>>1040321
Go to a national park, or as many as you can. Bring bear spray and possibly mosquito nets. I've heard there are also rafting opportunities. Alaska is my dream trip, Gates of the Arctic National Park in particular. If you go let us know how it is

>There was a large migration of gangs from LA to Anchorage in the 80s and 90s

Say fucking what now?

I live in Kasilof, Alaska, and if you've never been up here I'd recommend visiting Homer and possibly Seldovia or taking the ferry to Kodiak which is rather inexpensive, Denali National park is pretty cool I suppose, Kennicott mines are interesting if you're into historical mining landmarks and what not, Seward and Valdez are both beautiful areas but there isn't shit there really aside from like camping and boat tours which I recommend doing the one in either seward or valdez where they take you right up to the edge of the glacier, pretty epic watching massive chunks of ice falling into the water right next to you, idk I probably know a ton of other shit you'd be interested in too, I've lived here my whole life

>>1040340
All of this, but you should know that you are traveling in the PEAK of tourism, and you will 1) need a rental car and 2) should make some hotel reservations/accommodation plans, because not only are a good deal of rooms filled with cruise passengers, but locals are busy as shit with the various hunting seasons, filling up freezers with salmon, and for instance, from Anchorage to Homer, you'll encounter no vacancy at 99% of properties at least a week ahead of your trip, and all along the roads, you'll witness fishing going on. When you get to Homer, and you try to hire a boat to go do some fun Halibut fishing...maybe you'll squeeze in 1 person on a booked captain, or maybe you won't get on. The boat to Seldovia is highly recommended. I think I did rainbow something boat to get there, because nat'l park service wasn't operational that week.
On the way to Denali, there's a great little town (that inspired Northern Exposure) that can be fun for an overnight, or a longer visit. The mountaineering people are required to stop there and watch training videos, and that's fun. Should have live music at night and a little festival atmosphere there. Also a lot of the tour planes to view denali are there. Along the way to Denali entrance, if you stay overnight at the river cabins or similar, for time for the allday kantishna bus tour, RSVP at 229 Parks restaurant for your dinner before or after.
If you have a tonnnn of time, more than a week, let's say, I will suggest fairbanks is skippable, and doing a glacier walk and an overnight in the Mat-Su valley is preferable. Drive the highway, ride some rapids, and enjoy a day picking blueberries. This can be done right out of anchorage.
Among the Seward boat tours, the longer one sees more wildlife, and the shorter one sees more glaciers. Depends on your time. Both are nice.

I've lived in Palmer Alaska for 19 years
I want to leave because I have done everything worth doing except going to the villages

tho if i recomened some generic white boy stuff to do
go to homer and take a boat to go halibut fishing
go to the Alaska state fair in august
go to senshi con in september
camp in my hometown of Soldotna
visit native villages and check out their customs
go to our festivals
go to the Seward meridian
go to the sea life center
go to Denali National Park
if you go to anchorage never walk around too much, there are a lot of violent homeless people
Anchorage has some A+ restraunts

I hop you have a good time in this beautiful state

>>1040340

>>1040352
Soldotna represent! my hometown too haha

>>1040321
Buy milepost on amazon. Or digital version. It's all you need to know on the road while driving around.

You used to be able to hit up the tourist info booth in anchorage or the airport for ideas and reservations, but Alaska is full now, dude. It's hot tourist popularity for a few years now. Thank Deadliest Catch and the other 25 alaska shows on cable TV. It's got a tourists coming out its ears, and people buying second homes. And, there are now restrictions that limit cruise ships allowed each week on the maritime highway to save the whales,so they got larger with more balconies instead, so there's more land tours going on with thousands more. Seward is hard to get a room, as is Anchorage.

>>1040321
Take the train to Seward and go do one of the national park boat tours (best couple hundred bucks I've ever spent).

Also eat reindeer hotdogs.

>>1040321
>probably in the Anchorage or Juneau areas
Are you driving, flying or cruising? You do realize Juneau isn't easily accessible without a boat or plane, right? There's like 3 Alaskas, the one accessible by roads, the maritime highway portion (where Juneau is), and the remote personal plane kind of homesteads, and it's pricey to do all 3 in the same trip. Just FYI.

>>1040373
I'm aware. I forgot to say "either". While I would love to go to both, it's starting to sound like there is a little more to do in the area surrounding Anchorage.