In the far southeastern corner of Alaska, Prince of Wales Island doesn't see many visitors, but with the advent of two ferry services it can now form part of an extended loop though the region.

In a state with very few roads, Prince of Wales is over-supplied. Old logging roads make excellent mountain biking territory, but also allow car and RV drivers access to wonderful coves, remote beaches and El Capitan, Alaska's deepest cave system.

Native culture is also strong with several clusters of totem poles. Perhaps the best is at Kasaan, where a handful of poles and a clanhouse sit slowly rotting away in the damp spruce forest. Though they were only built in the 1930, it has a fabulously authentic feel devoid of the commercial trappings found at more well known totem parks around the state.