Alaska's Accessible Wilderness by Bill Sherwonit The Outdoors Alaska Store

Alaska's Accessible Wilderness by Bill Sherwonit

$21.95

Alaska's Accessible Wilderness by Bill Sherwonit

(From the back cover:) Alaska's State Park System is the nation's largest and grandest. Now encompassing 3.2 million acres, spread among nearly 120 units. Alaska's state parks contain some of our country's premier wilderness. Alaska's Accessible Wilderness focuses on six of the state's wildest, most alluring parklands. Five of the six - Kachemak Bay, Wood-Tikchik, Chugach, Shuyak Island and Denali - offer an inspiring mixture of remoteness, wildlife, scenic vistas, and outdoor recreation. The sixth, Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, is famous for its wildlife - specifically, bald eagles.

These are places of glaciers and unscaled mountains, or centuries-old forest and high alpine tundra, of salmon-rich streams, vast lakes, and remote islands, of grizzlies and wolves, moose and swans. For all their wildness and unspoiled beauty, these parklands are remarkably easy to reach and, in most cases, easy to explore. They are spread through three of Alaska's six regions - Southeast, Southcentral and Southwestern - yet all but one are within a few hundred miles of Anchorage.

In words and photographs, Bill Sherwonit paints vivid portraits of the parks. Woven throughout the text are suggestions for wilderness travel, including information on backcountry safety, camping, bear-human relations, user fees, mosquitoes, air-taxi travel, and more. Visitor information is included in each of the parks, with tips on getting there, when to go, facilities and services, activities, and weather.

Bill Sherwonit is the author of To the Top of Denali and Iditarod: The Great Race to Nome. He's contributed stories and photographs to several national magazines and Alaska guidebooks, and teaches a writing class of the University of Alaska Anchorage

Table of Contents

Foreword
An Introduction to Alaska's Accessible Wilderness

1 Kachemak Bay State Park - Where Land Meets Sea
Map, Backcountry Safety, If You Go, Paddling with Porpoises

2 Wood-Tikchik State Park - The Lone Ranger and America's Largest State Park
Map, Backcountry Camping , Fishing the Pak, If You Go, Floating Through Wood-Tikchik

3 Churgach State Park - Wilderness At The Edge of Town
Map, Hunting, Chugach Christmas, A Jewel is Saved, If You Go

4 Shuyak Island State Park - Island Paradise
Map, Air Travel, Of Humans and Bears, Some Tips on Bears, State Park Regualtions and Fees, If You Go

5 Denali State Park - In The Shadow of The High One
Map, Mosquitoes and Other Pesky Critters, Trumpeter Swans, If You Go

6 Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve - A Gathering of Eagles
Map, If You Go

7 Other Special Alaska State Parks
Viewing and Photographing Alaska's Wildlife