You see stunning videos and pictures on the internet, Facebook, google, Youtube, you have this idea that Alaska looks like heaven, and want to move here. Let me snap you back into reality for a moment. That video of how great, Alaska is, on social media, is actually NOT an accurate picture of what life is here. It is not all daisies and roses. This is the state, that truly support the meaning of; this place is not for everyone.
Visitors still expect Alaskans living in igloos, (Just like people think that of Canadian as well!) Many are surprised that, daily life for most Alaskans, is much like the Lower 48. Some Alaskans choose an isolated and independent life, in backwoods homesteads. But most live in modern homes, drive cars, watch television, and shop in stores, go to restaurants.
Alaska’s larger communities have fast food restaurants, theaters, recreation facilities, modern health care facilities, and the usual city conveniences. Art galleries, museums, concerts, and live theaters, as well as a statewide university system, also contribute to our lives. Satellites, telephone service, and television are even in the most isolated villages.
Although some of Alaska’s smaller towns, have one-room school houses, most classrooms throughout the state, are very similar to schools, anywhere in the U.S. and are equipped with computers, and other modern learning tools. Alaskans are wild about outdoor recreation. Activities include dog mushing, skiing, skijoring (skiers pulled by a sled dog with a harness), snowmobiling, canoeing, kayaking, backpacking, hiking, mountain and rock climbing, biking, and even scuba diving. Fairbanks is the dog mushing capital of the world.
Alaska is a huge state. A typical day in Nome, is different in Barrow and Fairbanks. “The Interior” is different than Anchorage, Kenai, and the Southeast. I visit Anchorage frequently, but live in the valley. There’s a lot to be said about more conventional Alaska travel, but for those who are planning to go inland a little more, here is a perspective on daily life in the Interior.
This large Northwest state, with an economy rooted in oil, gas, fishing and tourism, has a lot to offer. Alaska might be the most stunning state, in the country. From the wildlife to the glaciers, to the endless oceans, untouched wilderness, Alaska is a work of art. During the summer, you can expect gorgeous 70-degree days. The state doesn’t charge sales tax, which means more money in your pocket.
Coming to Alaska, really was not my idea. Me and my husband both agree now that it was not a good idea, for both of us. By saying that, it’s just that Alaska really is NOT for everyone. Alaska is a really spectacular, beautiful state. By all means, I would visit in the summer, no doubt. You can get amazing drones, and photos, from this state. It’s beautiful! The mountains are a real sight to see. You can’t beat the summers, as the days are really long. We get about 20 hours of daylight, during the summer. The sun doesn’t set until 11 pm. You won’t even see the moon for a couple months.
Winter days are .. super short. We barely get 4 hours of daylight a day, and that is, if it’s not overcast. The sun never rise completely either. Winter days are very short and cold. In 2022, during the winter, we got over 8 feet of snow in 2-3 weeks. Winter was cold, long, snowy and depressing. Our last snow fell in May in 2023. We literally got almost 8 months straight of snow.
This is the big draw back to anyone moving here, that doesn’t like very short, cold winter days. You will absolutely need vitamin D3 supplement, if you live here, especially in the winter. (If you live anywhere on the pacific coast, Vitamin D3 is a must, during the winter anyway. Its always overcast.)
You will also have to put up, with a lot of people, who don’t know how to drive properly, in the winter. The roads are icy, black ice is common, it snows A LOT, it’s dark almost all the time. A lot of people seems to always be in a rush, especially in the valley. They drive from Anchorage to Wasilla, or Wasilla to Anchorage, like it is a race. Cars in the ditch, on the way from Wasilla to Anchorage, is a very common occurrence here. There are at least a dozen of them every day, in the wintertime. You have to avoid bad drivers, but also Mooses, who come down in the valley, to look for food.
