Alaska Magazine
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hiking

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Wildlife & Nature

Designed by Nature

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Arctic Alaska’s mysterious stone walls HIKING ACROSS THE ARCTIC TUNDRA ONE RECENT YEAR, I happened upon an unusual array of rocks, unlike anything I’d seen in more than three decades of exploring Alaska’s diverse wildlands. Upon discovering the piled stones, two thoughts ashed through my mind. Who would build rock walls deep in the Brooks Range wilderness, many miles from any settlement? And why? I knew that during their nomadic days, the region’s Nunamiut Eskimos had in places built “stone guards,” called inuksuk, along caribou migration routes. Intended to mimic humans, the stone gures helped the Nunamiut steer caribou toward areas where the animals could be more easily harvested. But these rocky forms were totally different. Built along one edge of a wide valley bottom in the central Brooks Range, they had been shaped into walls, not widely spaced cairns. And those walls were far too low—from a few inches…

Activities

Chasing Autumn

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Follow Alaska’s fall colors south to Lost Lake

[by Mollie Foster]

As spectacular as they are, it’s surprisingly easy to miss fall colors in Alaska. Once the leaves start changing hues, they only stay on the trees for two to three weeks, with peak foliage lasting only 48 hours in some areas.

Southeast

The Real Ketchikan

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When the tourist season is just too much [by Shelby Huff] BLESSED AS I AMTO CALL KETCHIKAN HOME, the amount of tourists who pass through this town on a daily basis can be enough to drive anyone away. As such, my friend Leo and I headed to the trailhead of the Traverse, a hike along the alpine ridges of Revillagigedo Island. To describe him as energetic would be among the most unhinged understatements of all time. As I watched him run laps around the parking lot, I remembered what my coworkers had told me, “Good luck keeping up with that energy.” That first night, we pitched our tent on a small hill above Blue Lake, and a heavy mist clouded the slumbering mountains around us. Below us, an A-frame cabin—the only semblance of civilization in sight—that had blown over during a windstorm sat 100 feet from its original perch. We…

Western

Lake Clark National Park And Preserve

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Explore glacial lakes and towering peaks Getting to Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, a roadless wilderness of 3 million acres accessible only by boat or plane, is a camera-worthy adventure. Located in the southern portion of the Alaska Range to the west of Cook Inlet, the park features tumbling glaciers and towering peaks. It’s a short hop, flying 100 miles southwest from Anchorage over forbidding terrain before dropping into the small town of Port Alsworth within the park. From there, you can take a bush plane to get you wherever you want to go, with pick up and drop off itineraries that are easy and reliable to schedule on your own or with a reputable guide or outfitter. Along the way, you’ll have a birds-eye view of the Chigmit Mountains, a range created by centuries of geological chaos where volcanoes like Iliamna and Redoubt vent regularly, as well as…

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