Tales of Alaska's Bush Rat Governor: The Extraordinary Autobiography of Jay Hammond Wilderness Guide and Reluctant Politician

Average customer rating:

great story, interesting life.....

Amusing story of the bush pilot who became Governor

Tales of Alaska's Bush Rat Governor: The Extraordinary Autobiography of Jay Hammond Wilderness Guide and Reluctant Politician
Jay S. Hammond
Manufacturer: Epicenter Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | United States | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Pacific Northwest | State & Local | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

More Readings From One Man's Wilderness: The Journals of Richard L. Proenneke, 1974-1980

ASIN: 0945397178

Customer Reviews:

great story, interesting life............2004-08-25

This autobiography written by former Alaska governor, Jay Hammond proves to be a superbly entertaining book about his life - both personal and political. Hammond writes in a very easy going style as if he was sitting right next to you talking about his life story.

As a politican, Hammond reflects a classical Alaskan character. Conservative with liberal bias. I found some of his accounts as our governor to be quite interesting. Especially how he dealt with the pipeline and the Permanent Fund. His personal life also reflects a great deal of adventures as he made his way to Alaska. He must have been very lucky to survived all these plane clashes!!

Can't go wrong reading this book.

Amusing story of the bush pilot who became Governor.......1997-11-01

This is an autobiography of a fascinating Alaskan who, among other things, was also a US Marine, a bush pilot, a fisherman and Governor of the State. Jay has a clever, self-deprecating and iconoclastic view of Alaska and Alaska politics. He was truly a unique cross of being a conservative with paradoxically strong liberal stances on the environment and "development" in general. Jay was governor during one of the most polarized times in Alaska's history so you can be sure he had his detractors as well as his loyalists. The book is fortunately not all about his tenure as Governor; his earlier years as a trapper and guide were equally interesting to this reviewer. This book is an easy read and will leave you smiling. If only we could all have such a rich life.

World Famous Alaska Highway: Guide to the Alcan & Other Wilderness Roads of the North

Average customer rating:

Indispensable DRIVING Guide to the Highway
Of no value to me
The ideal guide for anyone traveling the Alaskan Highway
Handy, Practical, and Refreshing
Handy, Practical, and Refreshing

World Famous Alaska Highway: Guide to the Alcan & Other Wilderness Roads of the North
Tricia Brown
Manufacturer: Alaska Northwest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Canada | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0882406027

Book Description

From the southernmost community of Homer to Deadhorse, the northern end of the road that meets the Arctic Ocean, this guide details routes, driving conditions, unique people, and all that awaits the adventurous traveler along the way. 90 full-color photos and 6 maps. Wending through breathtaking mountain vistas, along sparkling streams and lakes, over the Canadian Rockies and into the Last Frontier, the Alaska Highway is a portal to some of the most beautiful places in all of North America. Once a WWII supply line known as ALCAN, this historic byway has become a destination unto itself. The guide also includes information on Alaska's state highways that connect far-flung communities. With details on routes, driving conditions, unique people, and all that awaits the adventurous traveler along the way, this book includes: roadway information for routes through Canada, historical sites, recreation hot-spots, festivals, parades and more!

Customer Reviews:

Indispensable DRIVING Guide to the Highway.......2003-05-28

Not sure why the last reviewer bought a driving guide instead of a hiking guide, but I found this book to be incredibly helpful and entertaining. It contained the right balance of text with history and don't-miss places to visit for each community, along with listings of restaurants and places to stay. She tell you the miles (and kilometers) between major towns and includes lots of great pictures. Highly recommended for preparing for the trip, and a great resource once you're on the road.

Of no value to me.......2003-04-23

I will be driving to Alaska this summer with my dog and I wanted guidance on local parks on the way where we could take breaks and go hiking. I purchased the book since it claims to provide information about hiking trails. No such thing; I found nothing of any value to me and returned it. In fact, if you delete the pictures and the lists of motels and restaurants... there would be little left to read.

