I'm am looking for information on where in Alaska
is the best place to live to allow close areas
for hunting and trapping.
Thanks

Anywhere is good, depending on what your after. Most hunting has to deal with having the equipment to get there. Ideally an airplane or a jet boat.

Winter trapping requires a snowmachine.

First of all, make sure you have a marketable job skill. Secondly decide on how urban/remote you want to be. Don't think for a minute that outdoor activities here are inexpensive for residents - they aren't. Anywhere you can go, someones has been there and is likely to appear in your camp. I absolutely would not advise moving directly from the Lower-48 into the bush or a village. Culture shock like you won't believe. To pretty well sum up participating in outsdoor activies, you will need or have to have access to a river boat and/or a plane. For example, my partner & I leave on Aug. 10th for a sheep hunt, the plane alone is $4000 round trip for the both of us and we already had most of our food & gear. Our share of expensies for moose camp this year will be in the neighborhood of $500/ per person. That's food & boat gas for 3 weeks.
In short, I would advise that you spend considerable time here, and I'm referring to several summer's, not a 10 day Princess tour and get a feel for what things are really like. Above all, don't move here without a marketable skill.
Good luck.
Bear in Fairbanks

Also don't burn any lower 48 bridges when you leave there. Alaska is hard to explain. I have seen avid outdoorsman not last a year up here and I have seen folks that look like they would be on the next flight out stay the rest of their lives. That includes both the bush and here in Anchorage. You just don't know how you will do until you are here.

Thanks for the info.
As far as job skills i am already working on the slope as an Engineer on a rotation and my wife is a Nurse.
We are looking for a kind of semi retirement.
Was thinking between Wasilla and Fairbanks but buying a house a little off of the beaten path we like our privacy but not a remote village.
We have both trapped and hunted all over the lower 48 for over 30 years.

Thats what we are looking for.

Since you didn't mention fishing at all, I'd say for hunting/trapping locations, the farther you get away from anchorage/mat-su the better. So either up towards Fairbanks, or out towards the Copper River basin.

If you included fishing, I'd say Southeast for sure, and it's still a great location for hunting and trapping. Not to mention milder winters.

The real question is what type of area is your wife interested in. I'd say upwards of 80% of folks I've seen come and go at work were due to their better halves not caring for Alaska.

Well I believe that my wife is the one for sure that will only be removed with high explosives once we get there. She is as much an outdoors person as me in every way. She hates shopping and crowds as well as Wal Mart. Cant get far enough away. The more we are looking into it Glennallen is the front runner.
Thanks for the info.

Look at Silver Springs in Copper Center. Glennallen is a tundra mushy permafrost bug pit.

Kenny Lake is also pretty nice. Sounds like you have enough money to set up at either one.

You might also think about Valdez. They have maritime activities and hunting as well. Their population is declining but it is really nice there when it isn't raining or snowing.

Delta Junction is also a nice area but it is a little windy. They have a majority of nice days.

Fairbanks is more urban. Cold in the winter. Smoky in the summer but we also have a lot of things and are nice.

It depends whether or not you have private pilots license. That what would be the determining factor for me.

Sincerely,
Thomas

If you and your bride are from Louisianna, you better take a coat, a seriously warm coat and get used to darkness most of the winter. You have not experienced cold like what you will see up there.

We live in Eagle, where the Yukon comes in from Canada; been here 11 years and in Ak for 20 years (in sutton in MatSu).

Bear said it right.

You need a job and they are hard to find in rural areas. Wife and I have our teaching certs; one of us can always dig up a job pretty much anywhere and live like kings in rural areas.

Cut off rural communities tend to draw kooky people. About 1/3 of the White people in our town are about half nuts with minor problems but they tend to do well here where there isn't any law enforcement. They don't get locked up for stupid stuff every other week like they do in urban areas. But, they need a place to live too and most are just a little different after you get to know them; and they probably think the same about me in the wash. The Indians are the normal ones but many of them suffer from alcoholism which affects their villages. Personally, I prefer the Local Indians to many of the Whites; more for real.

There is an acclimation process to bush Ak and don't jump in over your head; might head back to lower 48 at break up with tail between your legs. It happens to about half the people that come to Eagle with fantasy dreams.

Try outside fairbanks, or MatSu where you'll have employment; there are many nice places to live.

In rural areas, you need a polaris 6X6, a couple snowmachines, and at least a small boat; 30K for starters if you want to get at local game.

I will never leave Alaska, The mnts, the open country, the Yukon, scream freedom to me like nowheres else I have ever been. And you can't imagine how much more freedom there is without any organized local govt, no prop taxes, and when the state police are 200 miles away and the road is closed. People are forced to work things out than call the law and turn in their neighbors. Hasn't been a murder here in almost 30 years and that guy was drowned by his drunk buddies; everybody carries guns.

#1 Have a job when you get here and that means urban Alaska for starters.

Thanks for all the info.
The cold is not an issue i've been working in it for 4 years now. We have several job offers for her all of the time and I already have mine. Just want to locate our home in the center of the best hunting and trapping areas.
Domt plan on working too many more years just retire and enjoy the outdoors full time. Dont care for crowds or traffic.

I lived just out of Soldotna up the Sterling Hwy for a few years. Not a bad place to live and the locals were decent people. Jobs are hard to find even in fast food resturants, get to know the Kenai and get your guide lisence and a boat...better yet bring your RIVER boat.
After a few years of living there 12 months a year I came to the conclusion it was cheaper to move back home to the lower 48 and pay for a guided hunt/fish trip once a year than to live up here and try to afford it.