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CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE PAGE TOP LEFT A woman in traditional Inuit clothing, made of animal skin and fur. Alaska is home to over 200 Inuit tribes.

My seat was on the top of a double-decker car, but I made frequent trips down the stairs to an open-air carriage to take photos. The train clickety-clacked, the landscape and flora seeming to change at every turn. The carriages proceeded over the bridge at Hurricane Gulch, the longest and tallest on the entire line. A single steel span, it stretches 918 feet, with Hurricane Creek a dizzying 300 feet below.

We reached the high point of the line at Summit Lake, cresting above the tree line at the low point of the Alaska Range (which stretches 600 miles and includes two of the three tallest peaks in the nation). Dillon explained that this was also a watershed, water on one side rolling to the Bering Sea, the other to the Pacific. “They make me say it, folks,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s all downhill from here.”

Snowy white with streaks of red, steamed Alaskan crab legs contain sweet and tender chunks of crabmeat fit for a king’s feast.

Many whale species can be spotted in Alaska, either inhabiting or migrating through its coastal waters.

A musher and his team cross the Yukon River in Galena, Alaska, during the annual Iditarod dog sled race.

Warm sun, long days, and abundant wildlife make summer the best season to take a cruise in Alaska.