What ‘Alone’ Taught Me About Visiting Alaska

When we decided to spend three weeks roadtripping across Alaska to visit all eight national parks, I couldn't wait to go.

But the more I researched what we’d be doing once there, the more nervous I got.

We were going to Katmai, where grizzlies regularly walk the same trails as people. We were taking bush planes into places you can't reach by road. And eventually, a pilot was going to drop us beside Long Lake in Gates of the Arctic National Park, fly away, and leave us there alone for five hours.

I could plan flights, reserve campgrounds, book tours, and buy supplies like bear spray and bug nets. But what I couldn't plan was how I was actually going to feel once we arrived.

What would it feel like to round a corner and come face to face with a grizzly bear?

What would it feel like when the bush plane flew away, and we were suddenly alone in the middle of the wilderness?

Will I spend the whole trip worried about wildlife, weather, transportation, and everything that could go wrong instead of enjoying where we are?

Jonathan didn't really share the same fears. He’d been wanting to experience places like Katmai and Lake Clark for years and couldn't wait to get there. The more we planned our Alaska trip, the more I shared his excitement, but my nerves grew, too.

So I started watching Alone. Not because I wanted to learn survival skills, and not because the show is even filmed in Alaska.

If you haven't watched Alone, contestants are dropped into remote wilderness with a limited amount of gear and have to survive completely on their own for as long as they can. As I watched contestants react to wildlife, deal with unpredictable weather, and move through landscapes that looked like the Alaska I had imagined, each episode gave me a little more exposure to the things that made me nervous, all from the safety of my couch.

It was one of the best things I did before our trip, because the more I watched, the less unfamiliar those situations started to feel.

For me, Alone became a way to experience what I imagined Alaska to be before I stepped into it myself. So when we did get into a bear jam in Katmai, climb onto bush planes in the Arctic Circle, and watch our pilot fly away after dropping us off solo in Gates of the Arctic, those moments felt far less scary than I had imagined.

This is one of the reasons I wrote Alaska Diaries.

I wanted to recreate the feeling Alone gave me by giving other travelers a chance to experience Alaska before they get there. To ride the bush planes, stand beside the bears, drive the Dalton Highway, laugh through the unexpected detours, and see the adventure unfold before you ever step on a plane yourself.

Maybe you'll read it because you're planning your own Alaska trip. Maybe you'll read it because you enjoy travel stories. Or maybe, like me, you just need a safe way to make an unfamiliar place feel a little more familiar before you go.

Alaska Diaries is an immersive, day-by-day retelling of our 21-day Great Alaskan Road Trip through all eight of Alaska's national parks.

I hope it does for you what Alone did for me!