Exploring rural Alaska: travel off the beaten path for a trip of a lifetime.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa

To most people down south, Alaska is about as rural as it gets-towering mountains, more than 6,000 miles of rugged coastline, its largest city numbering less than 262,000 people.

Yet to those who live in the state, or travelers who want to venture far beyond the beaten path, there is even more remote territory to explore beyond the 49th state's more metropolitan areas. A growing number of tourists are hoping to go beyond Alaska's more well-known destinations to explore its furthest reaches true rural country that until now was only the territory of Alaska's indigenous cultures and the birds and beasts of the Last Frontier.

Linda Bustamante of PenAir says that her company has been seeing an increase in the number of passengers hoping to visit more exotic locales. "Overall, our numbers are up from last year," she says of the airline that is the primary carrier for passengers to Southwest Alaska, serving cities including Unalakleet, Aniak, King Salmon, Cold Bay, Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, St. Paul and St. George.

SCENIC SOUTHWEST: A BIRD LOVER'S PARADISE

Southwest Alaska is a true haven for those who are looking for a one-of-a-kind rural adventure. Accessible only by air or water, it encompasses five sub regions that make up an area of more than 62,000 square miles. Its roughly 50 communities have a combined population of roughly 30,000 residents--less people than it takes to fill a football stadium on the East Coast.

Visitors to Southwest Alaska can choose to travel to any of its remote areas, located on the Alaska Peninsula, Aleutian Chain, Bristol Bay, Kodiak Island and the Pribilof Islands. "The Pribilof Islands are a bird lover's paradise," explained Bustamante. "The islands are home to sea birds including puffins, anklets, murres and rare, red-legged Kittiwakes."

Jolene Lekanof, tour director for TDX Corp., says that this wealth of rare species attracts a special type of tourist to St. Paul Island. "Eighty percent of the people we see coming here are hard-core birders," she explained. "The other 20 percent are generalists and photographers."

About 250 to 300 people visit St. Paul each year, most coming to see the Asian migrant and vagrant birds that are usually found in Russia and Asia. "They get blown off course and end up here," said Lekanof of the island that is located 450 miles east of Russia and 850 miles west of Anchorage, "And it's cheaper to come to St. Paul to see them than to fly to Siberia."

The cost of a three-day stay, which...