Because Alaska is an incredibly vast and complex area, having good travel guides about Alaska is necessary. For instance, there are various parks that you will want to check out:

• Katmai National Monument
• Denali National Park
• Prince William Sound
• Glacier Bay
• Kenai Fjords

Denali National Park in particular is a popular entry in most travel guides because it features North America’s highest mountain, Mount McKinley. The Alaska Range also includes countless other spectacular mountains and many large glaciers. Denali’s more than 6 million acres also encompasses a complete sub-arctic ecosystem with large mammals such as grizzly bears, wolves, Dall sheep, and moose.

Denali National Park was actually named Mount McKinley National Park in 1917.  The original park was designated as a wilderness area and then incorporated into Denali National Park and Preserve in 1980. Today the park is world famous, according to many travel guides to Alaska tourism, and accommodates a wide variety of visitor use including wildlife viewing, mountaineering, and backpacking.

Take a shuttle bus through the Denali National Park.  The buses leave throughout the day from the Visitor Center, near the park entrance, and you are able to take the eight-hour round trip excursion to Eielson Visitor Center, which is 66 miles into the park. You could also opt for the 11-hour round trip to Wonder Lake, which is 86 miles into the park.

Prince William Sound should also be on your ‘must see’ list.  There are actually 14 separate park units in Prince William Sound and five in Resurrection Bay, that offer magical anchorages and campsites in diverse upland, marine and inter-tidal environments.

Plan a trip to the Katmai National Monument. It was officially declared a national monument in 1918  to preserve the living laboratory of its cataclysmic 1912 volcanic eruption. Its awe inspiring natural powers are truly able to confront us most visibly in its volcanic activities and its brown bears. In the summertime, North America’s largest land predators gather along streams in this region to feast on salmon runs, building weight from this wealth of protein and fat, and preparing for the long winter that lies ahead.

Planning

If you are planning on taking a trip to Alaska in the future, get yourself some good Alaska travel guides. Then sit down beforehand and plan out an schedule so that you can decide which specific attractions and areas you want to visit. You don’t want to miss a thing!

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