♪ bouncy mandolin music and hand-clapping ♪ I'm a journalist and I am traveling across the United States of America.

On this journey I'll be visiting some Iconic American experiences.

My next stop is Alaska.

♪ ♪ I have come to the most northern state of the United States, Alaska.

This place is epic.

It's famous for its glaciers, its mountains and its coastline.

♪ My first stop takes me to Anchorage, which is the state's largest city.

About three hundred thousand people live here.

It's a great place to begin your journey and learn about Alaska's Indigenous people.

One of the most popular things you can do here in Anchorage is visit the Alaska Native Heritage Centre.

It's a wonderful place where you can learn about the past and the present of the eleven Indigenous cultures that are here in Alaska.

[native chanting and drumming] Today the Alaskan Native population is about fifteen percent of the state.

Many Indigneous people live in Anchorage but some still live in the traditional villages that have been there for thousands of years.

Many live a subsistence lifestyle depending on hunting for food.

I'm here with Loren Anderson at the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

Loren, tell me about your culture?

Oh, sure...well, uh, (Indigenous Language) I was born in Kodiak and (Indigenous language) That means: I am Sugpiaq which also translates into - I'm just a genuine human being.

And the different cultures here include eleven different groups, right?

The centre represents everyone.

And I think the idea again was people usually lump us all into one major group but Alaska is so immense and so diverse in its environment that, uh you know a lot of us have just changed over time and have different languages and different cultures.

Our parents were, just like in other parts of the world, were punished for speaking our native languages or punished for trying to maintain our traditions and culture.

But today we celebrate it.

We share it.

We openly display it.

And there's nothing to be ashamed of.

In fact we're very proud of it.

And so the heritage center is just a place where we can put it on display.

Wonderful.

So can you show me what these buildings are over here?

Yeah, you bet.

Let's go take a look.

What exactly is this?

This is kind of a replica of what's called an Ulaq, It's a home that you'd find on the Aleutian Islands.

If we were to see a traditional one underground we would walk along the roof.

Until we saw a hole in the ground and then we'd descend down the ladder, which I'll show you.

[Brandy] Wow!

It's very cool.

When you really look at the engineering that goes into the home like this.

I mean we've perfected living in these areas.

We had to become masters of environment.

When you consider that there's no trees.

So how did they?

There's no trees, where do they get these ladders and everything?

Again just driftwood from the beaches, so yeah, with whatever washes up on the, on the beaches - that's like gold.

So you can imagine it's a real commodity just having wood - again, all the things that we take for granted.

Like today we can go to a lumber yard or a hardware store and get these things whereas our ancestors even people today still cherish driftwood.

[Brandy] So what is this?

[Loren] That is a sea lion.

Whoa.

So why do you have a sea lion in this place?

Well this is again one of the animals that we would hunt and we'd use to cover our kayaks.

You can imagine that for clothing it doesn't really feel very soft does it?

No, but it's quite beautiful.

And then above it we have a ring seal.

Someone say would say 'spotted' but no.

If you look at the white portion and you see the ring around the dot that's why we call it a ringed seal.

That's a fur seal from the Pribilof Islands.

This one... beautiful.

[Loren] All right.

So let's head down to the next house.

It's our southeast house so it's Eyak, Tlingit and Tsimshian.

[Brandy, hushed] Wow... All right.

So here we have the clan house or some cultures called the longhouse.

OK.

But what I really wanted to show you in here again is the house post.

So like this one right behind you here is made by Israel Shotridge, a Tlingit artist.

This actual pole represents the Eyak culture and it may represent respect for your culture.

And then a house post we have over here is also Israel Shotridge.

This is a Tlingit culture and it's respect for yourself.

Over here we have a pole made by Joe and T.J. Young.

And this represents respect for your family.

And you'll see that the eagle and the raven, their tongues are touching.

Whenever you see this depicted on like a totem pole it means they're conversing.

