Snow Much to Learn! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Juneau

Juneau is the capital city of Alaska, and the only state capital in the United States that you can't drive to. Yeah, yeah. There are roads within the city, but none that connect it to the rest of the world. The mountains of the Coast Range form a natural barrier on one side, and the Gastineau Channel blocks the other, leaving ferries and airplanes as the only way in or out (unless you're an extremely dedicated kayaker, that is). How Stephen King hasn't set a story here is beyond me.

Although Juneau gives off the vibe of an isolated outpost carved between cliffs and sea, it's really not tiny at all. It is actually one of the largest U.S. cities by land area at least, due mostly to the municipal boundaries that stretch deep into the surrounding wilderness. This means Juneau technically includes glaciers, forests, and a good portion of prime ursine real estate if that's your thing.

Answer: Denali National Park and Preserve

Denali National Park and Preserve is home to the tallest mountain in North America, Denali, which stands at 20,310 feet (61.9 hectometers). The mountain was formerly known as Mount McKinley, but the U.S. officially restored its Alaska Native name, Denali ("the High One"), in 2015. The park itself spans over six million acres of subarctic wilderness, a landscape that moves from taiga forest to open tundra and then into gorgeous glacial terrain closer to the Alaska Range.

Unlike many U.S. national parks, Denali is intentionally managed with minimal infrastructure, which means a lot more wildlife and a lot fewer concession stands and souvenir shops. Grizzly bears, wolves, moose, and caribou roam around freely in large numbers, and there's only one main road running through the entire park. Most visitors experience it by bus, which is both practical and a subtle way of protecting tourists from wandering into "surprise bear encounters," which wildlife experts technically refer to as "very brief hikes".

For mountaineers, Denali is famous not just for its height but for how it punishes the human body. Many consider it more physically demanding than Everest because of its vertical rise from base to summit and the need to carry all your gear, though Everest remains more dangerous overall due to its extreme altitude and thin air, conditions which our body tends to react crossly towards. Choose wisely. Or stay at home where it's warm and the fridge is stocked.

Answer: Nome

Nome sits on the southern shore of the Seward Peninsula along the Bering Sea and shot to the top of everyone's must-visit list during the gold rush of 1899, when prospectors literally found gold in the beach sands... no pickaxe required. That discovery sparked a stampede of thousands of miners who arrived by every method available to them. Nome ballooned almost overnight from a remote outpost to the largest city in Alaska at the time.

Today, Nome is probably best known as the official finish line of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Mushers spend roughly a thousand miles struggling against snowstorms and frozen rivers before finally reaching Nome's Front Street arch, where, in true Alaskan fashion, the reward is a cheering crowd and permission to go somewhere warm. This might be a good time to point out that the dogs also have it kind of tough.

Nome's history is also tied to the 1925 "serum run", when teams of sled dogs relayed diphtheria antitoxin to the town during a deadly outbreak. That event later inspired both the Iditarod route and no doubt, countless grade-school reports about heroic huskies.

Answer: Aleutian Islands

The Aleutian Islands form a big ol' volcanic arc stretching roughly 1,200 miles (1.9 megameters) west from the tip of the Alaska Peninsula toward Russia. They sit at the tense meeting of the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, which in geologist-speak means "lots of volcanoes, lots of earthquakes, and sometimes a new island if nature feels creative." More than 50 of the islands are volcanic, and several are still considered active.

During World War II, when Alaska was still a territory, the Aleutians were the only parts of North America occupied by foreign forces. Imperial Japan captured the islands of Attu and Kiska in 1942. The brutal Aleutian campaign that followed, involving both Canadian and American troops against the Japanese, is sometimes called the "forgotten battle" due to its remote location and miserable, foggy weather that made flying, sailing, and simply existing a challenge.

Today, most of the islands are sparsely populated or uninhabited, but they are certainly prime territory for seabirds, marine mammals, and people who really really like wind.

Answer: Kodiak Island

Kodiak Island is Alaska's largest island and the second largest in the United States, second only to the Big Island of Hawaii. It sits in the Gulf of Alaska just off the southern coast like an afterthought, separated from the mainland by the Shelikof Strait, named after a Russian fur trader. The island is known for its rugged mountains, thick spruce forests, and casual population of giant brown bears who behave like they own the place, which, to be fair, they kind of do.

