Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Thinking Alaska?

It doesn't seem practical to move to Alaska. I know it's a nice place and all, but it seems too expensive for what you get. Upstate NY. is a good place to live. You can fish trout in the streams, fish big trout in the Great Lakes, go to Canada to hunt moose, and the ocean is not all that far away. You can bear hunt in Ny and Maine every year , but the deer hunting sucks that far north. I have relatives just south of " The Daks" and they like NY. , just not the politics. There are other great places like northern Minnesota if you like solitude you can find it there, or Upper Michigan. You can be at a decent store in 1 hour to boot. There are a lot of places where you can be alone, but go to town and still have old town America in a lot of ways. Houghton, Michigan comes to mind for fishing but deer hunting leaves a lot to be desired but you can walk out your back door and be on lightly hunted public land. Go south to Wisconsin and you can get in some decent hunting in 2 hrs. Grouse hunting is good too. Not that I care what you do . Seem many go to Alaska and come back. I talked to a guy in northern WIs. that left Alaska . I asked why the heeelll would you do that. He said " down here you can go hunting" He explained , hunting in Alsaka is great but the time and cost makes it so expensive that it is a burden on the pocket book. Here, we just jump out to the truck and go hunting, he explained.

Careful what you listen to. I went to Phoenix one time on a business trip, and everyone I talked to (ok, 95%) wanted to know why the hell I'd want to live in Alaska. It was 120 degrees there. You would start the car, turn on the AC, then get out and stand in the shade (if available) because it was probably 180 in the car. UnfuknReal. Some people enjoy misery and try to drag others into it.

But hey, you don't have to shovel sunshine. You just have to stay out of it because it will literally cook you.

They should have auto start.

Totally agree that its not practical to move to AK at all. Keep passing that word out there.

Of course if I had to choose between TX and NY, ain't no way in hell I'd be in NY either. Hell I don't want anything to do with the east coast period. Just me.

Had fun in school in WI, its a nice state, but if you count in eveyrthign the scenery just doesn't cut it for my tastes.

Anyone that questions why someone would move to Alaska or suggests New York is a good alternative to Alaska in terms of outdoor activities has obviously never been to Alaska......or New York. At least never been there conscious or sober. 😉

Alaska is not for everyone, thank God, but for those that are captivated by her majesty there's no substitution.

Great song that is personally relevant. I've been captivated by Alaska since I was a child and became hopelessly tangled in her web after my first visit there 20 years ago. I'll finally realize the culmination of one dream and begin the journey of the second dream with my impending move. There's no place on earth like Alaska and outside of the cities some of the finest, if not "quirky", people I've ever met.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G7_tHfI1JL8

As far as expensive? My property taxes here in island county Washington are $4,800 a year! That will offset whatever premium I pay up north. Washington has a 9% sales tax and one of the highest gas taxes in the country. For premium non-ethanol gas I pay .50c LESS than I do here in Washington. Beef was comparable in price and a actually a little cheaper for top sirloin and ribeye so there's a little give and take when costs are compared.

458 Lott is big time right. Alaska looks good in the travel brochures, movies and all but the reality it very hard to get used to the cost of living, ccccoooolllllddddd, breakup (which is a whole nuther world) and the fact that you can't really get away from people anyway. Go with what Lott says and just go visit or rent a place for a year before you spend a lot of money you will never get back.

Absolutely. Great advice.

Oh, and don't try and count how many times you will be asked "How long have you lived in Alaska? cus you will hear that a lot. As if the one asking has lived there one day longer than you, they can piss further, shoot straighter, drink more and in general be as stupid as Big Stick.

Over here is not just property tax that's expensive, but food, rent, fuel/gasoline, medical service, dental, and the rest. It's possible that the cost of living is higher where you live (I don't really know), but consider that just a gallon of milk in some of the villages cost you over $6.00. Right now gasoline in Fairbanks is not bad at all at $2.85 per gallon, however. A relatively small house, somewhere around 1,500-1,700 sq. feet in Fairbanks can fetch around $250,00 and more. Property tax for such a house is around $3,300. You have to add a lot of factors to come up to the cost of living in your area. I just looked at the cost of living in Washington, and it's a lot higher than in Anchorage.

hey guys.thanks again for the input.ray,thanks and I understand a lot of the plus and minuses.2 legit,im exhausted just reading that brief excursion and hope you get some longer times away in the outdoors,im sure you do!!!!! hookem the Adirondacks are the other option and still very much in play.a little more congested than when my dad bought our lake house in 1965.he sold in 85 and those 20 years were the best.that part of ny is gorgeous and away from a lot of the far left lunatics from the city and suburban area. rost & aces. its not Alaska but it is still pretty damn remote and peaceful.and between labor day and memorial day only the year round people.as someone said deer hunting is real tough there.you have to go in deep to find them and there aren't to many compared to other places.pretty good bear hunting.i lived in Pennsylvania in bucks county about a 70 minute drive north of Philadelphia from 1988 to 2012 and the deer hunting there was incredible.i had some great farms I hunted and harvested 6 bucks that scored over 150 b&c in that time frame.also great bear hunting in the upstate mountains of pa.record book bears frequently.anyway I'm off topic and sorry for rambling.thanks to you all again.god bless