They're talking back and forth because again and a husband and wife.

How do you keep a marriage good?

[Brandy] Communication.

Yeah, clear communication, so that's what that represents.

And then the children or the hummingbirds are in their ears right there.

[Brandy] Sounds like a busy household.

Yes.

Very noisy!

And then this last pole was made by David Baxley, he's Tsimshian, and his pole represents respect for the environment.

Respecting the environment is different today than it was a long time ago.

All our items that we made: our homes, our clothing were all things that would go back to the earth.

But today with like shopping bags, plastic shopping bags, we had to relearn what it means to respect environment.

So this again is just reminding us that as native people we have a duty, to remind people how to respect environment.

It's a very timely piece.

Yes.

[Brandy] This looks like it would have been a lot of hard work to make.

[Loren] Oh yeah.

Those are made by a Tlingit gentleman named Nathan Jackson and he's from Ketchikan.

Think of a totem pole like a snapshot.

But just like a snapshot I need to tell you the story about what that picture means.

And so this particular pole means the transference of knowledge from generation to generation which is important to all the cultures of Alaska.

Yeah, and it sounds like it's kind of a really nice metaphor for the actual center.

Yeah.

Because that's what's happening.

Exactly what's happening, because again the kids when they come here they know how important it is to learn something.

But I think the real important part is they start to understand that when they get older that they need to pass it on to the next generation as well.

So it's, it's our duty... it's our job.

That we need.

Once we, what we learned we need to pass on to the next generation.

Beautiful.

[aircraft engine idling] My next stop is the Lake Hood seaplane base.

I've come here to meet up with one of the state's eight thousand active pilots.

Alaska is huge and many people depend on planes to travel to remote areas.

[turbo engine revving] Lake Hood is the busiest and largest seaplane base in the world.

And if you come to Anchorage here in the summertime you can see about five hundred take-offs and landings in peak season.

[Pilot] Clear prop!

♪ Orchestral strings and aircraft engine ♪ So how come you decided to stay in Alaska?

This is pretty much the only place in the U.S. that you could get this kind of flying but this busy as well as this kind of scenery.

♪ continues You never want to go off the beaten trail.

Some people have been known to think well, I'll take a shortcut and they're not seen for days because you go over a ridge and you get lost.

There's places out here your cell phones won't work.

And even some of these valleys will block a satellite phone.

I think we go up Eagle River valley here.

Go over the tops.

Get to some summit views.

And then drop down if there's a lake where we could stop for a bit.

[Brandy] This is beautiful!

I think they count something like three million lakes and glaciers.

It all depends upon how you count them, maybe about ten thousand glaciers.

If you look to the right here, that big snowy valley, that's an icefield.

That's where glacier is going to be born and for that to happen you have to have snow that will last year after year.

The Chugach State Park is really something.

The snow all around just looks so fluffy.

You definitely feel like you are immersed in the wilderness here.

♪ [Mark] These glaciers are all getting smaller.

The one here to the left, that's called Whiteout Glacier.

They used to reach here to the lake just a few years ago.

So many thousands of tons of ice disappeared from just that one glacier.

These icebergs probably calved off in the last few hours at least the dark blue one and then it rolled and rotated as it breaks apart.

[Brandy] In a way it's almost overwhelming.

There's so much around you.

It's not like, oh here's a small glacier - it's like it just seems like it goes on and on and on and on.

[Mark] You can understand why some cultures have, you know thirty words for snow, fifty different words for glaciers.

♪ We're going to go ahead and try our luck at landing on here.

A lot of pilots won't do it because of all these icebergs in the water.

There is a bit of luck involved in picking a spot in the lake where there's no icebergs floating around free.

I think I picked a spot out here up in front.

♪ It's not something you see every day, even in my job.

♪ [Brandy] Wow that looks amazing.

I know that you're an avid photographer and that you love getting out and taking pictures.

