontier town. The people that populate Alaska’s cities and towns are, in many ways, still possessed by the spirit of those that sought their fortunes by pushing further and further west and north in search of riches, in whatever form they might take. Of course few found gold or oil; but find it or not, if you didn’t have the frontier spirit, the cold and dark of Alaskan winters would have sent you packing back to the lower 48 a long time ago. The people who stayed are a special breed. They are warm and friendly, they love the outdoors and they love their special state.

With Anchorage as your base camp you can easily venture off in any direction; you don’t have to go far before you are in a wilderness that is beyond compare. If you’re an adventurer with some experience in hand-to-hand combat with bears, you can take an unguided hike up to Flattop Mountain Lookout. On the other hand, if you less combat oriented, you can have a bush pilot fly you to some idyllic lake for a bit of fishing or take a cruise along the coast. Regardless of what you decide to do, you’ll have a great time.

If you can stand a little cold, then late autumn or early spring is also a perfect time to visit. Perfect because when they come, they come in the cold and they come in the darkness and they dance and twirl about in the night sky. Ghostly shapes of green, blue, or red light up the night sky in one of natures most impressive displays. Alaska seems to be in just the right spot for these ethereal light shows. The northern lights alone are complete justification for a visit.

Don’t let the volcanoes, earthquakes (in 1964 Anchorage experienced the second largest earthquake ever recorded – the “Good Friday Earthquake” measured 9.2 on the Richter scale), bears, moose, or cold weather deter you. Pack your bags and your frontier spirit, and embark and an incredible adventure. Regardless of the time of year, you will come back with hundreds of photos and even more memories and stories from this remote, rugged, and beautiful place. Considering the location, it’s not a trip you’re likely to make very often, but it is definitely one you need to make at least once.

Glossary

* northern lights – polární záre

* entire – veškerý

* peninsula – poloostrov

* purchased from – zakoupený od

* real estate – nemovitosti; reality; realitní

* plenty – spousta, velké množství

* fairly – docela

* sought – hledaný

* whatever – cokoli, kterýkoli

* a long time ago – dávno

* breed – druh (o lidech), chovat

* wilderness – divocina, samota

* unguided – bez pruvodce, nerízený

* regardless – bez ohledu na

* twirl – tocit, vírit

* ghostly – strašidelný, duchovní

* justification – oduvodnení, ospravedlnení

* earthquake – zemetresení

* considering –vzhledem, s ohledem na