I lived in Alaska twice for a total of ten years. The first time, I lived (and graduated from high school) in the Southeast. It's a beautiful place. Don't take a car and then travel on the Alaska Marine Highway. That's the ferry system that goes up the southeast panhandle. Stop in as many of the towns in the Southeast as you have time to. Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, are all wonderful destinations. To me, they're more like the "real" Alaska. The isolation contributes to that feeling.
If you go up through the Alaska Highway (I've done that four times), be prepared for damage to your car. Cracked windshields are common, holes in gas tanks, suspension, etc. It is a wilderness road for much of the distance. The scenery is absolutely spectacular. Nothing can describe it. Photographs don't do it justice.
The Kenai Peninsula is beautiful-well worth visiting. Fairbanks is less scenic, more rustic. Anchorage is fairly large and has all the modern conveniences. It makes a good place to stay for sightseeing, but you'll want to get out of there to experience the outlying areas. There's good fishing, hiking, camping, etc. near Palmer, Wasilla, Willow, and Talkeetna.
Alaska is one of the few places you can go nowadays and actually find solitude. To me that's the most valuable thing about it. You'll be surprised by the numbers of people who go to visit there and end up selling their house and almost everything they own to move to Alaska and be a part of it.
I drove the highway from Edmonton, AB to Anchorage, just about a month ago now. Tented it the whole way to save money. The drive was awesome, and the leaves were spectacular. I was pretty weighted down, but had no problems at all- not even a flat or cracked windshield. The road was pretty good overall.
Oddly enough, I didn't see any wildlife at all after I crossed into AK.
You are correct that photos don't do it justice, and as far as I am concerned it was a 1-way highway.