What are some of your favorite sites that you've photographed in Alaska?

Well you just never know what you're going to see, right here on the Knik glacier I think it was last year we flew by at a low level and there was a moose on top of the glacier crevasse field, something I'd never seen in twenty-five years of flying.

Has it happened before?

I'm sure it has.

But we happened to catch this moose surrounded by crevasses.

I've seen black bears go across glaciers leaving trails through the snow.

They do that early in the spring.

Flying over eagles, flying over swans there are places you can go and watch beavers swim around your plane.

You just never know what you're going to see.

Well the thing that stood out for me when we're flying up there and I'm looking down is just how rugged things look and different than any other place I've been.

Why do you think it's so unique here?

Well.

That goes back to geology.

So you've got the plate tectonics going up and pushing the earth's crust up and for millions of years and then the glaciers carving into it.

So things are rugged due to the erosion and the weather and the topography and where we are, this far north.

Well thanks for taking me on this journey.

Sure!

Let's go back home.

Already!?

[Laughs] Clear!

[starter motor whirrs] [engine revving] ♪ [Brandy] That is beautiful.

There's nothing like seeing Alaska from the sky.

♪ twangy country guitar To reach my next destination I traveled by train from Anchorage to Denali, which is around two hundred and forty miles.

The advantage of taking the train is that they slow down at some of the most scenic areas.

The average train speed is around thirty miles an hour.

The Alaska Railroad operates five regularly scheduled passenger train routes.

♪ continues ♪ quiet country guitar Inside Denali National Park and Preserve, visitors can only drive their privately owned vehicles into the first fifteen miles of the park road.

I decided to travel further and take the Tundra Wilderness Tour, which takes me sixty- two miles into the National Park.

OK. Caribou ahead of us on the right, right next to the road.

Very important we stay quiet.

Because they are getting ready to cross the road here so when you see caribou with a large rack of antlers you can safely say you are looking at a bull caribou.

And if they have smaller racks, they could be female.

They could also be young males.

The National Park only has one scenic road that takes us through forested areas and mountain passes.

All around me I see wild lands and am lucky enough to see lots of animals like moose, caribou, Dall sheep and willow ptarmigans.

[Driver] Look at the legs, feathered right down to the toes.

Even underneath the toes there are feathers.

So that keeps her legs warmer in the winter and acts sort of like snowshoes.

Keeping them on top of the snow during the winter.

♪ country fiddle I'm with Don Swallow.

He's our guide here in Denali National Park.

Don, you've been here so many times.

What is so special about Denali?

What really sticks in my mind about this park, I mean look, the vastness of it.

You know the, as far as you can see in all directions - no development.

So, total wilderness.

And I think that's really what sticks in my mind about this park.

OK. Tell me what this is?

So this is some caribou antlers.

OK. it's heavy.

And this is what the animals grow over the course of the summer.

One summer, it grows this much and then they dropped them entirely during the winter and grow a whole new set the next summer.

Wow.

And like are these just laying around?

Yeah!

You can come across them when you go out backpacking.

And they get recycled.

So a lot of the animals chew on the discarded antlers.

And if I want to come here and have an experience, what can I do in Denali National Park?

My recommendation if you can get out in the back country away from the road out in the wilderness.

[Brandy] And I noticed that it was so original in the sense that you couldn't drive here yourself.

[Don] Yeah.

So the road is closed to private vehicles.

And again it reduces the impact on the park and on the animals.

And that's been true since 1972 when they started the shuttle bus system.

Well thank you for being such a great driver today and taking us on this wonderful trip because we've just had such a great time.

And I'm going to try and keep the bus on the road the rest of the trip.

Okay.

Good.

(laugh together) ♪ jaunty acoustic guitar When people come to Denali National Park, what they hope is that they see this incredible Mount McKinley behind me, which is now called Denali.

It is the highest mountain in North America.

And today we're seeing it in perfect conditions.

