Kodiak, Katmai & Southwest Alaska (Chapter)

This is the Kodiak, Katmai & Southwest Alaska chapter from Lonely Planet’s Alaska guidebook.

Southwest Alaska stretches 1500 miles into oblivion, and is about as remote as you can get in a state that prides itself on hard-to-reach places. It boasts the world’s largest bears, on Kodiak Island; Alaska’s richest salmon runs, in Bristol Bay; and the largest gathering of nesting seabirds in the world, on the tiny Pribilof Islands. Mostly an island-studded region with stormy weather and violent volcanoes, this is the northern rim of the Ring of Fire (along the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands are 46 active volcanoes – the greatest concentration in North America). You can’t drive to the Southwest, making the region hard to reach, expensive to visit and easy to bypass. However, the adventurous do find their way here.

• Hike the surreal landscape of the Valley of 10,000 Smokes in Katmai National Park & Preserve
• maps
• Feast on king crab in Unalaska, where it’s as fresh as can be
• transport
• Ride the MV Tustumena out the long arm of the Aleutian chain or float the rivers in Wood-Tikchik State Park
• restaurants & accommodation
• Photographing brown bears as they snap salmon from Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park & Preserve

Coverage includes: Kodiak Island, Kodiak & around, Alaska Peninsula, King Salmon, Katmai National Park & Preserve, The Lower Peninsula, Aleutian Islands and Unalaska & Dutch Harbor.