Anchorage

Anchorage is a city with an outsized backyard. It sits on an arm of the sea with the Chugach range rising directly behind the last streets, and Chugach State Park, half a million acres of it, starts where the suburbs stop. Flattop Mountain is the most climbed summit in Alaska, close enough that people go after work. Moose wander through Kincaid Park and through front gardens, and salmon run up a creek in the middle of downtown. Along Turnagain Arm, belugas surface off Beluga Point as the tide pushes in. The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center keeps rescued bears, bison and musk oxen on open ground, and Eagle River Nature Center sits at the mouth of a glacial valley. Further south, Kenai Fjords National Park is a coast of tidewater glaciers calving into the sea. Plates run to king salmon, halibut and reindeer sausage.