35 - Cassier RV Park, Kitwanga, British Columbia
We decided to skip our stop in Hyder Alaska. We would have had to cross into the US and back into Canada to continue our trip. With our COVID we did not want to chance getting quarantined in either place.
Not much to see so back to interesting facts ......
Interesting facts about the state of Alaska
Alaska is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., it borders the Canadian province of British Columbia and the Yukon territory to the east; it also shares a maritime border with the Russian Federation's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug to the west, just across the Bering Strait. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort seas of the Arctic Ocean, while the Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest.
At 663,268 square miles in area, Alaska is by far the largest state in the United States and is more than twice the size of the second-largest U.S. state, Texas. Alaska is the seventh largest subnational division in the world, and if it was an independent nation would be the 16th largest country in the world, as it is larger than Iran.
Approximately half of Alaska's residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. The state capital of Juneau is the second-largest city in the United States by area, comprising more territory than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware.
What is now Alaska has been home to various indigenous peoples for thousands of years; it is widely believed that the region served as the entry point for the initial settlement of North America by way of the Bering land bridge. The Russian Empire was the first to actively colonize the area beginning in the 18th century, eventually establishing Russian America, which spanned most of the current state.
The indigenous population of Alaska is proportionally the highest of any U.S. state, at over 15 percent. Close to two dozen native languages are spoken, and Alaskan Natives exercise considerable influence in local and state politics.
ROADS
Alaska has few road connections compared to the rest of the U.S. The state's road system, covering a relatively small area of the state, linking the central population centers and the Alaska Highway, the principal route out of the state through Canada. The state capital, Juneau, is not accessible by road, only a car ferry; this has spurred debate over decades about moving the capital to a city on the road system or building a road connection from Haines. The western part of Alaska has no road system connecting the communities with the rest of Alaska.
The Interstate Highways in Alaska consists of a total of 1,082 miles. One unique feature of the Alaska Highway system is the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, an active Alaska Railroad tunnel recently upgraded to provide a paved roadway link with the isolated community of Whittier on Prince William Sound to the Seward Highway about 50 miles southeast of Anchorage at Portage. The tunnel is the longest combination road and rail tunnel in North America.
MOUNTAINS
Of the 20 highest peaks in the United States, 17 are in Alaska. Denali, the highest peak in North America, is 20,320 ft. above sea level. Denali, the Indian name for the peak, means "The Great One."
WATER BODIES
The Yukon River, almost 2,000 miles long, is the third longest river in the U.S. There are more than 3,000 rivers in Alaska and over 3 million lakes. The largest, Lake Iliamna, encompasses over 1,000 square miles.
GLACIERS
Alaska has an estimated 100,000 glaciers, ranging from tiny cirque glaciers to huge valley glaciers. There are more active glaciers and ice fields in Alaska than in the rest of the inhabited world. The largest glacier is the Malaspina at 850 square miles. Five percent of the state, or 29,000 square miles, is covered by glaciers.
COASTLINES
Alaska has 6,640 miles of coastline, longer than all the other U.S. states combined and, including islands, has 33,904 miles of shoreline.
VOLCANOES
There are more than 70 potentially active volcanoes in Alaska. Several have erupted in recent times. The most violent volcanic eruption of the century took place in 1912 when Novarupta Volcano erupted, creating the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes which is now part of Katmai National Park.
EARTHQUAKES
On March 27, 1964, North America's strongest recorded earthquake, with a moment magnitude of 9.2, rocked central Alaska. Each year Alaska has approximately 5,000 earthquakes, including 1,000 that measure above 3.5 on the Richter scale. Of the ten strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the world, three have occurred in Alaska.
MISC
The name Alaska is derived from an Aleutian word alaxsxaq which literally means the “object toward which the action of the sea is directed". The Russians called it Aleyska.
On July 7, 1958, the U.S. Congress voted to admit Alaska into the Union as the 49th state, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the proclamation on January 3, 1959.
STATE BIRD Willow ptarmigan
STATE FLOWER Forget-me-not
The Alaska State Flag was designed by Benny Benson, age 13, of Seward and selected from among roughly 700 entries in a 1927 contest. The first flag made based on Benny's design was made of blue silk and appliquéd gold stars. It was retained as the state flag at Statehood in 1959.