After looking at the photo thread... (Anchorage, Fairbanks: house, price, airplane)

[onthamove]

I have noticed ALOT of very simuliar pictures from my travels through colorado and utah. The mountain areas of utah and colorado look much the same as the interior of the last frontier. This is great!!! Colorado and Utah are vast and beautiful its hard to imagine a place multiple times the size with some of the same rugged and challenging features!!! I hear Alaska is also semi arid like the rockies. the only difference i can not so far is the swamps inbetween ranges, but i am not sure if i'd call the swamps marsh perhaps is a better word. swamp is something like the coastal southeast us. I can't wait to fire up the tiburon and head up in May i have been saving to experience alaska firsthand since may 2008. What a beautiful place so other worldly the pictures just scream internal peace when viewing them.

[blueflames50]

Originally Posted by onthamove

I have noticed ALOT of very simuliar pictures from my travels through colorado and utah. The mountain areas of utah and colorado look much the same as the interior of the last frontier. This is great!!! Colorado and Utah are vast and beautiful its hard to imagine a place multiple times the size with some of the same rugged and challenging features!!! I hear Alaska is also semi arid like the rockies. the only difference i can not so far is the swamps inbetween ranges, but i am not sure if i'd call the swamps marsh perhaps is a better word. swamp is something like the coastal southeast us. I can't wait to fire up the tiburon and head up in May i have been saving to experience alaska firsthand since may 2008. What a beautiful place so other worldly the pictures just scream internal peace when viewing them.

Awesome that your going to be driving up!!! Take lots of pictures for us!!

[RowdysMom]

While there are similarities between the Rockies of Utah and Colorado (I've spent lots of time in both places), every trip to Alaska (I'm planning my fourth) I am just dumbstruck by the magnificence and beauty of Alaska. I can't imagine a more beautiful place on earth. Of course, I've only visited in summer - I'm way to whimpy to visit in winter, although I'd love the see the northern lights!

Enjoy your trip, it will be the experience of a lifetime.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by RowdysMom

While there are similarities between the Rockies of Utah and Colorado (I've spent lots of time in both places), every trip to Alaska (I'm planning my fourth) I am just dumbstruck by the magnificence and beauty of Alaska. I can't imagine a more beautiful place on earth. Of course, I've only visited in summer - I'm way to whimpy to visit in winter, although I'd love the see the northern lights!

Enjoy your trip, it will be the experience of a lifetime.

This brings up an interesting point that I always try to insert into these types of discussions.

Virtually everywhere in the Lower-48 is beautiful, scenic, etc. etc. in almost the same terms that Alaska is. Indeed, from almost any place in the Lower-48 a 500 mile road trip can be made that will present some awesome scenery, majestic views and a bit of fabulous adventure that rivals any 500 mile drive one can make in Alaska.

So what do visitors to Alaska do? They make a 500 mile drive through Alaska that gives them the view that is most similar to what they could see closer to home. They drive the highway from Anchorage to Fairbanks, to Tok, to Anchorage and maybe add on either Valdez or the Kenai. It's a road, and it passes through the part of Alaska that is as close as anything gets to the Lower-48.

Basically they've wasted the price of getting all the way to Alaska!

What Alaska is that differs from the Lower-48 is pretty hard to see along the highways. But even a short airplane ride from Fairbanks (or a slightly longer one from Anchorage) means seeing an Alaska that is not like anything in the Lower-48. There are no rivers like the Kuskokwim, the Yukon, the Tanana, or the Colville. There are no towns like Barrow, Bethel, or Kotzebue, and no villages like Anuktvuk Pass, Kwigillingok, Point Hope or Elim.

[onthamove]

for me personally i couldn't imagine anything better than utah or colorado but if that place exists i have to see it

[Grannysroost]

Originally Posted by onthamove

for me personally i couldn't imagine anything better than utah or colorado but if that place exists i have to see it

Guess that's why you're going to AK right?

[Nephler]

Originally Posted by onthamove

for me personally i couldn't imagine anything better than utah or colorado but if that place exists i have to see it

Better is in the eye of the beholder, really. I've traveled a bit, and as Floyd says, all places are wonderful. A close tie with the beauty, in my option, with the mountains of Alaska is the shore line of Lake Superior. There are, no matter what anybody says, lots of similarities, though both are distinct in their beauty.

Now that being said, and as Floyd stated, though I have never visited but hope to, the parts that are not on the road system of Alaska are like no other place. A place, from my understanding and reading, a place that time has slowed, cultures are still practiced and believed in, not just the pretending that goes on in other states. I must say before I get in the heat, there are those that do truely believe in their culture in the -48, but from what I've seen and read, those in the "outer" areas of Alaska truely do.

I'm going to shut up now before I stick my foot in my mouth.

[Dusty Rhodes]

what makes Alaska different is the size of the experience, the lower 49 have nothing of the scope of the Alaska Range and certainly nothing like Denali. I would be willing to bet that there is nothing in Kansas that even comes close to the Kenai Fjords. There are no Salmon in N. Carolina and I have indeed traversed the lower 48 by train and as nice as that trip was, The Alaska Railroad is an entity unto itself. Between the rain forest of W. Africa and the rain forest of Alaska, I have come to the conclusion that Rain forests house some truly magnificent beasties, each area is different, but no less majestic. For most of the lower 49, haze takes over in a relatively short distance, in Alaska, if it is big enough to be seen from 250 miles, you will see it clearly. This alone is a rarity on virtually every other continent,(antarctica is the only continent upon which I have not set my size 12 wides, ergo I can't speak of this area) the rest of N. America pales by comparison. Yes, there are spots, Muir Woods, Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, N.C. outer banks, Niagara Falls, areas isolated from their surroundings the scattered gems among the pebbles and tar. Alaska? Well, it is in a class all by itself.

[Grannysroost]

Originally Posted by Dusty Rhodes

what makes Alaska different is the size of the experience, the lower 49 have nothing of the scope of the Alaska Range and certainly nothing like Denali. I would be willing to bet that there is nothing in Kansas that even comes close to the Kenai Fjords. There are no Salmon in N. Carolina and I have indeed traversed the lower 48 by train and as nice as that trip was, The Alaska Railroad is an entity unto itself. Between the rain forest of W. Africa and the rain forest of Alaska, I have come to the conclusion that Rain forests house some truly magnificent beasties, each area is different, but no less majestic. For most of the lower 49, haze takes over in a relatively short distance, in Alaska, if it is big enough to be seen from 250 miles, you will see it clearly. This alone is a rarity on virtually every other continent,(antarctica is the only continent upon which I have not set my size 12 wides, ergo I can't speak of this area) the rest of N. America pales by comparison. Yes, there are spots, Muir Woods, Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, N.C. outer banks, Niagara Falls, areas isolated from their surroundings the scattered gems among the pebbles and tar. Alaska? Well, it is in a class all by itself.

Don't be mistaken, Alaska is vast and a world onto her own, a totally different animal, the same as some in some places and unlike no other at the same time....if cloudy, hazy, stormy, smoky, you will not see 250 miles....You will be lucky if Denali pulls out of the haze for you to see her in her glory, the locals have issues with her !!!

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by Dusty Rhodes

the lower 49 have nothing of the scope

The Lower-48 consists of the 48 states that were admitted to the Union before Alaska, which is the 49th state.

The Lower-49 then includes Alaska and is something only Hawaii is excluded from.