Your heating bill will be outrageous, it’s expensive to live here. The gas price, is ridiculous. We spend at least, almost 500$ on fuel every month, for commuting to work. Groceries are about 1200$ a month, for 2 people, and we just buy the usual, and basics. Meat is very expensive. It’s hard to find a good reliable car, that still drive for 1000$, 1500$. People try to sell cars, that needs new engine, or super expensive repairs for 3000$. Used car dealerships, seem to only sell cars, that are no older than 4 years old.
We do see a lot of these big guys, moose, in the winter. Unfortunately people can’t seem to see them and they get hit a lot on the main highway, toward Anchorage.
We lived in Sitka for a while. Located on Sitka Sound, the city of about 8,500 residents is known for its Tlingit culture and picturesque remnants of its Russian heritage. Sitka was really pretty, but it’s not a place where I would live year around. Maybe to visit, but even at that, I just don’t see the appeal. There are other places in Alaska I would visit before I go to Sitka, which is also out of the way.
First, you are stuck on an island. Island means that everything has to be imported, food, fuel etc., which makes everything super expensive. The rentals, the food, fuel and everything else is really expensive. We were paying 2000$ a month on renting a house, which is not even that bad for Sitka, and groceries are about almost 1800$ a month, if you want to cook decent meals. If you want land with your house, or a nice backyard with your rental, good luck. Most places have tiny backyards, and a lot of them are not fenced as well, because what’s the point ? Sitka has a lot of brown bear and the bears will just destroy your fence anyway. So you get a lot of loose dogs everywhere.
You won’t find stores, boutiques, where you can just buy clothes like at Guess, Under Armor, TJ Maxx, Foot locker, Fred Meyer. You do have some used stores, where they still sell used clothing at outrageous prices. Most people there just order what they need online, it’s a lot cheaper. I wasn’t impressed at all with the restaurants there, that are also expensive. My husband and his mother usually went to the Nugget Restaurant at the airport. It was cheap and it was okay food. It felt like eating at Shari’s.
Most people in Sitka are friendly. Sitka is only accessible by boat or plane, as it is on a pair of islands, in the Pacific Ocean. Vehicles are usually brought to Sitka, via the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system, or the barge, for a couple thousand dollars. However, a vehicle is not an absolute necessity in Sitka, as there are only 14 miles of roads, from one end of the island, to the other. Almost everything is within walking distance, from the downtown area, which is where the majority of employers are situated. Public transportation is also available. Sitka is about a 25 minute flight from Juneau, so a lot of people also go to Juneau, just to get a change of scenery and shopping.
Sitka has some spectacular scenery. I took a lot of pictures, while I was there. It’s very pretty, In my opinion to visit, but not a place to live year around for sure. My husband and I love to drive to different places, to relax, just enjoying ourselves. Sitka is also a place where it rains a lot, it’s very humid ! It can be very depressing to live there, as it is almost, one of the rainiest place on the pacific coast. In the winter, days are short, rainy, cloudy, foggy. Sitka does get snow from time to time, but it doesn’t stay long and it’s not much. Unless you were born there, it’s not an easy place to adapt and certainly not cheap. There is a lot of wildlife, like brown bear, bald eagle, ravens, the salmon run, Sitka deer, minks, and a large diversity of birds.
I also lived in Juneau for 2 months in the winter. Juneau is absolutely spectacular and a place where I would love to live, but then again, it can be expensive to live there as well, but a lot less than Sitka. It is nestled in the mountains, and there are no roads in or out. They get a lot of snow in the winter. Juneau is absolutely beautiful, with very friendly people, a lot of shops, restaurants and things to do. It is the capital of Alaska. Juneau has a population of around 32,255. Juneau, Alaska, shares its eastern border, with the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the only U.S. state capital to border another country.
I stayed at a motel for around 350$ a week, and I really enjoyed my two months in Juneau, while I was there, even though it was really cold, with a lot of snow. Juneau has a lot of opportunities for outdoor activities, like whale watching, biking, hiking, fishing, just to name a few. The Mendenhall Glacier, is a very popular attraction in Juneau. You cannot visit Juneau, and not see this magnificent glacier. Juneau was also home, to the popular wolf Romeo, who used to hang out with people’s dogs, during winter time.
