Intentional community eats with purpose [by Amy Newman] LIVING OFF THE LAND IS THE ALASKAN WAY: Alaska’s Native people have led a subsistence lifestyle for generations; sportsmen stock their freezers with salmon and halibut in the summer and moose and caribou in the winter; weekend foragers spend the late summer months filling buckets to overflowing with berries for jellies and jam. Yet even in a state where subsistence living doesn’t elicit much awe, Ionia, a 200-acre intentional community located in Kasilof, 160 miles south of Anchorage on the Kenai Peninsula, manages to stand out. The 45 men, women, and children who live in the semi-isolated community focus on living as naturally and healthfully as possible, said Eliza Eller who, along with her husband, Tom, was one of the community’s founders. The idea for Ionia was formed more than 30 years ago, in 1970s Boston. Four families, each experiencing mental and…
Follow Alaska’s fall colors south to Lost Lake
[by Mollie Foster]
As spectacular as they are, it’s surprisingly easy to miss fall colors in Alaska. Once the leaves start changing hues, they only stay on the trees for two to three weeks, with peak foliage lasting only 48 hours in some areas.
The eruption that transformed Southwest Alaska
[By Andromeda Romano-Lax]
A hundred years ago, on a hot and windless June day along the Katmai coast, a strange snow began to fall. Rice-sized bits of pumice whitened Kaflia Bay, while to the west, darkness crept across the sky.
Calling all wildlife weekend warriors IF YOU WANT TO GET A QUINTESSENTIAL TASTE OF ALASKA, and you want to check a few items off your bucket list in a single weekend, point your car down the Seward Highway, a nationally designated scenic byway, and get your camera ready. The 127-mile trip from Anchorage to Seward can take over two hours (or four hours by train), but trust us, you’re going to want to stop along the way for the massive views, flora, fauna, glaciers, and waterfalls. That said, the drive is a mere appetizer plate for the main course of Seward. The first whets your appetite; the second sates you. POTTER MARSH Just as you’re leaving Anchorage (mile 117.4), park and explore the boardwalk over wetlands of Potter Marsh, a birder paradise that’s also rife with spawning salmon and marauding moose. Wooden paths stretch 1,550 feet along sedges and sloughs,…
Exploring the appeal of Alaska’s strangest gamefish
[by E. Donnall Thomas Jr.]
You don’t need to travel far across Sitka Sound before you begin to fall under the spell of true maritime wilderness—Baranof Island’s convoluted outer shoreline unspools a long way from civilization. Many places in Alaska offer easier opportunities to catch fish, but few appeal more directly to the heart of the wilderness angler.
Stillpoint Lodge opens to adventure
As the helicopter pilot angles the chopper for a closer look at a glacial crevasse, I think how much Stillpoint Lodge has changed since it opened in 2003. Once a contemplative-retreat center, Stillpoint recently transitioned to a high-end adventure resort.
Calling all moose
In the arctic stillness, on the far side of the river, an unmistakable racket echoed in the bright afternoon: the thrashing of a bull moose stripping velvet off his antlers and honing his moves, prepping for the rut.
The Pribilof Islands Premier birding and more
[by Kevin McCarthy]
ALASKA IS A WILD AND REMOTE PLACE, and it occurs to me while flying far out over the Bering Sea that few places, even in Alaska, are as wild and remote as my destination: the Pribilof Islands.
Pedaling to Girdwood on the Bird to Gird Trail
[by Janice Tower]
Biking on the Girdwood to Indian Trail is a uniquely Alaska experience, with stunning scenery, the possibility of wildlife encounters and fickle weather.