The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge covers most of the island and was created in 1941 specifically to protect the Kodiak brown bear and its habitat. These bears can weigh over 1,200 pounds (544 kg), which means they generally get the right-of-way in disputes, from trail usage conversations to picnic-basket negotiations. Despite their size, they mostly just want fish, privacy, and for humans to use a telephoto lens instead of spending their last few minutes on Earth trying to get a selfie.

Answer: Valdez

Valdez was pretty much destroyed during the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America, measuring 9.2 in magnitude. The shaking triggered a massive underwater landslide that generated a local tsunami, wiping out the town's waterfront and killing residents who had gathered at the dock to unload a supply ship. Afterward, our best and brightest decided that the original townsite was built on unstable ground, so the city was moved four miles (6.5 km) away to a place where that kind of thing wouldn't happen.

The "new" Valdez is still an important deepwater port, especially because it serves as the southern terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Crude oil travels 800 miles (1287 km) across the state to end up here, where it's loaded onto tankers bound for refineries. This makes Valdez both scenic and industrial, a rare place where you can photograph bald eagles perched above an oil terminal acting like supervisors.

Despite its tragic history, the town has rebuilt itself into a thriving community and a jumping-off point for fishing, heli-skiing, glacier tours, and the usual wow-that's-a-lot-of-mountains type sightseeing. It is also one of the snowiest cities in the United States, routinely measuring its winter accumulation in "feet" instead of "inches," which is also very on-brand for coastal Alaska.

Answer: Tongass National Forest

The Tongass National Forest is the largest national forest in the United States, sprawling across about 16.7 million acres (68,000 square kilometers) of southeastern Alaska. It blankets most of the Alaska Panhandle and includes much of the famed Inside Passage, that winding route of islands, fjords, and coastal waterways where cruise ships glide past scenery that looks like it belongs in a nature documentary. It is also the world's largest remaining temperate rainforest.

The forest is home to giant old-growth spruce and hemlock, an impressive salmon population, and a wildlife VIP list that includes black bears, brown bears, and the occasional human trying to take a photo while donating blood to the mosquito population. Communities such as Ketchikan, Sitka, and Juneau are literally built inside the forest, making it one of the few national forests where grabbing a six pack at the store can be described unironically as a nature excursion.

Answer: Yukon River

The Yukon River is one of the longest rivers in North America, flowing more than 1,900 miles (3 megameters) from the Yukon Territory in Canada across Alaska before dumping its waters into the Bering Sea. During the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s, it served as the main transportation route for thousands of prospectors heading toward the gold fields near present-day Dawson City.
Today, the river remains an important feature of life in many remote communities. It continues to support fishing, ecological research, and anyone who enjoys a wow-worthy landscape.

Today, the river remains an important feature of life in many remote communities. It continues to support fishing, ecological research, and anyone who enjoys a wow-worthy landscape.

Answer: Sitka

Sitka, situated on Baranof Island (and part of Chichagof Island), was the capital of Russian America before the United States purchased Alaska in 1867. At the time, it was known as Novo-Arkhangelsk (New Archangel) and served as the administrative and economic hub of the Russian colonies. When the transfer ceremony took place, the Russian flag was lowered and the U.S. flag was raised in Sitka, making it the brief first capital of American Alaska before the territory moved its seat to Juneau.

The town still carries a strong Russian cultural vibe, from onion-domed church architecture to historic place names. If you wander through Sitka today, you'll find a blend of Alaska Native Tlingit heritage alongside remnants of imperial Russia, all playing to an uninterested crowd of rainforests, mist, and mountains.

Answer: Bristol Bay

Bristol Bay, located in southwestern Alaska, is world-famous for its massive sockeye salmon runs, the largest on the planet. Every summer, millions of salmon return from the open Pacific to spawn in the rivers that feed into the bay, supplying both commercial fisheries and local "harvests".

Bristol Bay is also at the center of ongoing conservation efforts because of its ecological value and vulnerability. Its salmon runs support not only fishing communities but also bears, eagles, and pretty much everything else that enjoys a tasty seafood dinner.