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(wondrous music)

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- [Voiceover] They say wilderness

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is what you find at the end of the road,

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and if you went beyond what
most people call wilderness,

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you'd find Alaska,

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an expanse so vast one
could never know it all.

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But that may be just as well

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because if there is the promise

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of more beauty over the next horizon,

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most Alaskans would say,

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"What could possibly be more spectacular

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"than what I'm looking at right now."

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This is a journey over land and by air

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to find the sheer spectacle of Alaska,

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to uncover the people and
places, horizons and habitats

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that define America's 49th state, Alaska.

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(peaceful music)

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Where hardwood forests give way

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to Alaska's rising interior
sits Denali National Park.

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And where the land reaches
up through the clouds

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sits Alaska's crowning
glory, Mount McKinley,

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20,320 feet, North America's tallest peak,

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a good mile higher than
any other contenders

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in the Lower 48.

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The Athabascan Indians call
it Denali, the great one.

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The first expedition to the
top of McKinley was in 1910,

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but the climbers made a tactical error

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and found that they had
ascended the wrong peak.

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Three years later, Episcopalian
minister Hudson Stuck

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made his way to the
true summit of McKinley,

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and found the best view of heaven

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mortal man could ever hope for.

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Denali is a preserve in the truest sense.

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Unlike many national parks in America,

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its ecosystem is fully intact.

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Animals wander through undisturbed habitat

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with the kind of complete
freedom Alaska stands for.

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Like much of Alaska,

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the first rush to Denali was
for gold in the early 1900's.

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But one early visitor, Charles Sheldon,

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saw the abundance of wildlife
of such extraordinary value

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he fought to get the area
protected as a national park.

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President Woodrow Wilson made it official

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with his signature in 1917.

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In the shadow of Mount McKinley,

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moose, caribou, bear, and sheep

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all forage in the tranquility
of the long summer days.

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But as idyllic as Denali seems,

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one can never forget that
this is wild country,

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that the laws of nature
are fully in force.

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(howling)

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The most basic of instincts is survival,

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or in the case of two grizzlies,

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who is king of this mountain?

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(apprehensive music)

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(awe-inspiring music)

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Denali National Park provides

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some of Alaska's most
quintessential images,

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painted in as many moons as the sun,

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stars, and seasons allow.

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A marathon run through urban streets

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and around high-rise buildings,

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there is only one city in Alaska

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that could contain such a race, Anchorage.

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Anchorage is Alaska's largest city.

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It can claim itself to be fashionable

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when the rest of Alaska's
towns are merely functional.

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The quick retort is that the real Alaska

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starts about 10 miles outside Anchorage.

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Despite the polite sparring,

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about half of all Alaskans live here.

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Anchorage during the summer solstice

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is the perfect place to stage a race,

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but the real excitement comes to Anchorage

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in the very last days of winter.

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The Iditarod, the world's
longest dogsled race,

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over 1,000 miles from Anchorage to Nome.

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Run over an old mail route,

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the original race in 1925
was not a competition.

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It was a race to save lives.

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Mushers were carrying serum
to inoculate children in Nome

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against a diphtheria epidemic.

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That heroic relay spawned an
annual event held every March,

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which Alaskans will always
call "The Last Great Race."

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- [Voiceover] 10, nine, eight, seven six,

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five, four, three, two, one, go!

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And on his way to Nome this morning,

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our first musher, out of the shoot.

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(crowd cheering)

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(beautiful piano music)

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- [Voiceover] One of the great lessons

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Alaska teaches is how big creation is,

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and how small we are.

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Kenai Peninsula offers some of the best

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combinations of exhilaration and humility.

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Some people come to
Alaska to find themselves,

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some to lose themselves in its splendor.

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The Alaskan Railroad,

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a stretch of tracks that runs

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from Fairbanks in the interior,

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south by Denali National Park,

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down through Anchorage,

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and out to Seward on the Kenai Peninsula.

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One could say that's from one end

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of the road to the other,

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or in the case of Alaska,

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from one wilderness to the next.

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(mystical music)

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Kenai Fjords National Park,

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an intensely vertical coastline

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skirting the east side
of the Kenai Peninsula,

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perpetually cloaked in snow and ice.

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Captain James Cook mapped
this coast in 1778,

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but could never find a
place to safely land.

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Scientists have found little evidence

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that anyone ever lived here.

