#alaska-summit

#alaska-summit

Bryce Canyon National Park is home to the world's largest concentration of hoodoos, making hiking here feel like you're on another planet. I recommend hiking around the rim to take in the vastness of the spires.

"You don't wind up here by accident; you come here for a reason, and that reason is typically the abundant outdoor adventures and natural resources we have," Nathan Miller, the former executive director of the Copper Harbor Trails Club, told Travel + Leisure.

In a unique and charming twist, this shop is owned by a grandfather-granddaughter pair, Steve Satterlee and Alisa Louangaphay. Louangaphay started helping Satterlee bake at their family-owned inn when she was just four years old, and her love of baking only grew over the years.

Travelers to Alaska have a lot of ground to cover; the state holds 665,000 square miles of land that includes volcanic islands, Arctic tundra, glaciers, and temperate rainforest. Yet in winter, some of the state's most compelling scenery can be experienced in a week aboard the Alaska Railroad. The railroad's weeklong Aurora Winter Train "showcases the best of winter in Alaska," including easy access via Anchorage, a sled dog tour with an Iditarod champion,

When a city or country is in the spotlight, it's logical to expect an uptick of interest in visiting there. Each of the locations where a season of The White Lotus was filmed has seen a corresponding increase in tourism, for instance. Being the subject of news headlines and heated negotiations isn't quite the same thing as being the setting for a prestige TV series, but recent data suggests that Greenland is also seeing more international visitors than usual.

The Northeast Passage was expected to open first due to the Coriolis effect. As the world turns to the east, in the Northern hemisphere, flowing water will veer to the right. Warm, salty Atlantic water flows into the Arctic Ocean through the Barents Sea Opening between Norway and Svalbard, and the Fram Strait between Svalbard and Greenland, then bends right along the Arctic coasts of Norway and Russia.

Recently, Anchorage, Alaska's largest city with nearly 400,000 residents, has just recorded its snowiest January on record. Tucked in between the mighty Cook Inlet and pushed right up against the Chugach Mountains, Anchorage sits in prime location for some serious snow totals. Moisture from pacific storms builds up over the inlet, and thanks to orographic lift caused by the mountains, forces that moisture to drop over Anchorage. Thanks to Alaska's northernly location, that moisture often falls in the form of snow.

In the pristine High Arctic sits the Kitsissut island cluster, also known as the Carey Islands, nestled between northwest Greenland and northeast Canada. The surrounding seas are perilous, and traveling there is difficult even with modern boats. But new archaeological evidence suggests ancient humans managed to sail to the islands, too. Early settlers lived on the islands between 4,500 and 2,700 years ago.

Global warming is thawing the Arctic and igniting a high-stakes race for the riches beneath its ice. Global warming is heating up the Arctic, and global powers like the United States, Russia and China are manoeuvring to stake a claim to the resources under its melting ice. Some experts say the region, once known as an exception an island of international cooperation in the midst of geopolitical struggles is becoming the site of a second cold war.

Decades of successful scientific collaboration could be at risk if Europe-US political relations continue to fray over trade and defense issues. For more than 30 years, Arctic nations have worked together across the physical, biological and social sciences to understand one of the world's fastest changing regions. Since the late 1970s, the Arctic has lost around 33,000 square miles of sea ice each year roughly the same area as Czechia.

He had flown in from Mar-a-Lago and, he told me, was there to observe. The next day, he watched as Åsa Rennermalm, a Rutgers University professor who studies polar regions, sat onstage with European foreign ministers and spoke out against cuts to U.S. science funding. "A leading US Arctic scientist is on stage absolutely ripping her country to the delight of the audience," Dans wrote on X. "Embarassing." He punctuated his post with an American-flag emoji.

Alaska is a hot spot for grizzly bears, easily home to the most of any of the 50 states. There are an estimated 30,000 across the entire state, representing over 98 percent of the United States population. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game manages the population, ensuring that the population remains healthy and grizzly bear viewing opportunities stay abundant.

Following the U.S. attack on Venezuela and the abduction of the president, the Trump administration is publicly saying it wants to take over Greenland, which has been controlled by Denmark for over 300 years.