4 Best Sights in The Bush, Alaska

This parkland of 586,000 acres contains an extraordinary living volcano that rises to the south of Katmai. Towering more than 4,400 feet above the landscape, the volcano also has one of the largest calderas in the world, with a diameter averaging 6 miles across and 2,500 feet deep. Although Aniakchak last erupted in 1931, geologists place the first eruption after the last ice age because of the lack of glaciation. The Aniakchak climate brews mist, clouds, and serious wind much of the year. The caldera is so big that it can create its own weather patterns, and it really seems to like the bad stuff. Although the Aniakchak River (which drains Surprise Lake) is floatable, it has stretches of Class III and IV white water navigable only by expert river runners, and you must travel through open ocean waters to reach the nearest community, Chignik Bay (or get picked up by plane, along the coast). In other words, this is not a place for the unprepared or untested. An alternate way to enjoy Aniakchak is to wait for a clear day and fly to it in a small plane that will land you on the caldera floor or on Surprise Lake. There are no trails, campgrounds, ranger stations, or other visitor facilities here, though there are plenty of bears and mosquitoes.

The Arctic Refuge includes one of the few protected Arctic coastal lands in the United States, as well as millions of acres of mountains and alpine tundra in the easternmost portion of the Brooks Range. Hundreds of thousands of birds, caribou, and other animals move across the Arctic Refuge during their annual migrations, relying on the area to nurse and feed their young while finding refuge from insects and predators. The Iñupiat and Gwich'in peoples have also relied on the lands of the Arctic Refuge for their food and ways of life for thousands of years. The Gwich'in consider the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge a sacred place because it feeds and protects the Porcupine caribou herd, which in turn feeds and provides the cultural foundation for the Gwich'in people. The quest for oil in the coastal plain has become a divisive issue that pits corporate interests and proponents of oil extraction against those seeking to protect traditional ways of life for generations to come. A lease sale of land in the coastal plan occurred in January 2021, but any further oil and gas activity or industrialization has been put on hold.

The coastal area of the Arctic Refuge also provides critical denning grounds for polar bears, which spend much of their year on the Arctic Ocean's pack ice. Other wildlife include grizzly bears, Dall sheep, wolves, musk ox, and dozens of varieties of birds, from snowy owls to geese and tiny songbirds. As in many of Alaska's more remote parks and refuges, there are no roads here, and no developed trails, campgrounds, or other visitor facilities. Counterintuitively, for such a notoriously brutal geography, the plants and permafrost are quite fragile. The ground can be soft and wet in summer months, so walk with care: footprints in the tundra can last 100 years. Plan for snow in almost any season, and anticipate subfreezing temperatures even in summer, particularly in the mountains. Many of the clear-flowing rivers are runnable, and tundra lakes are suitable for base camps (air taxis can drop you off and pick you up).

The frozen ash and lava of the 2.8-million-acre Bering Land Bridge National Preserve lie between Nome and Kotzebue, immediately south of the Arctic Circle, one of the most remote parks in the world. The Lost Jim lava flow is the northernmost flow of major size in the United States, and the paired maars (clear volcanic lakes) are a geological rarity.

Of equal interest are the paleontological features of this preserve. Sealed into the permafrost are flora and fauna—bits of twigs and leaves, tiny insects, small mammals, even the fossilized remains of woolly mammoths—that flourished here when the Bering Land Bridge linked North America to what is now Russia. "Bridge" is something of a misnomer; essentially, the Bering Sea was dry at the time, and the intercontinental connection was as much as 600 miles wide in places. Early people wandered through this treeless landscape, perhaps following sources of food and materials, such as the musk ox, whose descendants still occupy this terrain, or the mammoths and steppe bison, which are both long gone. Flowering plants thrive in this seemingly barren region, about 250 species in all, and tens of thousands of migrating birds can be seen in season. More than 100 species, including ducks, geese, swans, sandhill cranes, and various shorebirds and songbirds, come here from around the world each spring.

Established in 1960 to protect one of the largest North American haul-out sites for the Pacific walrus, this sanctuary's 65 miles protects seven small islands and their adjacent waters in northern Bristol Bay, including Round Island, Summit Island, Crooked Island, High Island, Black Rock, and The Twins. The number of walruses fluctuates from year to year, but more than 14,000 have been counted on Round Island in a single day. These giant sea mammals come to the haul-out in such high numbers in the summer that you can barely see the rocks beneath the heaving red blubber. The islands also support an array of birds and mammals, including a large population of Steller sea lions and orca, humpback, and gray whales that feed in offshore waters. Transportation to the islands and permits for the sanctuary are limited, with access generally restricted to May through mid-August. Day-trip permits can be obtained on the island, but camping permits must be arranged in advance. Before planning a trip or applying for a permit, check the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website for an updated list of available transportation options from Togiak and Dillingham.