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Pleasing to the eye,
essentially untouchable,

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Alaska at its wildest.

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Today, most explore Kenai Fjords

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just the way that Cook did

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over two centuries ago, by sea.

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Brooks Falls in Alaska's Katmai Peninsula,

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one of Alaska's classic
haunts of brown bears

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drawn to the river when it
becomes engorged with salmon.

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Brown bears, or grizzlies,
can weigh up to 1,000 pounds

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and reach a height of nine feet.

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Their size all comes down
to the availability of food,

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and these feeding grounds
starting in high summer

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are as good as it gets.

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Like any good fisherman,
technique is everything,

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and some grizzlies are
more skilled than others.

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But for even those a
little slower on the draw,

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patience rewards everyone in the end.

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About the time most of America
was first learning to drive,

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Alaskans were learning to fly.

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A land of few roads and vast distances,

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this is a place where people built

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their highways in the sky.

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And on a clear day in Alaska
the routes are all the same,

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somewhere just south of heaven.

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Alaska is known for its bush pilots

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who seem to achieve the impossible.

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They can take off from a pinch of land

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and bring their planes safely down

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on mountain ridges, snow,
frozen tundra, and water.

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For bush pilots, their runways
are all designed by nature,

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and the wings of their planes

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are connected directly to
the seat of their pants.

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(adventurous music)

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(ethereal music)

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00:21:04,038 --> 00:21:07,330
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park,

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one of Alaska's newest
and largest preserves.

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Its size alone epitomizes
the sheer scale of Alaska,

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somewhere just short of forever.

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The highest peaks here
rival Mount McKinley,

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and the physicality of Wrangell-St. Elias

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is not unlike the Himalayas.

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Clinging to the sides of
the Wrangell-St. Elias range

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are the skeletons of Alaska's
great copper-mining past.

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On the heels of the Gold Rush,

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copper was king here in
Kennecott in the early 1900's.

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Nearly 300 million dollars
of ore was extracted

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before the mine became
unprofitable in 1938.

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Schoolchildren once laughed
and played on these streets.

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The town had its own railroad.

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00:22:04,393 --> 00:22:07,908
And now the only thing
heard here is the wind

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through old trestles and timbers.

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(rich horn music)

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00:22:49,173 --> 00:22:54,378
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline,
an 800-mile marvel

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threading from Prudhoe
Bay in the Arctic north

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through three mountain ranges,

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across the Yukon River,

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and down to the Port of
Valdez on the Gulf coast.

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Through four-foot wide
heated steel conduit,

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billions of barrels of black gold

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flow with as much purpose
as any river in Alaska.

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Oil, more than anything else,

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has forced Alaska to examine
itself and all it stands for.

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An often contentious brew of politics,

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money, the environment,
and land settlements,

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it has been a delicate
balance from the beginning,

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and always will be, but the
flow of oil never stops,

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even under the light of the midnight sun.

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(serene music)

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The weather in Alaska either descends

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viciously from the Arctic north,

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or swirls off the Gulf
in deluge after deluge.

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Most of the year the skies
are thick and foreboding,

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but the simple truth is,

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the weather is what makes Alaska Alaska.

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After a long winter of discontent

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there is the spring breakup

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and the promise of endless summer days.

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And during the best of those days

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there is no better landscape
pallet to mix with sky blue.

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Naturalist John Muir found
Alaska's summer weather

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its most remarkable characteristic,

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calling it "a velvet softness
full of subdued luster."

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On the summer solstice
the twilight is endless.

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The world turns golden,

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and moments become hours.

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From the very beginning,

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Alaskans have had an accord with the sea.

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Alaska's rivers spawn salmon
who mature in the ocean

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and return each year in a frenzied tide.

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00:26:54,930 --> 00:26:59,539
The Gulf offers up massive
hauls of halibut and crab.

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00:26:59,540 --> 00:27:03,278
An armada of fishing boats is
launched with every season,

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and the harvest has
lasted thousands of years.

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00:27:07,019 --> 00:27:10,812
But just as easily as the
sea provides abundant life,

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it takes lives with a vengeance.

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00:27:13,215 --> 00:27:16,097
Fishermen lay themselves bare on waters

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00:27:16,098 --> 00:27:20,779
that become angry,
unpredictable, and unforgiving.

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00:27:20,780 --> 00:27:23,913
The accord is not always an amiable one.