During my time in Alaska, I also lived in Palmer and Wasilla. I would say that I like Palmer very much. Palmer is located at the bottom of a “Bowl” which traps air, and makes it a very windy place. Palmer is beautiful with amazing landscapes, and very friendly people. It’s small, it is a farming community and has a lot of fun things to do. It is also host to the state fair, every year, and a very nice Christmas lights show, during the winter. Palmer can get cold during the winter but it’s not that cold. They also get a lot of snow, and let’s not forget, that we get spectacular auroras, as well every winter !
This spectacle of lights, is a once in a lifetime, must see event. It’s absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking. Fun fact, must people cannot see colors, in Auroras. You can only see them from your camera, on pictures or videos, because our eyes cannot detects the colors. So for most people, they appears as a faint gray, flashing in the night sky. Some people can detect the greenish hue, but it is very faint.
If you live in the valley It’s not too bad, there are a lot of things to do and places to go. My husband and I, commute to Anchorage to go to our favorite restaurant. Anchorage has a large variety of restaurants, to try out. The valley has a lot of places to see and there is a lot of fishing, hiking, biking as well. We see mooses often, hawks, magpie, raven, foxes, lynx, porcupines are not uncommon. There are also a lot of black bears around Anchorage, and brown bears, especially on the coast and Kenai peninsula. There are also a lot of lakes, mountains, trails and scenery, to take amazing pictures.
Seasons – The Alaskan Story
One of the defining attributes of a true Alaskan is their enjoyment of the outdoors. If you do not enjoy this, then you probably wouldn’t be happy here. Sometimes it’s difficult for an outsider to understand this passion, but it’s an integral part of the Alaskan lifestyle, and those who come to love it, cease to be outsiders, and quickly feel at home. Below is a look at Alaska’s many attributes throughout the seasons.
Spring is a time for harvesting the freshly, budding wild edible, and medicinal plants, found throughout the forests, mountains, meadows, and marshes. It is for witnessing the first signs of green on the birch trees, and knowing that means its time to start the garden.
Lengthening days, and the first signs of warmth from the sun are most welcome. It is a time for the sounds and sights, of many birds making their way back, to Alaska’s nesting grounds; a time of quickening, defined in our minds, by the sound of the first American robin, loudly proclaiming its territory, outside your bedroom window early in the morning.
Summer is a busy time for many Alaskans. It is a time of little sleep, and much activity. It is a time for the family to journey to the banks of the glacial blue Kenai, and the silt gray Copper Rivers so many miles apart, to dip-net the thousands of salmon. It is a time for playing, exploring, boating, camping, canoeing, and taking part in all that our many coastal waters have to offer. It is a time for wheeling in the mountains, running the rivers, fishing, and generally enjoying the beauty of Alaska.
Summer is also a time for battle, between humans and insects, where mosquitos rules. It is a time of 24 hour sunlight, bustling activity and frenetic energy, as young animals rush to mature, and prepare to survive the winter; of humans taking advantage of the sunlight, while it lasts. But summer can also be a lazy time, a season for loosing track of time, while sitting by a lazy mountain stream, with no other humans within 50 miles, listening to the concerted hum of life moving around you, watching the moose.
Fall is brief. It is a time for seeing our many mountains, painted with the flaming brush of Alaska’s copious, bright red fireweed. It is a time for the more subtle shades of purple, orange, and red found rippling through the grasslands; of bright shades of yellow and gold cloaking the poplar and birch covered hills which surround the many thousands of deep dark kettle lakes, carved out by the passing of glaciers 10,000 years past.