It's like out of a storybook.

In 2015, President Barack Obama gave Mount McKinley back its Native American name, which is "Denali".

It's an Athabascan word, which means “the high one ”.

The mountain is 20,310 feet high.

♪ ♪ drum beat with visual cuts Next I travel to Seward where I board an Alaskan cruise, which is going to stop at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Haines, Juneau and Ketchikan.

Cruising is a great way to explore Alaska because some of these destinations are only accessibe by plane or by boat.

My cruise is seven days long and when I'm not on shore I'm keeping myself very busy.

♪ Mmmmmm...

Cheers!

I even got a chance to meet the executive chef.

So tell me about what you're going to be serving.

What are these wonderful dishes?

Okay.

Now we start with the crab cake.

And these are the lump crab with chili mayonnaise.

This one is a pinnacle of halibut.

This is a fresh halibut that we are getting in Alaska, served with the scampi.

And to finish it off we also have Baked Alaska.

[Brandy] Wonderful.

There are claims that the dessert was created to honor the acquisition of Alaska by the United States from the Russian empire, but this can't be confirmed.

Anyway it reminds me of a glacier.

Mmmmmmmm...

This looks wonderful.

So just go for it?

Go for it!

This is really messy!

Wow, so what's inside again?

We have Cherry Garcia ice cream.

Wow... Beautiful, and then on the outside?

And outside is meringue.

Mmmmm... (chuckles) ♪ Our first stop is Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.

♪ I'm with Emma Johnson.

She's a ranger here.

What is so unique about this place?

Glacier Bay is a really special National Park for a lot of reasons.

It's a wilderness park.

It's 3.3 million acres big, which is about the same size as the state of Connecticut.

And in this whole area there's only five miles of roads.

So that's one thing that's pretty special.

Another thing is this is the site of the fastest glacial retreat witnessed by humans.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, this entire place was covered by ice.

Today, instead of that glacier we have an entire bay sixty-five miles long that is wilderness.

Home to animals, glaciers, plants.

This is one of the few parks the National Park Service that was established for the purpose of being a living laboratory.

So we have a huge number of scientific research projects that are happening in this park every single year adding to our understanding of this world around us.

I understand that there's some sea lions in the area.

Tell me about their lives here?

Yes.

Stellar sea lions haul out on South Marble Island.

It's a nice protected area.

It's an island.

So it's far from the large furry predators that might come after them but it's surrounded by fish.

So it's a great place for them to have good food, protection and grow big and strong while they're out here on South Marble Island.

You know what, Emma, people are going to see you and your Ranger outfit and they're going to think I've always wanted to be a ranger or maybe one day I'll grow up to be a Ranger.

Can you tell me why you chose that lifestyle and what it is that you like about it?

Right.

I wanted to become a Ranger because I want to spend time outside.

And be able to live near these incredible national resources and treasures.

What I discovered was that I love to share it with people.

It is so special to get to stand out in this incredibly wild area and help people see it, understand it and to be moved by it and to realize how important these places are.

So I became a Ranger because I love the outdoors but I stayed because people who come to visit.

I'm here in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve looking at this incredible glacier.

It's known as Marjorie.

And it's a tidewater glacier, which means that it comes all the way down to the water.

It's famous for calving.

So we're waiting to see if any bits of ice fall off here.

(cracking and water crash) You can hear it echoing in the distance.

♪ ♪acoustic guitar strumming One of our stops is Haines, only 2,500 people live here and it has a really quiet quaint feeling about it.

And it's really easy to access nature from here.

♪ Haines is known as "The Valley of the Eagles" because of the concentration of bald eagles that occurs there each fall.

In the late autumn months when chum salmon return to spawn, the eagle population swells to over 3,500.

Bald eagles were chosen in 1782 as the emblem of the United States of Americ.

Haines is home to the American Bald Eagle Foundation.

At the centre, you can see bald eagles that are on display during their daily educational shows.

