Alaska is the largest state of the USA, but it is the least densely populated. The northernmost parts lie within the Arctic Circle. There is light 24 hours a day in midsummer and darkness at midday in winter. The capital, Juneau is warmer than the other major, and larger towns because it is the further south part of the state. Mount McKinley, North America's highest peak, is in Alaska. There are many active volcanoes and Alaska has suffered several bad earthquakes. To the west across the Bering Strait is Russia, at the narrowest point only 82 kilometres distant. Alaska was bought from Russia by the USA in 1867 for about 7 million dollars. Soon after, gold was discovered. Alaska is also rich in oil, natural gas and other valuable minerals. It became a full state of the USA in 1959.

In many rural Alaska communities, high-schoolers learn to fly before they learn to drive. While yes, Alaska has the most pilots per capita of any state, the bigger reason is that there just aren’t roads in much of the state. There are more than 200 villages that aren’t connected to the road system, meaning the only way to get to them is by dog sledding, snow machining (snowmobiling), hiking, boating, or flying. The vast majority aren’t places that tourists will typically visit—there just aren’t hotels, so they’d need to camp in most of them.