A few facts about Alaska

Making your way in any land requires not only knowledge of how to survive, but general knowledge of where you are trying to live. The factors of the land and environment can be as much an ally or enemy as a friend or an invading army. Here are few basic facts about Alaska that can make a difference.

1.  Alaska is the largest state in the union. From north to south Alaska is approximately 1,400 miles long and 2,700 miles wide from west to east, it is over 586,400 square miles in land size.

2.  Alaska has the longest coastline of any state. The Alaskan coastline runs for 6,640 miles, more than all the other states' coastlines combined. That’s not including the coastlines of all its islands. Including them, Alaska has 33,904 miles of shoreline.

3. Alaska has more than 3,000,000 lakes

4. Alaska has over 100 volcanoes and volcanic fields.

5. An estimated 100,000 glaciers cover almost five percent, over 25,000 square miles of the state. There are more active glaciers in Alaska than in the rest of the inhabited world combined.

6. Alaska’s population is over 710,000 people with a density of 1.2 inhabitants per square mile.

7. Alaska contains 17 of the 20 highest mountain peaks in the U.S. Mount McKinley rises 20,320 feet above sea level and is the tallest mountain in North America. Its native and preferred name, "Denali", means the "The Great One" which it surely is.

8. Most of Alaska, including the capital in Juneau, is not accessible by roads. Alaska has about 12,000 miles of public roads including all highways (there are no freeways) and smaller roads and streets both paved and unpaved. By comparison New Jersey about 1/75^th the size of AK has over 39,000 miles of public roads and California 1/5^th the size of AK has over 2.3 million miles of paved roads alone.

9. At its closest point, Alaska is less than 3 miles from Russia.

10. Alaska is the only state to have coastlines on three different seas, the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea.

11. The interior of Alaska regularly experiences summer temperatures in the 80s and even 90s. The interior also gets as cold as -70 in the winter and often sits at -50 for days or weeks at a time.  South Central Alaska has milder temperatures, with winters seldom getting below 0f, but it gets considerably more snow and rain. Southeast gets very little snow, but makes up for it with almost daily rain or drizzle, about 160 inches a year.