So you may know this is the United States' bird.

But this is also a really culturally important bird in this area to the indigenous people of the area, the Tlingit people.

(eagle screaming) Now I know a lot of people come here because they want to see the bald eagle.

We have two bald eagle ambassadors here today.

Vega and Arden are two adult females.

They're "protected", am I right?

They are very protected.

They're so protected because they've faced a lot of threats in the past.

Bald Eagles were endangered until 2007.

What kind of bird is this, Sidney?

This is Ollie, Ollie is a peregrine falcon.

He's the newest member of our team at just two years old.

Wow.

And what's the purpose of this foundation?

So what we do here is environmental education.

We have both a natural history museum and a raptor center where people can come to learn a little bit more about the Chilkat Valley and why it's such a special place that needs their help.

OK, so why is the falcon here?

Was he brought in because it was injured or what happened?

So Ollie came to us from a breeder.

He was born to work as an educator.

So his job is to be an ambassador for his species and help me teach people about falcons and other raptors.

So what can you tell me about him?

I can tell you that he is an incredibly handsome specimen of the fastest animal on earth.

Peregrine falcons are regularly clocked at over two hundred miles per hour.

Wow.

And how would he be?

Ollie is two years old.

(falcon screeches) Why is it of all the animals that this is the one that sort of captured your heart?

I'm a big fan of predators.

I think predators get a bad rap sometimes.

We're raised with the media telling us about the big bad wolf and how we should fear predators.

But without predators we see a lot of problems.

Without apex predators, ecosystems collapse.

So I like to be their champion.

I like to take some of that fear away from people.

♪ guitar picking Ketchikan is our final stop in Alaska.

This is a very popular place for cruise ships.

I decided to check out The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show while I was here.

(revving chansaw) I'm so excited because I'm in Ketchikan and I'm with a real professional lumberjack.

I have never met one before.

Your name is Boone Scheer.

And you've won many times.

Tell me what this whole thing of being a lumberjack's about?

Well, so we're standin' in the middle of The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show where we've recreated logging talents that they used to use out in the woods.

Ah, so chopping, sawing, speed climbing.

We've turned it into a competitive sport.

[Brandy] And how long have you been doing it?

I started log rollin' when I was about three years old and I'm now twenty three and I've three log-rolling world titles and I'm currently the 2016/ 2017 Iron Jack All-around world champion.

Now it's time to learn from the Pro.

So I just pull it right over the top of my head.

We're going to let it go at the target.

Y'ready?

(clunk) Can we do it once together?

Yeah, sure, you ready?

Yes.

A'right... You're gonna have to throw up pretty hard though.

One, two... three!

(Brandy shrieks) It was close.

OK...

Think we can do it?

Yes.

I think you got it in you.

Okay ready?

Got it.

One, two, three!

(clunk) Find that inner lumberjack!

Inner lumberjack... OK ready.

You got it.

(battle whoop) Yeaaaahhhhh!

There it is.

Boone, awesome!

Let's do it one more time.

One more time.

Yeah, because that was amazing.

One, two, three!

Yeah...?

Ohhhh.... Kind of good.

That was so close, though.

Okay, thank you.

It's all about the six- foot double-buck saw now.

So basically I'm going to be pulling the saw through the wood, like so... and then you pull.

Okay, go slow, go slow.

Then I pull and then you pull.

I get it.

I get it.

Professional lumberjack teams can cut through this in about six seconds.

[Brandy] Good thing you've got muscles.

How's my technique?

It's great!

You were doin' good, so we're gettin' close to that bottom wood.

OK.... We're gonna drive through.

Yeah!!!!

There it is... That's really fun.

Well I'm so so so happy that I came and met you and you're a real lumberjack.

Absolutely.

Yeah!

Come on by and see us anytime.

I will....!

Thank you, Boone.

Thanks for comin'!

...Appreciate it.

♪ theme music