The ideal guide for anyone traveling the Alaskan Highway.......2001-03-12

The World-Famous Alaska Highway is the ideal guide for anyone traveling up and down the Alaskan Highway. This compendium of historic sites, roadside attractions, dramatic views, wildlife sighting sites, recreational resources (hiking, biking, fishing, rafting, canoeing, cruising, flying, festivals, rodeos, parades, races, museums, theme parks) will ensure the success of any excursion from day trips to full-fledged vacations. The World-Famous Alaska Highway also offers practical money-saving, comfort enhancing advice on preparing your vehicle, roadway considerations and routes, as well as up-to-date contact numbers and websites for cities throughout the region and serviced by the Alaskan Highway. If you are planning just such a journey for business or pleasure, begin with a thorough reading of Tricia Brown's The World-Famous Alaska Highway!

Handy, Practical, and Refreshing.......2001-02-04

Handy, practical, and refreshing describe this guide to the Alcan Highway and other roads of the North. Tricia Brown's friendly voice and personal insights bring the adventure to life for me. Although I've driven the Alcan many times over the years, there's much to see and much to learn. I plan to pack this Guide along with my gear for my next trip.

Handy, Practical, and Refreshing.......2001-02-04

Disappearance: A Map: A Meditation on Death and Loss in the High Latitudes

Average customer rating:

Disappearance Discovered
read it
A Remarkable Memoir and History
This book is as much a meditation on love as it is on loss.
A book to be snowed in with!

Disappearance: A Map: A Meditation on Death and Loss in the High Latitudes
Sheila Nickerson
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Essays & Travelogues | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0156004984

Book Description

Weaving together personal experience and wilderness lore, this poetic journey through Alaska and Alaskan history is "a potent map of love and loss and how we find our way back home through the landscape of the heart" (Terry Tempest Williams).

Customer Reviews:

Disappearance Discovered.......2000-05-27

I found this book quite by accident in an old stack of magazines and newspaper clippings about Alaska. Thumbing through it, I became intrigued by the style of writing, the choice of subject and the author's method of interspersing personal memoir with historical and literary fact. For those who have read the writings of and by the Arctic explorers and the Alaskan sourdoughs, this is a book for you. Very introspective and yet not too personal. Really tends to get you thinking about those who have been lost and never found. I'm glad I found this book and would encourage you to discover it also.

read it.......1998-08-11

I loved this book. I would recommend it to anyone who cares about life and about literature.

A Remarkable Memoir and History.......1998-07-06

Notes on Disappearances: A Map

As someone who once lived in Alaska and liked good books, I could never understand why our state didn't produce more of them. Apart from Robert Service and a few essayists (Joe McGinnis, John McPhee), few talented writers have made Alaska their subject, and even fewer have handled it successfully. It is a melancholy commentary on Alaska that the most faithful representation of the state in the Lower 48 was the television show Northern Exposure.

Although the state has many dedicated writers, few have written material that was regarded as exceptional. Although many luminaries have visited, few were impressed with the home team. I found this particularly frustrating because other small, cold, places - Iceland or Denmark, for example - had developed rich and distinct literary traditions.

Doubly frustrating because the chance was there. You can't do regular literature in Alaska. Something about the place resists anything conventional. The problems an author might write about in say, Spokane, seem out of place or mis-scaled when set in Alaska. (This intractability extends far beyond literature - experienced mountain climbers from elsewhere are routinely killed in Alaska, talented pilots from the Lower 48 crash there, perfectly good ships sink off its shores.)

But this problem is also an opportunity, for the artist willing to go for broke. To succeed, she would have to invent new tools and take a radically different approach from the authors of the Lower 48. To misuse an analogy from Updike, the successful Alaskan author can't hope to hug the shore - she must build her own boat, and head straight out to the sea, with all the risks and rewards that entails.

Sheila Nickerson, a Juneau resident who was the state's poet laureate from 1977 to 1981, has taken up the challenge. The book is a history and a memoir. The history she reports is full of dangerous projects and unexplained disappearances. She dedicates long passages to great vanishings in the far north, from the! Franklin Expedition of the 19th century to congressmen Nick Begich and Hale Boggs in the early 1970s. But mostly Nickerson reports smaller vanishings: An old man gets off a ferry in Juneau and is never heard from again. A young man walks up a heavily-travelled trail and vanishes. A colleague disappears on a flight:

"Kent Roth, a fishery biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, has gone down with two brothers and two friends on a flight from Yakutat to Anchorage. It is an immense area, one that has swallowed people from the earliest times of its recorded history."

