With minimal hours of daylight, frigid temperatures, and mountains of snow, most people don’t consider traveling to Alaska in the winter. We chose to visit Alaska for a week in February, knowing the benefits of the off season would provide us with open roads not trampled by RVs, and inexpensive lodging with few other tourists. I was concerned the hours would be short on daylight, but the sun was up by 9am or so, and went down around 6pm, which was more than enough time to enjoy the day. Late months of the year are different as near the solstice the state only sees a few hours of light per day, however that changes rapidly as spring approaches.

A secondary reason for traveling to Alaska was to witness the Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights, visible in the winter months in high artic and lower austral regions. I’ve always wanted to see the giant curtains of lights dancing and floating in the night sky, and figured February was as good a time as any.

I had researched maps and originally planned a long road trip around the major cities in the state. I envisioned a circular tour from Anchorage to Fairbanks, then south to Valdez and Cordoba, and on to the Kenai Peninsula traveling to Homer and Seward. After explaining this to my coworker Travis, who was raised in the state, he quickly informed me this was far too much driving and way too ambitious to accomplish in one week. I revised my scheduled to include Anchorage, a drive north to Talkeetna, then south to the Kenai Peninsula for a few days. This fit more with my travel philosophy of choosing one place to visit and grow some roots, rather than rushing from place to place.

The next morning we ate breakfast along 5th Avenue, and I sampled reindeer meat for the first time. 5th Avenue is the final stop of the Iditarod Race, and they were setting up the street for the coming events in March. After breakfast we visited Earthquake Park near the Cook Inlet and Int’l Airport. This area near the sound has some large parks and trails, and inside the park trails there are plaques and markers commemorating the 1964 earthquake. The sky in Anchorage is constantly checkered with small aircraft, and it was fun watching them come in for landings at the small Lake Hood Airport, near Earthquake Park.