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00:27:23,914 --> 00:27:31,914
Alaska's bounty does not
come without its risks.

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(ethereal music)

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00:29:06,570 --> 00:29:08,582
The Copper River Delta provides

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00:29:08,583 --> 00:29:12,010
hundreds of square miles
of pristine habitat,

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00:29:12,011 --> 00:29:20,011
perfect for migratory birds.

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00:29:24,436 --> 00:29:27,378
Every May and September
millions of shorebirds

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and waterfowl move through the Delta,

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stopping briefly to feed and rest.

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Sandpipers and snow
geese, cranes and loons,

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like clockwork nature's perfect storm

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arrives and departs in a din,

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just barely enough time
to call Alaska home.

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(majestic music)

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00:30:48,112 --> 00:30:51,403
The eagle is the proudest
of American symbols,

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and chief emblem of many
Alaskan native clans.

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One native tale is of a small
boy who befriended the eagle.

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His elders chastised the
boy for feeding the bird

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when the tribe could barely feed itself.

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But when times turned particularly hard

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and the tribe was starving,

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the eagle returned the boy's generosity

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00:31:23,561 --> 00:31:25,977
and brought him untold riches

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00:31:25,978 --> 00:31:31,797
of fresh salmon, sea lion, and whale.

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The boy who befriended the eagle

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00:31:33,905 --> 00:31:37,725
became himself the most
revered of figures,

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00:31:37,726 --> 00:31:40,286
a noble chief who taught the lesson

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of how man and nature must
always live in harmony.

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The cry of gold in 1896 by
Yukon prospector George Carmack

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sent tens of thousands
of starry-eyed Americans

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00:32:49,977 --> 00:32:52,994
north to Alaska.

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00:32:52,995 --> 00:32:54,640
Even the mayor of Seattle

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00:32:54,641 --> 00:33:02,641
traded his post for a pick and a shovel.

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00:33:03,419 --> 00:33:07,499
From Skagway gold rushers
swarmed up the Chilkoot Pass

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00:33:07,500 --> 00:33:12,224
and along Dead Horse Trail.

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00:33:12,225 --> 00:33:15,292
A two to three day trek
up this pass alone,

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00:33:15,293 --> 00:33:18,099
some dragging a ton of gear,

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00:33:18,100 --> 00:33:21,702
the hopeful struggled onward
to the Yukon goldfields

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00:33:21,703 --> 00:33:29,703
often in the worst possible
conditions imaginable.

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00:33:33,602 --> 00:33:35,969
The gold rush fever ran high,

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00:33:35,970 --> 00:33:38,127
and its symptoms were backstabbing,

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00:33:38,128 --> 00:33:42,576
claim-jumping, and
downright unlawful cheating.

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00:33:42,577 --> 00:33:45,844
Fortunes were made and
lost at the drop of a hat,

256
00:33:45,845 --> 00:33:50,295
and for two years Alaska
glittered like never before.

257
00:33:50,296 --> 00:33:52,743
But when the gold dust finally settled,

258
00:33:52,744 --> 00:33:56,018
most returned home with empty pockets.

259
00:33:56,019 --> 00:33:59,043
The brief Klondike Gold Rush is legend,

260
00:33:59,044 --> 00:34:00,962
but it would not be the last time

261
00:34:00,963 --> 00:34:05,508
Alaska would be a destination
to get rich quick.

262
00:34:05,509 --> 00:34:10,375
Outside Skagway lie the remains
of its gold rush legacy.

263
00:34:10,376 --> 00:34:13,432
Heroes and scoundrels
return to the same earth

264
00:34:13,433 --> 00:34:21,433
that held so much promise.

265
00:34:56,243 --> 00:34:59,042
Like many boom and bust Alaska towns

266
00:34:59,043 --> 00:35:02,221
Skagway would have probably
folded a century ago

267
00:35:02,222 --> 00:35:05,327
if it didn't have a
lifeline to the interior,

268
00:35:05,328 --> 00:35:13,328
the White Pass-Yukon Railroad.

269
00:35:41,341 --> 00:35:44,301
A testimony to Alaska's determination,

270
00:35:44,302 --> 00:35:46,771
this narrow gauge train is the product

271
00:35:46,772 --> 00:35:48,906
of years of powder blasting,

272
00:35:48,907 --> 00:35:52,500
granite chiseling, and
back-breaking sweat.

