Premier Alaska photos by professional Alaska photographer Patrick J Endres
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Alaska is a gateway for wilderness adventure and recreational activities including camping, backpacking, kayaking, sport fishing, and many more. The prodigious lakes, meandering wild and scenic rivers, vast mountain ranges, National Parks, and public lands provide playgrounds for adventure enthusiasts year round.
Alaska is home to unique wildlife, including polar bears, brown bears, fox, muskox, moose, Dall sheep, mountain goats, wolves, barren-ground caribou, and many more. Juxtaposed against Alaska's grand mountains, tundra, and coastal shores, these animals lure visitors with hopes of seeing them in their wilderness habitat.
The Aurora Borealis, also called the northern lights, are a light-show that appears high in the sky in northern latitudes. Electrically charged particles from the sun create colorful light emissions when they collide in the upper earth's atmosphere. Alaska's northern location makes it an ideal location to see this celestial wonder during the dark sky months.
Alaska's economy is largely driven by the oil industry, tourism, and commercial fishing, with mining, timber, and agriculture and transportation playing a minor role. Since the oil and gas industry contribute significantly to the state's budget, world oil prices influence many sectors of the economy.
Alaska's northern landscape and extreme weather presents unique challenges. Alaskans have adopted a rhythmic lifestyle to flow with variations of cold and dark winters and warm and light-filled summers. This category includes lifestyle activities unique to the north like dog mushing, fishing, Native life, totem poles, cold weather, and more.
Giant mountain ranges that span across Alaska in nearly all directions. These ranges alter weather and climate patterns and funnel water into the many rivers that eventually reach the sea. The Brooks, Alaska, and Aleutian Ranges and the Chugach and Kenai mountains, and of course, Denali, are just a few included in this category
When one thinks of Alaska, thoughts, and images of nature leap to the forefront, it is a land that embodies legend, lore, and wildness like few other places on the planet. People come from around the world to see its dramatic landscape, winding rivers, cascading glaciers, northern lights, diverse wildlife, and rugged elements of true wilderness.
The panorama photos were taken from all regions of Alaska. Because of their long and thin format of approximately 1 x 3 ratio, they work well for specific layout and design applications. Many were stitched together from multiple digital files resulting in extra high-resolution images suitable for larger publications and fine art prints.
Alaska is world famous for its National Parks and Public Lands. They are home to charismatic wildlife and dramatic landscapes. From Denali National Park, Gates of the Arctic, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Katmai National Park, and many more, they reveal the Alaska that lured the pioneers and continues to draw visitors worldwide.
Alaska is a vast and diverse state that, for geographical description purposes, is broken up into five distinct regions. The North (Arctic), Interior, Southcentral, Southeast, and Southwest. The regions are differentiated by location and, geography and habitat, Other notable areas include Prince William Sound, and Arctic Coastal Plains.
Alaska's minimal road system does not reach many of the towns and villages. The few that crisscross the state are locally referred to by name, rather than a number. The Geroge Parks, Richardson, Glenn, and James Dalton Highways are commonly traveled by visitors. Road repair is limited to an abridged summer season, so delays are common.
While Alaska's overall population is only about 700 or 800 thousand, the many towns and villages scattered throughout its varied terrain offer unique and vibrant expressions of life. The state capital city of Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks, and smaller towns and villages like Sitka, Utquiagvik (Barrow) and Nome are popular destinations.