“It’s the wildness, the vastness and the total remoteness that first drew me to Alaska,” says hiking guide Riley, a hardy Arizonian who’s spent every summer here for the past 12 years. “This is a place unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been – there’s just something special about it.”
It’s not hard to see what he means. We’re kayaking on a lake so still it feels ethereal, and the scene is made all the more serene by the faint hum of birdsong and the calming swish of paddles as they glide gently through the water. To my left, a carpet of Christmas-green spruce trees covers the banks, perfectly reflected in the lake below; up ahead, snow-dusted mountains rise like something from a pop-up picture book, shining bright and dazzling white beneath a dizzying sun.
I stop and float for several minutes, drinking in the cool, crisp
