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Southwest Alaska stretches 1500 miles into oblivion. For travelers heading north it’s by far the most overlooked and forgotten region of the state. Partly because what it offers – wil-derness, great sportfishing, unparalleled bear viewing – is also available in easier-to-reach areas of Alaska.

But mostly because Southwest Alaska is as remote as you can get in a state that prides itself on hard-to-reach places. Southwest is spread out over more than 1500 miles, in four areas: the Kodiak Archipelago with Kodiak Island, the Alaska Peninsula, the Aleutian Islands and Bristol Bay. For the most part it is 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 anywhere in North America.

Despite the harsh weather and volcanic activity – or maybe because of it – Southwest Alaska is rich in wildlife. 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. Few places on earth have such abundant wildlife.

But you can’t drive or take a train to Southwest, making the region hard to reach, expensive to visit and easy to bypass. However, the adventurous do find their way here, because even in Alaska there are few experiences quite like riding a state ferry across the North Pacific or watching 1000lb bears gorge themselves on salmon, only 60ft away from you.

Southwest Alaska

HIGHLIGHTS

Hardest lottery to win ( p316 ) – put in for the McNeil River lottery and cross your fingers to see the world’s greatest concentration of brown bears

Best (and cheapest!) nature tour ( p304 ) –join a ranger at Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park for an afternoon of tidal-pool snooping

Most adventurous boat trip ( p308 ) –there’s no cruise like the trip on the ‘Trusty Tusty’ along the Alaska Peninsula to the Aleutian Islands

Best historic site ( p319 ) – head to Dutch Harbor’s Mt Ballyhoo for amazing views and to explore gun turrets, Quonset huts and other WWII military remains

Best bear camp ( p313 ) – spend two days or even a week watching big brownies at remote Hallo Bay Bear Camp in Katmai National Park & Preserve

SanctuaryState Game

Historical ParkFort Abercrombie State

Aleutian Islands

McNeil River

Park & PreserveKatmai National

Dutch Harbor

Alaska Peninsula

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Climate With little to protect it from the high winds and storms that sweep across the North Pacific, Southwest is home to the worst weather in Alaska. Kodiak is greatly affected by the turbulent Gulf of Alaska and receives 80in of rain per year, along with regular blan-kets of pea-soup fog and occasional blustery winds. On the northern edge of the Pacific, Unalaska and the Alaskan Peninsula receive less rain (annual precipitation ranges from 60in to 70in), but are renowned for unpredict-able and stormy weather. Rain, fog and high winds are common. Summer temperatures range from 45°F to 65°F, with the clearest weather often occurring in early summer and fall.

History More than any other region of the state, Southwest Alaska has the most turbulent his-tory, marked by massacres, violent eruptions and WWII bombings.

When Stepan Glotov and his Russian fur-trading party landed at present-day Dutch Harbor in 1759, there were more than 30,000 Aleuts living on Unalaska and Amaknak Islands. After the Aleuts destroyed four ships and killed 175 fur hunters in 1763, the Russians returned and began a systematic elimination of Aleuts, massacring or enslav-ing them. It’s estimated that by 1830 only 200 to 400 Aleuts were living on Unalaska.

The Russians first landed on Kodiak Island in 1763 and returned 20 years later when Siberian fur trader Gregorii Shelikof established a settlement at Three Saints Bay. Shelikof’s attempts to ‘subdue’ the indigenous people resulted in another bloodbath where more than 1000 Alutiiqs were massacred, or drowned during their efforts to escape.

The czar recalled Shelikof and in 1791 sent Aleksandr Baranov to manage the Russian-American Company. After an earthquake nearly destroyed the settlement at Three Saints Bay, Baranov moved his operations to more stable ground at present-day Kodiak. It became a bustling port and was the capital of Russian America until 1804 when Baranov moved again, this time to Sitka.

Some violence in Southwest Alaska was caused by nature. In 1912 Mt Katmai on the nearby Alaska Peninsula erupted, blotting out the sun for three days and blanketing Kodiak with 18in of ash. Kodiak’s 400 residents es-

caped to sea on a ship but soon returned to find buildings collapsed, ash drifts several feet high and spawning salmon choking in ash-filled streams.

The town was a struggling fishing port until WWII when it became the major staging area for the North Pacific operations. At one point Kodiak’s population topped 25,000, with a submarine base at Women’s Bay, an army outpost at Buskin River and gun emplace-ments protecting Fort Abercrombie.

Kodiak was spared from attack during WWII, but the Japanese bombed Unalaska only six months after bombing Pearl Harbor and then invaded Attu and Kiska Islands (see p48 ). More hardship followed: the Good Friday Earthquake of 1964 leveled downtown Kodiak and wiped out its fishing fleet; the king-crab fishery crashed in the early 1980s; and the Exxon Valdez oil spill soiled the coast-line at the end of the decade. But this region rebounded after each disaster, and today Unalaska and Kodiak are among the top three fishing ports in the country.

National Parks & Refuges Southwest Alaska is home to some of the state’s largest and most intriguing national parks and refuges. Unfortunately all of them are isolated and expensive to visit. Katmai National Park & Preserve ( p311 ), on the Alaska Peninsula, and Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge ( p309 ) are renowned for bear watching. Lake Clark National Park & Preserve ( p314 ), across Cook Inlet from Anchorage, is a wilderness playground for rafters, anglers and hikers.

Most of the Aleutian Islands and part of the Alaska Peninsula form the huge Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, headquar-tered in Homer ( p283 ). The refuge encom-passes 3.5 million acres and more than 2500 islands, and is home to 80% of the 50 million seabirds that nest in Alaska.

Getting There & Away Alaska Airlines (%800-252-7522; www.alaskaair.com) and PenAir (%800-448-4226; www.penair.com) service the region and one or the other provides daily flights to Kodiak, King Salmon, Unalaska, Dillingham and Bethel. Era Aviation (%800-866-8394; www.eraaviation.com) also flies to Kodiak from a number of destinations throughout Alaska.

The most affordable way to reach the region is via the Alaska Marine Highway (%800-642-0066;

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