The sheer variety of wildlife and nature in Alaska is quite astonishing. I always naively thought of it as cold tundra region all around the year. But if you go there during the summer, it's one colorful place!

Denali National Park

If you go to Denali Nation Park around August-September, you can see the snow tops of the mountains reduced quite a bit. It almost looks like an ice cream sunday just dripping down

Denali National Park

And all the melting snow forms some lovely rivers flowing downhill

Denali National Park

Some parts on the way to Denali look really surreal with black sand and calm waters

Denali National Park

It's so peaceful everywhere that you might be tempted to just move here do some fishing, relax and chill out like these people

Denali National Park

While hiking around in the park, you can spot a lot of wildlife like moose, bears and even wolves. We saw some bears and moose. Here you can see a mama bear with it's cubs. If you are planning to hike a long distance, buy some bear spray just in case. We only remembered to get one when we saw actual bears in the mountains, don't be dumb like us

Denali

One of the fun things to do is to take a plane ride to the glaciers. Since Alaska is almost half the length of United States, flying is the usual way to getting around for people here.

Denali

The plane swoops very close to the ice so you can see the almost race track looking path that the glaciers moved through

Denali

From the top, it's a breathtaking view of all the glacier paths. The snow and glaciers slide down the mountains leaving an almost artificial looking trail If the weather is good, the plane can actually land on the glacier. Someone put some skis on a plane's landing gear and attempted to land on ice. After some success then, people here have now perfected the art of glacier landing

Denali

The top of Denali, which is the highest mountain peak in North America, is just as spectacular

Denali

Heading back to the landing area, the landscape starts getting more liquid than solid water.

Denali

It's not all tiny water streams though, there are some massive water basins that help create the dense forrest for those grizzly bears If you zoom in far enough, I'm sure you might find a grizzly bear catching a wild salmon swimming upstream

Denali

There also seems to be enough gaps in the forrest for the wolves to hunt down some moose

Denali

It's only after I landed did I get to see some of Alaska's advance weather tools

Seward

Another thing to do in Alaska is whale watching. They have some massive whales here that love to jump out of the water quite often. Although being quite unpredictable where they might pop up, it's hard to get a good pic of them.

Seward

You also will get to see some diving seals

Seward

The boat will take you really up close to different glaciers and you can actually see them crack out and fall into the water. They make a surprisingly loud noise while breaking off.

Seward

Walking in through the forrest is also fun. All the colors and light keeps you motivated to keep going ahead

Denali National Park

All in all Fall is a great time to visit Alaska. The colors of Fall is a must see. Another thing that Alaska is known for is the Northern lights. Head to Fairbanks for better chance to catch it.

If you are a food adventurist you can try the Alaskan moose turd tea. I'm guess they got the idea from Kopi Luwak, the civet turd coffee. Made famous in the movie Bucket list. You can checkout the Gili Islands blog look at some Kopi Luwak