I saw 2 films over the last year on people getting royally screwed by trying to escape into nature in Alaska. Grizzly Man & Into The Wild. Certainly looks like its beautiful up there & presumably it takes a totally Quixotic nature to do what they did.
Did look like the photos of bears were taken from unnaturally close. One of the points raised in Grizzly Man is that the protagonist seemed to be doing things in a very bad way. That is to say he was acclimatising/accustoming bears to the presence of humans when they'd normally keep a major distance away. With the first comment on that page being that bears didn't seem to mind competing for fish with humans I wonder if that process is already too far underway.
Otherwise wouldn't mind getting up there to take a look myself. Dunno if I'll ever get back to the States though. Was there several times as a kid cos my Dad worked for the U.N. in NYC. Ended in 86 for me & he's back in Kenya now.
Stevo