Fall is for harvesting the plethora of blueberries, raspberries and cranberries. It is time for preserving, smoking, canning, and freezing in preparation for the long winter that we all know is just around the corner. It is a time when our kitchens are filled with the aromas of the jams and jellies being made, as well as sharing with friends.
Fall is when many of us push ourselves beyond that, which we would ordinarily endure, straining under heavy loads, going deep into the wilderness, on the steep and treacherous, craggy mountain slopes, that proliferate throughout Alaska to gaze at their beauty.
Fall is also a time for observing the moose. It is a time of many hours spent around swamps, willow covered slopes, and alpine lakes, looking for this magnificent animal. It is a time of getting up before the first light of day, to quietly walk to the spot you picked the day before, and sit in perfect silence to greet the rising of the sun, hoping to see the right moose walk out for a drink, or to feed. It is a time for scouting during the day, and settling on what looks like the perfect spot late in the evening, and waiting as the sun slowly sets, looking at every shadow, again hoping to see the elusive moose coming.
The fall is a time for immersing yourself in the rhythms and cycles of the natural world around you. It is a time when your senses are alert, you smell the tart tang of the high bush cranberry, and the heavy mulch scent of the undergrowth as it continues on its path to decay; you see the play of colors and shadows, becoming aware of the slightest movement, from the smallest creatures; you hear the birds and other denizens of the Alaskan wilderness going about their daily lives, and the beavers and muskrats in the nearby pond. If you are lucky, you are privileged to watch the mother grizzly with her cubs, as she grazes on the last of the berries along the slopes of the nearby mountain, and watches over her cubs.
Fall is also a time for the caribou. It is a time for finding your way into the tundral wilderness, looking for the migratory herds; for setting up camp on the side of the mountain where your family has come for many years, waiting for the herd to arrive. A time of waking up one morning to the clicking and grunting sounds made by the caribou as they walk through your camp; it is a time of watching in wonderment as thousands of caribou flow by your tent.
Winter It is a time when most obstacles disappear, and our world is blanketed in pristine snow. It is a time of muted sound, and large soft flakes brushing your cheeks, as they fall in the night. It is a time of skiing or snowshoeing across the open spaces, guided by the light of the full moon; a time of brilliant, cold, sunny days, with blinding reflections, and subdued, but still bright moonlit nights, with mysterious shadows playing across the eerie white landscape; a time of the winds winding their way through the pine forests, leaving their artistic renditions in the snow, to mark their passing.
Winter is when you can look out almost any window, and see the winds howling in the steep craggy mountain peaks, cloaking them in wispy shrouds of curling blowing snow, building cornices, and shaping the peaks anew with the passing of each day.
Winter is a time to hear the wolf howl, and watch him use patience, cunning, and strategy, as he and his pack stalk the caribou; it is a time to watch the wolverine loping across the landscape in pursuit of his frozen caches of food, and to hear the ravens as they fight for the leavings.
Winter is a time when all the swamps, rivers, and lakes that you had to work your way around, during the rest of the year, are frozen. It is when the snow is deep, and all the brush is covered. It is a time for flying across the landscape, banking, carving, and playing in the powder, on your snow machine. It is a time of riding to the tops of the less craggy mountains, to see what there is to see, and to discover if you dare jump your machine off of the wind swept cornices, feeling for a brief moment, what it is like to fly, of racing up the rivers, jumping the banks, and diving into the deep powder, feeling the exhilarating cold sting of it in your face, and the thrill of being totally buried in the soft fluff for a moment, until skis pointed at the sky, your machine lunges up through the surface, trailing a billowing cloud of soft cold powder behind. It is a time of wandering aimlessly through the thousands of trackless miles of swamp and wilderness, exploring all the canyons, gullies, and ravines that you could not get to in the warmer months.
Winter is a time for families and friends to head out in the early morning, single file on their snow machines, anticipating all that lies before them. It is a time for gathering on one of the many remote lakes, letting the kids race its length and breadth, feeling the pure joy of the wind in their faces, and the snow streaking by, under skis that barely touch its surface.