Throughout the book Nickerson intersperses her own story with this disappearance and the ensuing search. She also reports on the stacatto interruption of accidental death that is the hallmark of day-to-day life in Alaska:

"Flipping through search-and-rescue news releases at the Coast Guard headquarters at the federal building in Juneau, I quickly find a terrible sameness to the stories. The reports usualy continue from three to five days. If the case is large, or unusual, reports continue for a week or even two weeks. Then, for the most part, there is blankness."

Observing that the Alaskan Shamen were wiped out by protestant missionaries, she rushes to fill the void with any spiritual tool that can find purchase - the tarot, feng shui, dreamwork, bird messengers, ghost stories from her childhood. She is impatient with the stern, inscrutable Protestant God (perhaps her distant and angry father, who ultimately disinherited her, has something to do with this). Ironically, this is one place where that stern patriarch seems plausible. Such a God is a mere curiosity in a literary, affluent place like New York, Paris, or Peking. But He fits well where nature kills suddenly, unexpectedly, and arbitrarily. Nickerson never goes there - if that's the deal, she doesn't want it.

Only late in the book does she hint that she sees the awful possibility that there is no order, spiritual or otherwise, to it all:

&quot! ;There is a framed original chart from the Cook expedition to Alaska in 1778 - Cook's last before he turned south to Hawaii and death at the hand of native Hawaiians. The chart, in pencil, was executed either by Cook or by Master William Bligh... It is a working chart of Unalaska Island, out in the Aleutians, made during the summer as Cook and his men headed north to Icy Cape, at the edge of the Frozen Sea. There, just off the coast of the island, in a faint but elegant hand, this notation:

'All this 30' west of the truth' "

But even when her spiritual guides fail her (perhaps I should write 'especially'), the book marches powerfully on, because it is not driven by a spiritual force, but by Nickerson's relentless intellectual engagement. She becomes discouraged, but she never gives up. When one line of attack breaks down, she shifts to another.

It would be unfair to try to say this book has succeeded or failed. As with most Alaskan enterprises, success is a relative thing. A successful Alaskan expedition is one in which no one gets killed. Nickerson is generous with partial credit to explorers who got home with at least some of their shipmates. She has succeeded well on those terms - she's built her boat, gone to sea, and come back.

She succeeds in other ways as well. The whole book is pitched at a high level, far higher than Alaskans expect of local writers. Nickerson's full of talent - she writes in a clear direct voice, and, her protests notwithstanding, she has a pretty good idea of what she's trying to accomplish. This is the kind of a book that might be viewed someday as a cornerstone of Alaskan literature, one of the moments when Alaskans started writing things the rest of the world wanted to read.

Only Nickerson knows if the literary achievement was accompanied by a spiritual one. Alaska is particularly unkind to those who come seeking spiritual development. The sea and wilderness seem to have a special fondness for killing sojourners and utopians. It is a place where what does no! t destroy you tries to cripple you so it can get you next time. As McGinnis discovered, there are a lot of damaged people in those bars and cabins. In this game, holding your own is a big victory.

I think Nickerson held her own.

Sheila Nickerson, Disappearances: A Map, New York: Harcourt Brace, 1996.

