Touring the Great North by RV gives you a wilderness experience with all the comforts of home.
It took me more than 25 years to get to this spot. I've been looking forward to the day I would stand and gaze across this Great Northern wilderness since I was old enough to flip through my brother's illustrated Jack London. From the time I was a Cub Scout, I've been hauling packs along muddy trails, paddling boats down ferocious rivers, and collecting insect bites from elbow to ankle, all in preparation for the moment I would first ply my woodcraft in the promised land of wilderness recreation: Alaska!

And here I finally am, on a heavenly spring day near Cook's Inlet, flanked by danger. On one side races a tide so treacherous that not a boat braves its waters; on the other, a deep and dark maritime forest is filled - no doubt - with critters clawed and hungry. It's nature in the raw, just waiting to be subdued by a rough-and-tumble adventurer like me.

"Daddy, can I have a Popsicle?" my daughter interjects.

"Sure, sweetheart, if you've finished your carrots," I say, turning away from the spectacular view out the windshield and reaching back into the freezer. "And tell Mommy to hurry up in the shower. We've got another 60 miles to go."

And with that, we crank the motor and cheerfully move our wilderness experience an hour farther down the Kenai Peninsula.

My first encounter with the Alaskan outdoors has come with an unexpected indoor twist - a 29-foot rolling condominium that is doing duty as my tent, my camp kitchen, and my transportation. Like thousands of other first-time and repeat visitors, I'm seeing Alaska by way of a rented recreation vehicle. The Anchorage airport is surrounded by companies standing by to transfer you smoothly from baggage claim to behemoth camper - scrubbed clean, fully equipped, filled with gas, and pointed toward the backcountry.