273
00:35:52,501 --> 00:36:00,501
It's living proof that in
Alaska men can move mountains.

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00:36:43,906 --> 00:36:51,906
(mystical music)

275
00:37:08,877 --> 00:37:15,116
Frozen rivers slip imperceptibly
by toward an ice-green sea.

276
00:37:15,117 --> 00:37:20,352
Glaciers are the simple
outcome of gravity and time,

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00:37:20,353 --> 00:37:22,712
monuments of ice that can bend

278
00:37:22,713 --> 00:37:30,713
and warp light into
shades of tropical blue.

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00:37:37,072 --> 00:37:40,576
Alaska's glaciers number
into the thousands,

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00:37:40,577 --> 00:37:45,711
and Glacier Bay provides some
of the most dramatic vistas.

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00:37:45,712 --> 00:37:49,149
The rush to Alaska used to be for gold,

282
00:37:49,150 --> 00:37:57,150
but now it is to witness
Alaska's frozen beauty.

283
00:38:58,857 --> 00:39:02,173
Alaska's cool green coastal waters

284
00:39:02,174 --> 00:39:08,184
are home to pods of
orca, or killer whales.

285
00:39:08,185 --> 00:39:12,270
Legend has it that a young
Tlingit hunter named Natsilane

286
00:39:12,271 --> 00:39:16,166
carved the first killer
whale out of yellow cedar

287
00:39:16,167 --> 00:39:24,167
and magically brought it to life.

288
00:39:25,060 --> 00:39:28,475
Natsilane sent the whale
on a mission of revenge

289
00:39:28,476 --> 00:39:31,327
to drown a small band of fellow hunters

290
00:39:31,328 --> 00:39:35,808
who had cruelly betrayed him.

291
00:39:35,809 --> 00:39:37,884
The whale obeyed Natsilane,

292
00:39:37,885 --> 00:39:45,885
and killed the hunters by
overturning their boat.

293
00:39:46,823 --> 00:39:49,774
But once this revenge was extracted,

294
00:39:49,775 --> 00:39:54,751
Natsilane ordered the killer
whale to forever befriend man,

295
00:39:54,752 --> 00:39:57,632
to always be gentle and curious,

296
00:39:57,633 --> 00:40:05,633
a legend that has proven true to this day.

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00:40:41,651 --> 00:40:43,932
What began as a disheveled mining camp

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00:40:43,933 --> 00:40:46,512
is now a polished jewel tucked against

299
00:40:46,513 --> 00:40:50,456
the alpine splendor of Alaska's southeast.

300
00:40:50,457 --> 00:40:53,700
No roads lead to Juneau, literally.

301
00:40:53,701 --> 00:40:57,568
The terrain simply is too rugged
to build inbound highways,

302
00:40:57,569 --> 00:41:01,575
making Juneau a perfect fit
for a state that prides itself

303
00:41:01,576 --> 00:41:06,028
on its fiercely independent policies.

304
00:41:06,029 --> 00:41:07,632
More land protection measures

305
00:41:07,633 --> 00:41:10,603
have been passed here
than in any other state,

306
00:41:10,604 --> 00:41:15,028
so Juneau thrives amidst
its own memorialized wilds,

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00:41:15,029 --> 00:41:23,029
a capital idea.

308
00:42:36,807 --> 00:42:38,978
In the land of the midnight sun,

309
00:42:38,979 --> 00:42:42,969
Juneau is far enough south where
even in the longest of days

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00:42:42,970 --> 00:42:47,171
the nights provide a few
hours of complete darkness,

311
00:42:47,172 --> 00:42:49,573
which means on the 4th of July

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00:42:49,574 --> 00:42:57,574
Juneau can celebrate its own
special style of independence.

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00:43:28,136 --> 00:43:36,136
(majestic music)

314
00:43:46,105 --> 00:43:47,976
When Vitus Bering left Russia

315
00:43:47,977 --> 00:43:50,843
to seek the fabled Northwest Passage,

316
00:43:50,844 --> 00:43:56,906
he found something even
more fantastic, Alaska.

317
00:43:56,907 --> 00:43:59,776
Bering's expedition was decimated

318
00:43:59,777 --> 00:44:02,304
by brutal weather and disease,

319
00:44:02,305 --> 00:44:05,099
but successive waves
of Russian fur traders

320
00:44:05,100 --> 00:44:08,980
established outposts
along Alaska's Gulf coast

321
00:44:08,981 --> 00:44:16,981
and built an empire around the sea otter.

