Join us on one of a pair of extremely remote (even by Alaskan arctic standards) rivers in the far northwestern Brooks Range. Paddle a beautiful river, experience the timeless caribou migration and have a wilderness all to yourself in one of Alaska's most remote regions. Here, the mountains fall northward into the Utukok Uplands, birthplace and nursery for 377,000 caribou comprising the Western Arctic herd. The region is like the Great Plains of 250 years ago; the land is vast, and caribou pour across the tundra like streams of water. This rolling and rugged landscape is a true sanctuary for arctic flora and fauna.

In early June, the land explodes with life. We have chosen this time of the year, as the caribou have just calved; the herd will be gathered in the Utukok Uplands, then migrating along the river corridors. On past trips, we've encountered thousands of caribou--bulls, cows, and small calves. Female caribou drop their antlers around the time they give birth. In places the tundra is littered with lovely antlers of all shapes and sizes.

The Kokolik and Kukpowruk rivers wind through a vast region of sweeping ridges and steeply folded valleys, with gorges and canyonlands reminiscent of the American Southwest. Rich in archeology and paleontology, the area escaped the last Continental Ice Age. Herds of woolly mammoth, saber-toothed tigers, and horses roamed these lands when much of the rest of North America lay beneath glaciers. Today, we find evidence of their existence in eroding cutbanks, along with archeological evidence of hunters of the Arctic Small Tool tradition.

If the paleontology doesn't grab your interest, the wildlife will. We find caribou, grizzly bears, muskoxen, wolverine wolves, and a host of waterfowl and raptors. This land is quiet and huge, offering total immersion in wilderness. Days are spent paddling or hiking, or just enjoying the vastness of the landscape, the miniature details of the tundra. Each hill opens up a sweeping vista; each bend in the river may reveal another passage of caribou. For those with a truly adventurous spirit, desirous of seeing lots of wildlife, this is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

The Kokolik and Kukpowruk rivers are part of the 35-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, set aside in 1923 for future mineral needs. Get to know the region now, and become a voice for its protection, for it is threatened by mineral development, as part of the Bureau of Land Management's NPR-A Integrated Activity Plan, fast-tracked by the Bush Administration.

Our Kokolik River trip was named the Polar region "Trip of the Year," by Outside Magazine, featured in the March 2007 issue: On this 10-day trip, you'll follow the herd by foot and in tandem canoes on the untamed Kokolik River, hiking where wolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers once roamed.