A long desired destination, the 49th State of the USA and once owned by Russia.  Alaska is basically wilderness from top to bottom, right to left.  I visited and stayed in three of the fifteen National Parks; Denali, Kenai Fjords and Lake Clark, travelling by bush plane, train, car and boat.  Each park was very different, from the huge majesty of landscape in Denali to the bleak and enticing hanging glaciers in Kenai.  Lake Clark was like a scene from a James Bond movie when I arrived by float plane, the log cabins hidden in the wooded hillside surrounded by azure waters and snow-capped mountains.  I saw plenty of wildlife on land, in sea and air; humpbacked whales, belugas, puffins, sea otters, seals, moose, caribou, Dall sheep and porpoises.  And then there were bears.  Everywhere bears.