322
00:44:33,475 --> 00:44:35,501
Sitka remains as a legacy

323
00:44:35,502 --> 00:44:41,174
of Alaska's original Russian settlement.

324
00:44:41,175 --> 00:44:43,973
Russia's coexistence
with the native Tlingits

325
00:44:43,974 --> 00:44:47,237
was contentious but
relatively short-lived,

326
00:44:47,238 --> 00:44:50,432
when Russia sold the
entire Alaskan territory

327
00:44:50,433 --> 00:44:54,652
to the U.S. for 7.2 million dollars.

328
00:44:54,653 --> 00:44:57,419
Americans ridiculed the transaction,

329
00:44:57,420 --> 00:45:01,512
but at two cents an acre Alaska easily is

330
00:45:01,513 --> 00:45:09,513
the best investment America has ever made.

331
00:45:43,578 --> 00:45:46,042
If you want to see what America was like

332
00:45:46,043 --> 00:45:50,752
one million years ago, come to Alaska.

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00:45:50,753 --> 00:45:53,779
The Ice Age has never left,

334
00:45:53,780 --> 00:45:57,103
and some parts of Alaska
are still being born

335
00:45:57,104 --> 00:46:05,104
as volcanoes vent fumes and ash.

336
00:46:07,965 --> 00:46:11,569
The forces at work here are primeval,

337
00:46:11,570 --> 00:46:15,174
and perhaps nowhere looks more prehistoric

338
00:46:15,175 --> 00:46:23,175
than Alaska's coastal rainforest.

339
00:46:38,819 --> 00:46:42,466
Here rainfall is measured
in hundreds of inches

340
00:46:42,467 --> 00:46:46,408
with the never-ending whisper
of water over skunk cabbage,

341
00:46:46,409 --> 00:46:49,082
through branches dripping with moss,

342
00:46:49,083 --> 00:46:57,083
down over bunchberries,
ferns, and toadstools.

343
00:47:19,517 --> 00:47:24,311
Under dark gray skies the
plants of Alaska's rainforest

344
00:47:24,312 --> 00:47:32,312
seem to emanate their own green light.

345
00:47:54,557 --> 00:47:58,108
Alaska is America's least populated state,

346
00:47:58,109 --> 00:47:59,576
yet it was the first place

347
00:47:59,577 --> 00:48:02,531
early man set foot in North America.

348
00:48:02,532 --> 00:48:04,227
Thousands of years ago,

349
00:48:04,228 --> 00:48:07,569
populations migrated from Asia to Alaska

350
00:48:07,570 --> 00:48:11,811
across an ancient land bridge.

351
00:48:11,812 --> 00:48:15,832
Those original native people
who still call Alaska home

352
00:48:15,833 --> 00:48:23,833
include the Eskimos, Aleuts,
Athabaskans, Tlingit and Haida.

353
00:48:24,153 --> 00:48:26,159
Those that traveled south created

354
00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:28,897
their own legacies and ancestry,

355
00:48:28,898 --> 00:48:32,383
Sitting Bull, Pocahontas, Geronimo,

356
00:48:32,384 --> 00:48:35,184
even ancient Mexico's Montezuma

357
00:48:35,185 --> 00:48:43,185
can all trace their roots
back to Alaskan soil.

358
00:49:25,181 --> 00:49:27,724
Alaska's Inside Passage,

359
00:49:27,725 --> 00:49:31,899
islands blot the waters and
create a navigational maze

360
00:49:31,900 --> 00:49:36,395
like the last pieces to a
great continental puzzle.

361
00:49:36,396 --> 00:49:40,699
The very first European
explorers of America's Northwest

362
00:49:40,700 --> 00:49:44,556
found the Inside Passage
a complete mystery.

363
00:49:44,557 --> 00:49:46,840
Within a few hundred feet of shore

364
00:49:46,841 --> 00:49:49,644
they could find no bottom to the sea.

365
00:49:49,645 --> 00:49:53,594
The tides would put the most
seasoned captain in peril.

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00:49:53,595 --> 00:49:57,438
The natives feared gods and
deities lurking in the depths.

