If you think N.J. is weird and expensive, spend a couple of weeks in the 49th state

The sun didn't set until after 10 p.m. in Anchorage during our Alaska vacation, Aug. 1-15. We came out of the movies in an Anchorage mall at 10 minutes to 10 p.m. on Aug. 12 to see this mountain aglow -- and a landscaping crew working nearby.

Alaska likely offers more natural beauty than any other state -- panoramas of mountains, volcanoes, glaciers, rivers, lakes and wildlife that make you feel as if you are part of a PBS "Nature" program as it is being filmed.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Just about everything costs more in Alaska.

A gallon of regular gasoline for our rental car was selling for $3.19.9 cents, and outside Anchorage, you'd have to pay $3.49.9 cents -- this in a state with billions of barrels in oil reserves.

Yet, we saw more big, gas-guzzling SUVs and pickups than any other vehicle.

Although Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrids and 4-wheel-drive Subarus also are popular, Anchorage, the biggest city with about 298,000 people, has only two electric-charging stations, one of them at a Ford dealer. 

I saw only one all-electric car, a Tesla Model X, and no homes or buildings with solar panels.

Meanwhile, officials in the city and borough of Juneau, the state capital, announced they will use $1.5 million in federal funds to buy an electric bus, but it won't replace a polluting diesel-powered transit bus until 2022.

That's what I call a glacial pace.

Eating out 

When we wanted to take a break from the complimentary buffet breakfast at our hotel, the Hyatt House in Anchorage, my wife and I spent $30 to $45 for that first big meal of the day, plus a tip (we don't eat fast food). 

Lunches for 2 cost about $50, and in fine-dining restaurants, 2-course dinners of wild Alaskan salmon, halibut, rockfish, shrimp or crab with wine or beer easily topped $100, again before the tip.

Low taxes

The port city of Anchorage doesn't have a sales tax, and Alaskans don't pay any income or statewide sales tax, so we wondered what essential services they forgo. 

For example, I hardly ever saw recycling bins in public places outside Denali National Park and Preserve, home of North America's highest peak.

Large junk yards filled with rusting vehicles, tractors and machinery aren't shielded from the road, and one Alaskan we met said homeowners can't get rid of their old cars, which is why we saw so many of them left to rot away in front yards. 

Costco, Sam's Club

And prices have always been high, according to our driver/guide on the Anchorage Trolley Tour who noted the opening of the first Costco Wholesale in 1984 lowered the cost of living in the city. 

In fact, the closing of another discount bulk retailer,  Sam's Club, in Fairbanks, Alaska, "was a thunderclap and a symbol of an anxious new economic chapter for the state," The New York Times reported this month.

"What comes next?" said Christina Wright, who runs a business, Cakes by Christina, from her Fairbanks home and saw the price of ingredients increase by 30 percent" after the store closed at the end January, The Times said. 

Luckily for Fairbanks residents, Costco will move into the space left vacant by Sam's Club, a competitor, later this year, adding a third Costco warehouse and gas station to the two in Anchorage.

Losing population

The most startling statistic I saw about Alaska as I was planning our vacation is how few people live in a state that is 2.5 times bigger than Texas.

In fact, more people live in insanely congested Bergen County, N.J. (about 948,000) than in Alaska (about 740,000), which shares a border not with Washington State but with Canada.

Of course, that's why residents of the 49th state refer to the continental U.S. as the "lower 48."

Unemployment, at 7.1%, is the highest in the nation, according to The Times, and more people have moved out in the last 5 years than have moved in -- for the first time since World War II.

That certainly explains all the Alaskans we saw trying to catch wild salmon in rivers and streams, including Ship's Creek in Anchorage, where it would be so much easier to buy beautifully trimmed fillets of fresh Sockeye or Red Salmon at Costco for $9.99 a pound, and pick up a can of Bear Repellent while you're there.

'That's Alaska'

Every time our guides offered a gee-whiz fact about Alaska they usually ended with, "That's Alaska" or "It's the Alaska Way."

For example, we were told repeatedly as we passed lakes filled with single-engine planes on floats that many Alaskans have pilot's licenses to reach towns and villages, including Juneau, that are off the road system and accessible only by air or ferry. 

We even saw one section of Anchorage, which sprawls over 1,706 square miles, with single-engine planes tied up behind houses on a large grassy strip residents use as their runway.

Now, that's Alaska.

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See: Don't take American Airlines to Alaska

We took an Alaska Railroad sightseeing train to the port of Whittier, where we boarded a 26-glacier cruise. This blue iceberg was one of the eye openers. But don't forget a warm jacket, if you go out on deck to snap photos. On the way back to Anchorage, the train crew alerted us to a pod of Beluga Whales that seemed to be keeping pace with us.

We saw the most wildlife on an 8-hour Tundra Wilderness Tour in Denali National Park, but got closest to this moose and her calf (not shown) while walking in Kincaid Park in Anchorage.

A caribou framed by a wild flower called fireweed, above, and a red fox, below, in Denali National Park.

One of the views from an Alaska Railroad sightseeing train with dome cars that took us to a rail station near the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge, a luxury hotel outside the national park. Each dome car has a bartender, and tasty lunches are served on the lower dining level, photos below.

I asked for a Seafood Salad Sandwich with the bread on the side ($14.95), and drank Kodiak Brown Ale from the Midnight Sun Brewing Co. in Alaska ($7.25), below.

Our sightseeing train crossing a trestle bridge.