Join us for an arctic canoe trip in the far northwestern Brooks Range. Here, the mountains fall northward into the Utukok Uplands, birthplace and nursery for 500,000 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 land 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. If you want to experience the timeless caribou migration and have a wilderness all to yourself, join us in one of Arctic Alaska's most remote regions for this special canoe trip. We have chosen this time of the year, as the caribou have just calved, so the herd will be gathered in the Utukok Uplands, then migrating along the river corridor. We will likely find plentiful evidence of their presence here. 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 winds through a vast region of hills, gorges and canyonlands. 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, 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. 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 River is part of the 35-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, set aside for future mineral needs. Get to know it now, and become a voice for its protection, for it is currently threatened by mineral development, as part of the Bureau of Land Management's South NPR-A Integrated Activity Plan. This place is truly wild and remote.
Our trip was named the Polar region "Trip of the Year," by Outside Magazine, featured in the March 2007 issue:: On this 11-day trip, you'll follow the herd by foot and in two-person canoes on the untamed Kokolik River, hiking where wolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers once roamed.