This book is as much a meditation on love as it is on loss........1998-03-17

This book opens with the disappearance of one of Nickerson's colleagues in a Cessna 340A flying out of Yakutat on a foggy May evening. Nickerson writes with a splendid compassion of the way the love of family, friends and community assures that a lost man will never be a lost soul; she describes not only the enormous risks undertaken to search for survivors, but the courage of people who continue to love and have faith long after tragedy has shattered their lives. Nickerson, a poet, novelist, editor and teacher, is also a wife and mother whose family - mountain climbers and sailors - are themselves explorers, and she writes of necessity with empathy no mere spectator could achieve. It is not hard to imagine Nickerson, seeing tragedy unfold so close by, make a decision to bring the stories of those who have disappeared before readers' eyes - to remember those who have gone, but also, as a testament to the families who remain. She integrates stories of her personal life with historical sagas and also, deftly, brings into focus the horizons of Juneau's own magnificent but dangerous horizons. Reading "Disappearance: A Map" is like holding a collection of maps with ever more detailed views. You can step back, and see Alaska from the distance of headlines and stark topography, or you can move in closer and see lives as they emerge from these stories. I would urge you to read further into Nickerson's work. Her novel, "In Rooms of Falling Rain" evokes the troubling landscape of a community in Colorado struggling with storm and confusion. Like "Disappearance" it is immensely suspenseful, far more so than most books which fall specifically into the genre of mystery writing. When a writer of Nickerson's discipline and intelligence creates fiction the pages of the story turn swiftly. But do not fail to read her poetry, either. "On Why the Quilt-Maker Became a Dragon", with gorgeous illustrations by Judy Cooper; "Feast of the Animals", graced with exquisite wood engravings by Dale DeArmond; "To the Waters and the Wild", "Song of the Pinewife" and the sumptuous "In a Spring Garden" are written with the clear eye of the great poet: passionate, elegant, direct, wise. The more I read of Nickerson the more I want to read. Sheila Nickerson was the poet Laureate of Alaska from 1977 to 1981, and her books should be given pride of place on the shelf. She has not hidden in the sanctuary of the university: instead, she has brought her reverence for the word into prisons and children's schoolrooms and the pages of the journals she has edited. The literature and art of Alaska are among its most enduring treasures and these books will bring honor to your home.

A book to be snowed in with!.......1997-04-17

Sheila Nickenson presents Alaska as a vast unforgiving terra incognita where death awaits the missing. Her essays on the lost--and sometimes found--of Alaska demonstrate emphatically it's not a place to be stranded in. For example, the immense interior glaciers offer no quarter. Even with today's sophisticated technology, the lost remain lost. Their bodies are not found; their fates are known to God. Most of the modern day missing are victims of plane crashes. (There are parts of our 49th state that are only accessible by airplane. Juneau, where the author resides, is one example.)

In earlier times, the late 1700s to the earlier part of the 20th century, the missing were members of expeditions and the Navy. Many of the dead sailors were "harvested" by the Cold Reaper in the flower of their youth.

Interspersed among the essays for the dead are meditations on: Sheila's life in Juneau, her publishing experience as a poet, her New England childhood, the "politics" of teaching Alaskan prisoners, the joys and insights of educating children about poetry, being a mother and wife, the flowers of Alaska--what flourishes and what perishes--and her personal ordeal about a missing friend

Average customer rating:

An Unreal Remoteness

Honest and plain-spoken

An essential description of the region

Alaska Wilderness: Exploring the Central Brooks Range
Robert Marshall
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
Mountains | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
Essays & Travelogues | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books
Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Alaska | States | United States | Travel | Subjects | Books
North America | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Travel | Subjects | Books
Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Arctic Village: A 1930's Portrait of Wiseman, Alaska (Classic Reprint Series)

Brooks Range (Alaska Geographic)

Midnight Wilderness: Journeys in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The Mountains of My Life (Modern Library Exploration)

A Naturalist's Guide to the Arctic

ASIN: 0520244982

Book Description

Exploring the great wilderness of Alaska's Brooks Range was Robert Marshall's joy and delight during the decade between 1929 and 1939. Marshall traveled this spectacular country, from the Upper Koyukuk drainage to the Arctic Divide, making maps, recording scientific data, and exalting in the beauty of that incredibly pristine landscape. Although his early death at thirty-eight ended an exceptional life too early, he left journals and letters to describe his favorite place on earth. These were edited by his brother George Marshall and were compiled to create this classic of environmental literature, now in its third edition after nearly fifty years in print and with a new foreword by Rick Bass.

Customer Reviews:

An Unreal Remoteness.......2003-12-31

Robert Marshall explored unmapped Alaska during the years of the Great Depression and World War II, going where no man (at least of the white variety) had gone before. Despite a few scraggly settlers and pioneers in the area, most of the central region of the Brooks mountain range was unmapped at the time, making it one of the last remaining unknown areas in the US. Marshall describes his various journeys of great hardship with a cool understated style that makes the whole endeavor look like a piece of cake, despite navigating treacherous rivers (including one near-death experience in a flood), climbing countless mountains, confronting grizzly bears and other predators (he describes one bear as being big as "two elephants plus a rhinoceros"), and generally sojourning with just a few partners for weeks at a time and hundreds of miles from the nearest civilization. Unlike some modern "adventure" writers, Marshall steers clear of bombast and extreme sports boasting, and describes the amazing scenery and thrill of discovering new geography with unassuming and occasionally moving prose such as "an unpeopled universe where only the laws of nature held sway." He's not afraid to dig deeper either, occasionally giving shocking details of the hard life of the local settlers, and the feeling of natural isolation from the unhappy outside world of the time. This is a great read for anyone who loves the exploration and thrill of discovery that are increasingly rare in modern times. [~doomsdayer520~]

