Alaska was a lot of fun. A lot of it was what I expected - sweeping grandeur of mountain ranges and rugged coastline, small fishing villages, and an incredible variety of wildlife. But there was one thing I was not expecting.

Alaska is crowded. It is overwhelmingly packed with thousands upon thousands of tourists. Flights to and from Alaska are completely full, the airport is a zoo (even Newark airport at rush hour is faster to get through), the roads are clogged with traffic, and RVs are everywhere. We visited Homer for a night, which is a town of just over 4000 permanent residents. The town has a spit of land that extends several miles into the bay, and all along the spit are parking lots filled with an ocean of RVs, stacked four levels deep. The occasional area along the spit not filled with these monsterous vehicles were packed with tents.

We chose to camp for the night along the beginning of the spit, where it wasn't as crowded. We set up the tent around 10pm and went for dinner. When we got back, several more tents had appeared, and more kept coming after we settled down to sleep. There must have been four times the population of the town in tourists that night.

Alaska was definitely an amazing place to visit, but I really dislike crowds, so my next visit will definitely be off-season. I don't care if I have to wade through eight feet of snow...