Upstate NY. Is some of the nicest land I've ever seen. My mom grew up in Utica, NY. People judge NY. cause of NY City and it is a different world. My relatives are conservative people , they carry guns , work hard and are good people. I mentioned Upstate Ny. cause the original poster said the has been there many times and sometimes ya got to take advantage of what you know and realize there is no place on earth that will make you happy, you are happy , or you are not. There are places that will make you unhappy however. Upstate NY is rugged land full of trout streams , smaller mountains and rocks and woods. It was some rough country and beautiful. Cant take that away from the Adirondaks. Small towns here and there. You can be in good moos hunting as fast as if you lived in Alaska , be by the ocean in a few hundred miles, and hunt bear every year. I have not been there in 25 yrs and maybe small towns are not as small. .. . . no , there is no place like Alaska, but even a resident has to spend a good chunk of money to get a caribou. How much for a resident to get a caribou? Several thousand , I bet. Many talk about grizzlies and caribou but in reality the average person can't afford it , even an Alaskan resident unless he lives close by . As for Anchorage, the only realistic place to find good wages takes away from what Alaska what a hunter goes to Alaska for. I think it is just like any other city. NO?? I know that and have only talked with people that were there. I'm saying there are other really nice places where small town America is alive and well besides Alaska .

You guys bring up some valid points. I've always said I could kill more game and catch more fish on the cheap back where I'm from than I can here

It's expensive to recreate here.

But for some, it's worth it. I'm one of those some

Flying, boating, four wheeling it all takes money and time to get out there. Oh but I do love me some out there

If you can get a crown and root canal for $1,500 these days that is a genuine bargain.

Alaska is expensive, so you better have a good well paying job. Many jobs in Alaska pay significantly more than anywhere in the lower 48, much more than the added cost of living. In most parts of the state, big game hunting takes a greater investment in time and money than a lower 48 white tail hunt. Simply put, you don't hunt big game on weekends or evenings.

Most of the state has low densities of game, if you want hunting and fishing paradise via a 20' skiff minutes from home, move to SE.

I know everyone likes to bash Anchorage, but if you want to talk about opportunities close by, I'd venture to say you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere in the world where in 30 minutes you can be hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, state range (rifle, handgun, rimfire, skeet, archery) rock climbing, ice climbing, mountain biking, camping, downhill skiing, cross country skiing, canoeing, kayaking, paddle boarding, kite surfing, pan for gold, see multiple species of big game, have world class views of mountains and ocean, have a great meal, watch the symphony, hit the international airport, etc., Quite a few of those activities I've pulled of at lunch time. Drive a little bit further and you have world class ocean and river fishing. If you're willing to access hunting with your feet you have moose, black bear and dall sheep hunting.

The trail head for this hike is 15 min from my house

I've road my bike around AK, but not lived there. But it seems you want more ammenities than I do at my camp in the UP.

Closer you are to those, more it costs.

The people I have known that lived up there, were off grid. But that is a choice, plenty of towns. Anchorage is as dirty as any down here.

I would think satellite TV, would work 10 miles or 100 miles off the road, being satellite.

If you are just fleeing society, there are rural places down here. Don't get me wrong, I have thought about it. But I also realize it is not for everyone. I wouldn't do it because of an election. I don't have satellite TV down here though.

I was surprised in thee brief conversations I had in bars, that while people hunted, it didn't seem to be the same. In UP deer season is big part of the culture. If you are a hunter, you go every year. Some of the people I talked to up there, were ya I went a couple years ago, went out to some some island. Maybe you have to travel more, though it would seem you are right next to wild life. Maybe if you shoot somethig big, your freezer is full for a couple years.

But I asked about bird hunting, none said they did. I realize this is a small sample.

I'd like to go up on contract. Shoot one of everything, and maybe come home. Maybe fall in love.


What I found interesting, is everyone was a transplant. Maybe 30 years. Yukon, everyone was local.

What you are going to find out is that the posters on here hunt. But we are not the sample. Many people just barely survive and are wage slaves. They make enough to maybe go on a road hunt for moose or hunt caribou along the Steese, Taylor or Denali Highway complete with an ATV. You have to have a real income to get the real things and then get it done while you are young enough to actually do the things that are up here.

Which is a different culture than I am used to. Pretty much any hunter can get a deer rifle, orange coat, and go wander the woods. Plus all the guys that just go to camp to hang out. Schools close on opening day. Jobs shut down. One foundry I worked at, voted to use a floating holiday on 11/15, and shut plant down.