Honest and plain-spoken.......2003-07-23

It seems hard to believe that as recently as the 1930s large chunks of American territory were completely unexplored. These uncharted regions were in northern Alaska, and for Robert Marshall the chance to be the first to set foot in them was irresistable.

"Alaska Wilderness" is the surprisingly engaging story of Marshall's visits into the unknown reaches of the Alaska's Brooks Range.

On the face of it, this book doesn't seem to have a whole lot going for it. There are only a few moments of peril and drama, and just a sprinkling of humor. Marshall's descriptions of the people he meets and travels with are fairly one-dimensional. Mostly, the book is a chronological account of Marshall's hikes and boat trips, with the author spending a lot of time describing in detail the mountains and landscape he discovers. It seems like this should be dull.

But Marshall is such a likeable guy and his enthusiasm for nature is so genuine that you can't help but enjoy going along with him on his explorations. Before long, the reader is just as eager as Marshall to find out what is over the next ridge or around the next bend. The book's good maps help the reader follow Marshall's travels.

Marshall valued exploration just for the sake of exploration and his plain-spoken opinions on the subject are refreshing. For example:

"There is something glorious in traveling beyong the ends of the earth, in cutting loose from the bonds of world-wide civilization. Such life holds a joy and an exhilaration which most explorers today cannot understand, with their radios and aeroplanes which make the remotest corners of the world just a few days or even hours away in distance. Modern mechanical ingenuity has brought many good things to the world, but in the long list of high values which it has ruined, one of the greatest is the value of isolation."

Or:

"As I see it, Peary's discovery of the North Pole, Amundsen's journey to the South Pole, Byrd's junketing in Antarctica, or the impending ascent of Mount Everest do not make the road of humanity as a whole the least bit happier. In fact, one could argue, the net result of these activities is to make mankind a little poorer because when an exploration is made there is that much less possibility left in the world for others to experience the joy of exploration in hitherto unknown regions. The justification, if one is needed, for present-day exploration, therefore is almost exclusively the selfish one of giving oneself the exhiliration of that most glorious of all pastimes, setting foot where no human being has ever trod before."

We are lucky that one of the first men to explore the Brooks Range was such an able writer as Robert Marshall, and that he so honestly shares the experience with us.

An essential description of the region.......1999-08-28

This is Marshall's account of exploring the area which is now Gates of the Arctic National Park. Marshall was the first to systematically explore and describe it, in the 1930s. Introductions by his brother George update the information to 1970. There are wonderful, hilarious anecdotes. I read this to help plan my first trip there (summer 2000); can't imagine going without it.

Alaska on Foot: Wilderness Techniques for the Far North (Hiking & Climbing)

Average customer rating:

Excellent and comprehensive on important details
Great First Book on Hiking Alaska
GOOD GUIDE FOR AK!

Alaska on Foot: Wilderness Techniques for the Far North (Hiking & Climbing)
Erik Molvar
Manufacturer: Countryman Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Walking | Hiking & Camping | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Survival Skills | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

North America | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Sports | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Sports Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0881503517

Customer Reviews:

Excellent and comprehensive on important details.......2002-09-26

As always, Molvar gives us an in-depth look at what we need to know: the weather, the terrain, the animals and their normal habitats, reading from maps, packing supplies, essentials on clothing, what foods on the trail to avoid and what to watch for, how to interpret the forests, etc. There is very little in the book that a backpacker or angler would not find pertinent to his visit to Alaska. The writing flows smoothly and evenly, and no part gets greater treatment than the rest. I recommend this as a useful manual to hikers and campers ready to visit Alaska, both novice and veteran. Molvar's firsthand experience shows on every page.

