“I can’t recall exactly when I first had the urge to go to the Brooks Range in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge [ANWR],” Eric Rorer began, “but I think it was when I was about thirteen. The description of this mountain range that was so wild and so remote stuck in my mind, even in junior high. Twenty or so years later, I was working for a dotcom in San Francisco. The company had an IPO that gave me a windfall of $7,000 in unexpected income. I had met a fellow who was a volunteer leader with Sierra Club Outings [part of the environmental nonprofit Sierra Club], and he described a trip he was going to be leading that summer in the Brooks Range. I signed up.
“The trip, in 1999, was to a place called the Franklin Mountains. Hiking through some of the valleys we visited, I had a distinct sense that these places had never been hiked through before. It was inspiring. That sense of remoteness is at the heart of the appeal ANWR and the Brooks Range have for me. When people ask why they should travel there when they could go hiking in the Sierras, or Wyoming or Montana or the other incredible places in the Lower Forty-eight, I say it’s a chance to stand in a landscape that’s truly wild. The Brooks Range is just like it was centuries ago … though climate change is beginning to have an impact.”
If Alaska is America’s last great wilderness outpost, then the Refuge is Alaska’s most dramatic example of untrammeled nature. It comprises a South Carolina–size chunk of northeastern Alaska, abutting northwesternmost Yukon Territory to the east and the Beaufort Sea to the north, and bifurcated by the eastern edge of the Brooks Range. Of its more than nineteen million acres, approximately eight million are designated wilderness. The topography ranges from alpine (four of the tallest peaks in the Brooks Range are here) to tundra, creating a full range of arctic and subarctic ecosystems. Though at times stark, this vast land reveals the richest variety of fauna in the circumpolar north, including all three species of North American bears, Alaska’s largest caribou herd, and year-round resident musk oxen.
“After that first trip in 1999, I was asked if I might be interested in leading trips to ANWR,” Eric continued. “I’ve led trips throughout the region every summer since then, from the far western part of the Brooks Range to just over the border of the Yukon Territory in the Richardson Mountains. We generally reach our point of departure via bush plane, though to control trip costs, I’ve also led trips that access the Brooks Range from the Dalton Highway. Trips generally go fourteen days; from my experience, it takes a solid week of being out there before you get into the rhythm of the landscape.”
Hiking for days across glaciers and tundra with no other hikers for miles can give one a sense of tremendous solitude. Yet on occasion, that solitude can rapidly dissolve. “For several years, we hiked in the western section of the Brooks Range, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Western Arctic caribou herd,” Eric recalled. “We missed them the first two years. The third year, we took a different route. Our hike started right on the coastline, headed straight south across the Arctic plain, and was slated to take us over the Brooks Range and along the southern slopes. On the third day of the trip, we reached the edge of a huge valley. Coming over the crest of a hill, we could see for miles in either direction—and there was a line of caribou extending as far as we could see.” According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the herd totals nearly 500,000 animals, and ranges over 140,000 square miles. Their travels from winter to summer feeding grounds have been likened to the great migration of the Serengeti.
For many, the totem animal of ANWR and its surrounding regions is the grizzly bear. Spotting one of these creatures is always thrilling and sometimes terrifying—especially if the animals display too much interest in you. “The most amazing bear sightings I’ve ever experienced were just outside the borders of the Refuge, in the Richardson Mountains of the northern Yukon,” Eric described. “The Richardsons are extremely remote—even by northern Alaska standards—and the animals there seem as if they’ve never encountered people before. On this occasion, we hiked down into the end of a box canyon. At the bottom of the canyon, there was a major pile of caribou bones. It seemed as if some predator was herding caribou into the canyon and then preying on them. We worked our way farther along, had lunch, and then took a little nap. Our rest was interrupted when one of our participants stood up and said ‘Oh s---!’ Near the top of the canyon, a grizzly sow and two cubs were trying to chase down a baby caribou. The caribou managed to escape, but the sow kept coming down in our direction. We made noise to let her know we were there, and she shot up on her hind legs in a freaked-out sort of way. She seemed to look at us, then got back down on four legs and galloped around. She got up and sniffed the air again, then galloped toward us, making a huffing sound that grizzlies make when they’re agitated. She came within twenty or thirty yards of us, just on the other side of a stream. She stopped, stared, took another few steps toward us, and then took off with her cubs. I’m still not sure if she was being aggressive or merely curious.”
ERIC RORER is a professional photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His photographs have appeared in National Geographic Adventure, Sunset, California Home & Design, Newsweek Japan, Outside, Sierra, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and numerous other publications. In addition to leading annual trips in the Brooks Range for Sierra Club Outings, Eric has hiked throughout the western United States and has a special weakness for the California desert. You may view some of his work at www.ericrorer.com.
► Getting There: Most trips to ANWR will stage in Fairbanks, Alaska, which is primarily served by Alaska Airlines (800-252-7522; www.alaskaair.com). From here, your outfitter will arrange a charter flight into (or road transportation to the outskirts of) the Refuge.
► Best Time to Visit: The most reliable dates are from mid-June to late August.
► Accommodations: The Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau (800-327-5774; www.explorefairbanks.com) lists lodging options in Fairbanks.
► Guides/Outfitters: Sierra Club Outings (415-977-5522; www.sierraclub.org/outings) organizes annual ANWR/Brooks Range adventures each summer. Trips are also led by Equinox Wilderness Expeditions (604-462-5246; www.equinoxexpeditions.com).