367
00:49:57,439 --> 00:50:01,828
And there were monsters in
the deep, the humpback whale,

368
00:50:01,829 --> 00:50:06,647
one of Alaska's most mystical
and elusive creatures.

369
00:50:06,648 --> 00:50:09,179
Migrating through Alaska's summer waters,

370
00:50:09,180 --> 00:50:12,772
humpbacks surface for air in tranquil arcs

371
00:50:12,773 --> 00:50:16,654
or disappear completely
in a thunderous splash.

372
00:50:16,655 --> 00:50:19,834
The humpback only is witnessed in moments,

373
00:50:19,835 --> 00:50:27,835
which makes a sighting so valuable.

374
00:50:30,739 --> 00:50:32,578
England's George Vancouver

375
00:50:32,579 --> 00:50:35,828
charted the passage in scientific detail.

376
00:50:35,829 --> 00:50:37,791
Frequently cloaked in fog,

377
00:50:37,792 --> 00:50:41,976
the majesty of the landscape
did not escape his writings.

378
00:50:41,977 --> 00:50:46,901
But even in 1794 Vancouver's
journal describes the forests

379
00:50:46,902 --> 00:50:53,265
"exhibiting the visible
effects of the ax and saw."

380
00:50:53,266 --> 00:50:57,452
The Inside Passage today is
simply the most exhilarating

381
00:50:57,453 --> 00:51:01,182
stretch of water on the
American west coast,

382
00:51:01,183 --> 00:51:03,507
and much of it remains just the way

383
00:51:03,508 --> 00:51:11,508
George Vancouver witnessed
it over two centuries ago.

384
00:51:25,977 --> 00:51:28,533
The towns that line the Inside Passage

385
00:51:28,534 --> 00:51:30,813
are few and far between,

386
00:51:30,814 --> 00:51:33,243
isolated islands of humanity

387
00:51:33,244 --> 00:51:41,244
along an ever-changing coastline.

388
00:51:50,582 --> 00:51:53,708
Angoon, the only permanent establishment

389
00:51:53,709 --> 00:51:58,109
on Admiralty Island is a
purely native community.

390
00:51:58,110 --> 00:52:01,039
A thousand Tlingit residents call it home,

391
00:52:01,040 --> 00:52:05,878
holding on to as much
tradition as possible.

392
00:52:05,879 --> 00:52:09,704
While Angoon has ties to
commercial fishing and forestry,

393
00:52:09,705 --> 00:52:13,309
the true desire is to live off the land

394
00:52:13,310 --> 00:52:21,310
just as their forefathers.

395
00:52:22,517 --> 00:52:26,568
The sea takes on many meanings
along the Inside Passage,

396
00:52:26,569 --> 00:52:29,487
depending on which world you come from

397
00:52:29,488 --> 00:52:37,488
and where you want the waters to lead you.

398
00:52:53,698 --> 00:53:01,093
(tranquil music)

399
00:53:01,094 --> 00:53:04,516
They say that if you spend time in Alaska,

400
00:53:04,517 --> 00:53:06,961
it changes you somehow.

401
00:53:06,962 --> 00:53:09,583
You certainly cannot
view the rest of America

402
00:53:09,584 --> 00:53:11,446
in the same way.

403
00:53:11,447 --> 00:53:14,079
The scale of the Lower 48 is,

404
00:53:14,080 --> 00:53:18,500
well, lower is an apt comparison.

405
00:53:18,501 --> 00:53:22,511
Alaskans know they are
attached to something grand,

406
00:53:22,512 --> 00:53:23,762
and that tacit connection

407
00:53:23,763 --> 00:53:27,859
is carried with them wherever they go.

408
00:53:27,860 --> 00:53:31,843
The sheer proportion of
Alaska has its effect.

409
00:53:31,844 --> 00:53:35,902
This is a place where people
come to reach for big ideas,

410
00:53:35,903 --> 00:53:39,913
to push themselves just
a little bit further.

411
00:53:39,914 --> 00:53:42,603
Alaska demands more of you.

412
00:53:42,604 --> 00:53:46,114
Whether you're reaching for gold, oil,

413
00:53:46,115 --> 00:53:51,076
the finish line, or a place to call home,

414
00:53:51,077 --> 00:53:54,968
that sense of tenacity is
the underlying character

415
00:53:54,969 --> 00:54:02,969
of Alaska's people.