Out of Alaska with a Lot of Facts

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Out of BIG ALASKA ....................Alaska Facts from Post Cards

Alaska covers 570,373 square miles of land and 45,000sq. Miles of water. It’s the biggest state in the USA and comprises 1/5 of the land mass of continental USA. Alaska is 2.3 times the size of Texas. Alaska has 33,904 miles of coastline and ½ the worlds glaciers.

Alaska:

has 19 mountains over 14,000ft.
has the highest peak in North America - Mt. McKinley 20,230ft
was purchased from Russia in 1867 for less than $.02 per acre
has the longest day…. 24 hrs.
has the longest night… 24hrs
has more than 3million lakes larger than 255acres
has 29 active volcanoes
has one glacier larger than Switzerland


Emblems of Alaska:
Tree - Sitka spruce
Fish - king salmon
Gem - jade
Mineral - gold
Bird - willow ptarmigan
Flower -forget me not
Motto - North to the Future
Land area - 586412sq miles

The capitol, Junea is accessible only by sea or air.
The Oil Pipeline from Prudhoe Bay runs down along the Dalton Highway 800 miles to Valdez.


And the story continues.......

In Ketchikan 9,088 passengers will come off five cruise ships to visit the town. The boats do t he rounds of small towns along the Inside Passage: Skagway, Haines, Juneau, Sitka, Petersburg and Ketcikan among others. Same gifts, same food, same kitsch in all ports of call!

Went to the building called Salmon Market....wet salmon, scales or fish smell are a thing of ancient history. Now there are only tourist shops under the stalwart banner.

It would be an exaggeration to say that this is a pretty town. Hope it looks better in winter for the permnent population which number less than the visitors from one cruise ship.

The group and the truck went down the inside passage on a ferry run by the Alaskan Marine Highway group. There were quite ea few peoople on the various ferries we took. We were on more than one ferry because the truck was taken off so we coould enjoy the wildness of the countryside while ashore. Of course by geting off at the poular cruise ship docks we were alsoo in danger of running into said tourists. Ironed clothes and clean shoes were a dead giveaway!

Did a run into Sitka... very pretty town... with a quaint museum filled withh First Nations artifacts. This town had a building with onion domes...only the second one observed in my whole long drive thru Alaska... funny that...the Russians were here long enough to build more.


An unfinished look at the journey thru the Inside passage........

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