Living in Alaska | Where 82% of Communities Have No Road Out

Living in Alaska looks very different once the roads run out. In this documentary we travel the way locals do: from Anchorage's floatplane lake, by small plane to Bethel and the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, north to Nome, and on to Utqiagvik at the top of the continent. According to the Alaska Department of Transportation, 82% of the state's communities sit off the road system. How people live in Alaska's Bush: the plane is the bus, the frozen river becomes a highway, water is hauled by hand, and a whale is shared by a whole town. If you are curious about living in Alaska beyond the cruise ports, this is the other half of the state. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Living in Alaska without roads 02:06 Anchorage and Lake Hood, the lake full of airplanes 04:12 Bush planes and being weathered in 06:15 Bethel and the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta 08:20 The Kuskokwim ice road 10:10 Salmon, berries and akutaq 12:09 Water and the honey bucket 14:14 Village health aides 16:15 Newtok to Mertarvik: a village that had to move 18:16 Nome, gold and the 1925 serum run 20:24 Three myths about the Far North 22:31 Utqiagvik and the two-month night 24:36 Bowhead whaling on the sea ice 26:36 Why families stay 📚 Sources Every figure about living in Alaska in this film comes from public sources: US Census Bureau — 2020 Census (Alaska, Anchorage, Bethel, Nome, Utqiagvik; state areas) Alaska DOT&PF — Statewide Aviation (82% of communities off the road system; 235 rural airports) USPS Office of Inspector General — Alaska Bypass mail AVCP — Our region (56 tribes, 48 communities) Alaska Department of Fish and Game (2024) — Yukon king salmon agreement ANTHC — Community Health Aide Program; Hennessy et al., American Journal of Public Health (2008) US GAO — GAO-09-551 (2009), Alaska Native villages and flooding Alaska DCCED — Newtok relocation; Alaska Public Media (2019, 2025) NOAA / Federal Register — bowhead whale subsistence quota; North Slope Borough Wildlife Management UAF Alaska Native Language Center — Inuit snow terms Alaska Department of Revenue — 2026 Permanent Fund Dividend 🖼️ Image credits See the credits comment below the video for the full list of photographers and licences. Public domain works of the U.S. federal government (via Wikimedia Commons): U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. National Archives, NOAA, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 🎵 Music: Dreamlike — Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under CC BY 4.0 · Heart of Nowhere — Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under CC BY 4.0 · Peaceful Desolation — Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under CC BY 4.0 ℹ️ About this video Narration: this video uses an AI-generated voice (open-source text-to-speech, Kokoro-82M, Apache-2.0). The script is written and fact-checked by the channel; no real person's voice is imitated. Footage and photos: Wikimedia Commons (public domain and CC BY — authors credited in the comments below), NASA (public domain; NASA does not endorse this video) and Pexels (Pexels License). Maps and graphics made by the channel (map data: Natural Earth, public domain). Some shots are illustrative and were not filmed in the exact place described. Facts are checked against the sources above. Corrections with sources are welcome. We update the description when they check out. What would living in Alaska's Bush be like for you? Tell us in the comments. Your next remote place is on the end screen. Subscribe for a new remote place every day. #LivingInAlaska #RemoteAlaska #Utqiagvik