Great First Book on Hiking Alaska.......2001-03-19

This book gives a brief overview of the various regions in Alaska to consider, but focuses more on providing knowledge needed to backpack successfully in the state. The chapters on techniques (including river crossing, snowfield travel, and glacial travel) and wildlife are particularly useful. There is also a chapter on navigating via compass and map, which is helpful since there are very few trails in Alaska. This is a good first read for someone planning their initial backpacking expedition in the nation's largest state. For the more advanced Alaskan, it probably would not be too helpful.

GOOD GUIDE FOR AK!.......2000-01-17

THis book is almost perfact for those people who are looking for an Alaska guide book. Some information good be more specific though..

Alaska's Accessible Wilderness: A Traveler's Guide to Alaska's State Parks

Average customer rating:

Get a 'sense of place' of state parks in Alaska
Innovative and overlooked
Disappointing

Alaska's Accessible Wilderness: A Traveler's Guide to Alaska's State Parks
Bill Sherwonit
Manufacturer: Alaska Northwest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

North America | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0882404717

Book Description

"ALASKA'S ACCESSIBLE WILDERNESS is a beautifully produced book that will lure travelers to the parks."-The Anchorage Daily News

Customer Reviews:

Get a 'sense of place' of state parks in Alaska.......2003-01-05

The book includes descriptions of some of Alaska's parks. I find it a cross between a travel narrative and a travel guide. The photos and narrative provided good descriptions. The title is a alittle misleading in that the book focuses on a few of the main state parks and does not provide details on every state park on the road system. What it does provide is the authors experience of the 'sense of place,' what it might be like to be there. For that, it is well worth it.

Innovative and overlooked.......2002-12-31

This book is different, and that's its charm! Instead of a simple turn-left, turn-right, camp-here guide, it is a trip-planner and day-dreamer's book of beautiful wilderness images and essays. Because the design and photos are top-rate, it would also work as a gift book or post-trip keepsake. Sherwonit introduces each park with a 1st-person travel essay, describing hiking, paddling, and animal-watching adventures, and the author's own personal connection to these places. Then there are great how-to sections, sidebars, and lavishly illustrated maps. The softcover, square-shaped format make it more aesthetically pleasing than a small, narrow guidebook, but less unwieldy than a coffee table book.

Alaska is so vast, overwhelming, and superlative, it can be hard to imagine how to explore it, but this book helps the reader visualize and plan. If this book is so pleasing, why isn't it better known? I think it's the title. "Accessible" wilderness might make readers think of wheelchair paths, when in fact, this book is about wild and remote parklands that are simply *easier* to reach (though not always easy). Another reason this book is overlooked is that it focuses on Alaska's state parks instead of its more famous national parks (like Denali National Park). But again, that's the book's strength. Tourists cruise past Denali STATE Park without realizing what they're missing, and many "Outsiders" have never heard of places like Kachemak Bay State Park and Wood-Tikchik. Though every park covered is unique, all but one are within 325 miles of Anchorage, the state's urban hub. (One of the parks, Chugach State Park, actually backs up to Anchorage, bringing moose, bears and salmon to our backdoors.) As an Alaskan, I'm tempted to keep our great state parks under wraps, but I'd hate for readers to miss this fine book by a writer who really knows and appreciates the state's natural treasures.

Disappointing.......2001-08-26

There is a reason you see used versions of this book for sale. I was very disappointed in that it only covers 6 parks. Considering the number of state parks in Alaska, this is a pretty poor showing. Those that are covered are covered in a "this is what I did" vein and not in a "this is what is available" manner that I was expecting.

National Geographic Destinations, Treasures of Alaska: The Last Great American Wilderness (NG Destinations)

Average customer rating:

Beautiful writing. Stunning photography. Fitting of Alaska.
The Last Great American Wilderness
Awesome magazine

National Geographic Destinations, Treasures of Alaska: The Last Great American Wilderness (NG Destinations)
Jeff Rennicke
Manufacturer: National Geographic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

North America | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0792264703
Release Date: 2002-03-01

Book Description

Treasures of Alaska celebrates the many lives and unique landscapes that make up the vast and storied land in this latest addition to the National Geographic Destinations series. From the beauty and solitude of Alaska's mountain ranges and lush forests to the awesome power of its glaciers and volcanoes, this book offers an astonishing combination of prose and photographs that fires the imagination and seizes the eye.

