If you want to feel insignificant, this is the place to come, and maybe that's part of its attraction. You feel it when you're staring at a glacier - and Alaska has more than a few. Or cruising along the Top of the World Highway with nothing as far as the eye can see but the winding dirt road carving across mountain tops. There's more than one square mile for every resident of Alaska. If the same ratio applied in New York City there would be fewer than 20 people on Manhattan.
Oil is big here too.
The Alaskan Pipeline pumps 10,000 gallons of it a minute. The hulking form of Mt McKinley, rising out of Denali National Park, is the highest peak in North America, so big it creates its own weather patterns. But none of this is really evident as we cruise the streets of Anchorage on a quiet Sunday morning. And for most that's the main attraction of the trip. If you think a group tour may not float your boat, think again.