Finally it is time for lunch. It is a time of gathering fallen trees from around the lakes edge, and building a large fire in its middle; a time for roasting hotdogs and marshmallows while sitting on a log, surrounded by snow, family, and friends…and no one else for miles around; a time to take pleasure in the contrast between the heat of the fire, and the cold of the snow, and the fact that you have this whole place to yourselves. It is yours and yours alone for the moment, and you can do this as often as you like. Finally, as the snow starts to fall again, and darkness approaches, it is time to go home.
For a lot of people, The cold winters makes you not want to go outside. -40 hurts your face, it stings. I don’t know how your eyeballs don’t freeze. Where I live, people know each other and wave as they drive down the road.
Dependent on the outside world. If we were unable to get the things that are shipped in (food, fuel, household goods, machines) we might be in big trouble. We heat our houses with heating oil, we eat food shipped in, we don’t make our own clothes. If the airplanes stopped landing here and the barges stopped bringing us stuff, what would we do? There is no road that leads us back to the rest of the world.
Wildfires and rain are the two most serious threats to the most wonderful summers you can imagine. However, most years there are times when you wish the winds would change direction and blow the smell and smoke the other way. Again, Alaska is huge (in the interior) can burn a forest the size of a state in the lower 48 and still have fuel for another big fire the next year, which can flare up from fires of the previous year.
Many roads are gravel/dirt. If we get a rainy summer, it’s the shits. The main roads are paved, but with their own problems with “frost heaves”. Puddles of water form and freeze under all roads and then thaw in the spring. Results vary, but this is usually the biggest headache when it comes to roads.
The daylight thing can be hard for people too;(think really long days in the summer and super short days in the winter) It can be hard to adapt. Honestly, it can be as difficult waiting for the sun to rise at 10:30 AM in December as it is waiting until 3:30 AM for it go down in June. Alaska can also be a challenging place to meet people because the place tends to be so transient. If you decide to move up here you really should consider driving it.
Alaska is a place where people love the outdoors. There are national corporate chains that are opening here all of the time. We now have a Cabella’s, and a Bass Pro Shops . Additionally, we have a lot of restaurants in Anchorage that range from family to fantastic. Hard Rock Café, Texas Road House etc. for chains and a bunch of quirky Alaska stuff, as well as, fine dinning options.
So what are the major downsides? Well for one the cost of living is high here, especially for certain things like fresh produce. Although on the upside some things can actually be cheaper or similar to prices in the lower 48. This is especially true when you consider the tax savings. Honestly, it really depends on the time of year, where you’re located in the state, and what exactly you are trying to buy. Alaska has a pretty weak public transportation infrastructure; If that is important to you, be forewarned. Also, everyday things are expensive here— especially housing.
Just keep that in mind if you start looking at rental units and you want to break down crying. Sadly, the supply is not keeping up with the demand, and the rent is astronomical at the moment. If you can commute from Wasilla or Palmer known in Alaska as “the valley” it can be A LOT better— but then you’re looking at about an hour or more each day in traffic—and it will be that long at least—potentially longer if there is an accident on the Parks Highway (the only highway) leading into town.
This is a cool place one that’s very unique in its place in the world. It’s not only wondrous because of its breathtaking beauty, but also its cultural diversity. Remember than no place is perfect, and we have our share of problems here for sure.
This year, 2023 we almost have had no summer. It was very short, rainy, colder and that just did it for me and my husband. I always wanted to go back to Oregon, and that is where I will retire. I really like and appreciate, my experience of living in Alaska, for the time I was here. I have been fortunate enough, to have lived in a lot of amazing places, and Alaska truly is one of them, but in the summertime ! That means I would love to be able to come here for vacation, for in the summer, but the winters are just too hard for me.
Hope you enjoyed my opinion on this beautiful state and that will have a chance to visit it, in the future.