Visiting the places and people whose natures are true to the spirit of this still wild frontier, Rennicke and Melford follow a dogsled team up a frozen mountain river in search of an Alaskan Eden; hike along active volcanoes that brim and boil in the Aleutian Islands; camp on the Juneau Icefield with one of the world's leading experts on glaciers; summit Mount McKinley with a double-amputee bush pilot in a triumph of spirit and determination over the mountain that almost killed him; and journey back through Alaska's human history, to the times of the Gold Rush miners, totem pole carvers, and nomadic hunters who crossed the Bering Land Bridge and discovered new land.

From grizzlies to glaciers, fishing boats to northern lights, Treasures of Alaska uncovers the wild heart and the endless challenge that make Alaska a land of enduring beauty and undying dreams.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful writing. Stunning photography. Fitting of Alaska........2007-10-14

I picked this book/magazine up on my second trip to Alaska. Although my travels have been business driven, I have built in free time with both trips to experience some of the slendor and solitude described in Treasures of Alaska. I knew my two visits had not demonstrated all that is Alaska, but after reading this it became evident that they did not comprise even the full tip of the iceberg. While reading on my departure flight and looking out the airplane window to the wilderness below I felt the urge to demand they turn the plane around.

I think this book/magazine deserves inclusion as one of the Treasures of Alaska.

The Last Great American Wilderness.......2007-02-01

Alaska represents 20% of the land area of the United States, yet its entire population is less than that of most major cities in the "lower 48" and huge swaths of the state aren't on any road system. Animal species in short supply elsewhere roam freely in Alaska. Wildness is here in abundance. This National Geographic special magazine captures that wildness with a collection of its usual superb photography wrapped around a short narrative capturing selected vignettes of the state.

In Alaska, it is still possible to experience a variety of dramatic natural landscapes and wildlife in isolation. This magazine is highly recommended as a preview for those who seek that experience.

Awesome magazine.......2003-06-01

I recently graduated college, and this was given to me as a gift. Previous to receiving it as a gift, a friend had the same magazine, and I enjoyed looking at it. I have the opportunity to say that I live in the one of the most beautiful places on earth, Alaska. I have lived here for 9 years and I have done and seen a lot of Alaska. But reading the magazine articles and looking at the beautiful photographs made me realize that there is so much more of Alaska that I have not seen, and that I am dying to get to see. I have see and read lots of book on Alaska, but up until this one, none of them done Alaska justice. Everytime family or friends come over and we start to talk about what we are going to do this summer, I pull out this magazine.

Average customer rating:

Extensive, one-of-a-kind guide

The Alaska Wilderness Guide

Manufacturer: Morris Communications Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

North America | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 189215420X

Customer Reviews:

Extensive, one-of-a-kind guide .......2007-08-07

9781892154200, $19.95 www.amazon.com

The editors of "The Milepost" present The Alaska Wilderness Guide: Where to Go Camping, Sportfishing, Sea Kayaking, River Running and Hiking in Alaska's Backcountry, now in a newly updated ninth edition. Featuring detailed information on public-use cabins, lighthouses, hot springs, ghost towns, and marine parks, as well as descriptions of over 85 navigable rivers, 100 parks, a wide assortment of refuges and monuments, and much more, The Alaska Wilderness Guide is ideal for hikers, outdoorsmen, skiers, sport fishermen, kayakers, bird and wildlife enthusiasts, and just about anyone eager to see Alaska's natural wonders for themselves. A gigantic fold-out color map of the entire state of Alaska and an index round out this extensive, one-of-a-kind guide to Alaska's glorious backcountry.

Umbrella Guide to Alaska's Wilderness Highway/Traveling the Dalton Road (Umbrella Guides)

Average customer rating:

Umbrella Guide to Alaska's Wilderness Highway/Traveling the Dalton Road (Umbrella Guides)
Michael Jensen
Manufacturer: Epicenter Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

North America | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0945397283

Average customer rating:

The Alaska Wilderness Guide
Milepost
Manufacturer: Morris Communications Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Milepost 2007 (Milepost)

ASIN: 1892154099

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books