Low Season Adventures in Anchorage, Alaska
Autumn scenery on the train from Talkeetna to Denali, Alaska
By: Lisa Maloney
Low Season Traveller
If you’ve ever seen tourist brochures for Alaska, they probably showed you summer: salmon flinging themselves upstream into a bear’s waiting jaws, glaciers sparkling under the midnight sun, and maybe a shot of the state railroad’s distinctive blue-and-yellow liveried trains, all with a backdrop of craggy mountains and lush, Jurassic Park-level greenery.
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But there’s so much more the brochures don’t show, like the way crisp autumn air turns your breath into faint wisps of vapour, or the way tundra plants turn bright orange and red in late September, covering the mountains in tiny displays of brilliant fall colours, punctuated by occasional stands of bright yellow aspen trees. From most parts of the city, all you have to do is lift your head to see those mountains that cluster on the southern and eastern horizons. It’s only a matter of time before the crisp white of fresh snow starts creeping down the mountainsides, seemingly tiptoeing a little farther downslope every night.
Lights in the Sky Even in the 300,000-person ‘big city’ of Anchorage, Alaska is incredibly seasonal. So when you visit in the fall, you’re joining us at a time of flux, when moose congregate for their fall breeding season, the rut, and plump, glossy-furred bears browse on berries in the mountains and the forests, packing on more precious fat to see them through their long winter slumber. Meanwhile, as our night skies shed the midnight sun of summer and slide back into darkness, the aurora borealis or northern lights becomes visible again. There are a few conditions, though: if you want to see the aurora you need clear skies, plus some distance from city light pollution, and of course the lights need to be shining in the moment those other ingredients come together. You can lose a lot of sleep waiting up to see if the aurora comes out, but aurora-forecasting apps and social media groups (especially on Facebook) make it easier than ever to scout the situation from
