Visions Service Adventures

The largest state with a landmass one-fifth the contiguous United States has half the world's active volcanoes and more than half the planet's glaciers. Untouched wilderness stretching to the horizon; mountains not viewed so much as experienced; magnificent wild creatures. Because the Alaska sun never truly sets in July, the deep night skies stay like early evening dusk.

Culturally diverse, Alaskans overall are self-reliant and individualistic. Ingenuity and resourcefulness are intrinsic to life in this formidable land so far removed in location and attitude that Alaskans refer to everywhere else as simply "outside".

Since 1995 VISIONS groups have lived and worked in Athabaskan native villages arrayed along the western edge and north of the Wrangell Mountains - northeast of Anchorage, southeast of Fairbanks. These villages typically are accessed by turning off Highway 2 and then driving from two to 24 miles into the village. The drive from Fairbanks, our arrival and departure point, along the Alaska Range over several rivers and the Alaska Pipeline potentially offers your first glimpse of moose and caribou.

Service in Alaska is a unique mix of carpentry elements. With hammers and power drills, circular saws and shovels, anything from building bridges to re-building wood plank trails to milling lumber is possible. Past participants have built bridges and playgrounds, community buildings and outdoor basketball courts, wood plank trails, smoke houses and more. We often organize summer day camps for the children.

On day hikes to mountain peaks and backpacking trips inside the Wrangell's dramatic vistas, spectacular wildflowers, and wildlife viewing will take your breath away. With St. Elias Alpine Guides, we walk on and inside the Root Glacier and climb its ice faces. We tour the ghost town of McCarthy on the edge of Kenicott, once home to the richest copper mines in the world and now an abandoned collection of immense mining equipment and brooding structures.

You will be immersed in the daily lives of our Athabaskan hosts. Visits with village elders are daily occurrences. Play basketball with local kids. Enjoy a picnic laid out with everything from potato salad to smoked salmon and rabbit, hot dogs to moose and fry bread. Learn how to clean and cook salmon in the traditional way. Seek out village elders and spend a quiet evening learning beadwork while listening to stories of life in Alaska. Ladle water onto hot rocks in an Athabaskan steam bath.