Teshekpuk Lake is the largest lake on Alaska’s North Slope and the lake is surrounded by wetlands stretching to the Arctic Coast. The Teshekpuk Lake wetlands are likely the most productive and ecologically important wetlands in the entire circumpolar Arctic, supporting nearly one hundred thousand molting geese, 6 million nesting shorebirds, and providing critical habitat…
Where is the best place to watch polar bears in the Arctic? Polar bears have been in the news a lot the last few years. Our changing climate will have a huge effect on polar bear biology, behavior, and long-term survival. This has had people calling us with a desire to “see them before they…
Great herds of caribou are a powerful symbol of the Arctic, and camping amongst them is an experience of a lifetime. But their movements are erratic and notoriously hard to predict making it difficult to encounter this wildlife spectacle. After 20 years of guiding in northern Alaska we have developed several trips to help you…
We had the honor to guide Mario Davalos, a photographer from the Dominican Republic this summer. His dream was to photograph 3 iconic species and their wilderness homes. Over the winter we discussed various options for his trip and eventually settled on three locations where we had had good experiences finding wildlife on previous expeditions….
After all of my years guiding in the most remote, beautiful, wild places, I had still never seen a walrus until last summer. It takes a concerted effort and hours flying to see walrus, but it is absolutely worth it. After searching for the ideal location to observe and photograph Pacific walrus we have found a…
Arctic Wild is offering two trips geared specifically for photographers this summer. If you’ve been hankering to take your camera to the arctic, and/or hone your technical skills you have your pick from two trips this summer, one in Gates of the Arctic National Park, and one in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge….
This is re-posted from our guide David Shaw’s blog Wild Imagination Journal It was August 30. Though that is still summer in much of the country, in northern Alaska, autumn was in full swing. I was guiding my final trip of the season, a week-long canoe trip down the Kelly River. The Kelly is a…
Ok, so I ripped off the title for this trip report from Seth Kantner’s excellent book of essays about growing up in the “bush” in the Northwest Arctic. But I think he’d be ok with it since we guided this trip together, and we were in fact, shopping for porcupine. Let me explain; German cinematographer…
I had the wrong dates in my previous posting. Here are the correct dates for the Washington State Slideshows. -MW February 27th, Seattle, WA Unexplored Alaska The Sierra Club has invited us to come to Seattle and give a presentation about exploring the Western Brooks Range. Come see pictures of the least visited part of…
February 27th, Seattle, WA Unexplored Alaska The Sierra Club has invited us to come to Seattle and give a presentation about exploring the Western Brooks Range. Come see pictures of the least visited part of Alaska and learn about the natural history and conservation of the area. Great pictures. Wild stories. Don’t miss it. For…
Happy New Year. Our best photos of 2011 can be seen in a short slideshow below. We had a wonderful year exploring Alaska’s great wilderness and are looking forward to another summer of adventure. Contact us to start planning your trip in 2012. If you would like a DVD of the slideshow, let me know…
One of the remarkable things about camping in the arctic is the long evening light with rich colors and long shadows. Where else can you watch the sunset for 3 hours, only to watch it begin rising again immediately? Early August is a time between the explosion of spring flowers, and the yellows and reds…
The fog hangs thick along the arctic coast. The flat light and the flatter landscape make it difficult to identify objects. You can find yourself wondering….Is that a giant driftwood stump a mile away or an eider duck at 200 yards? It is disconcerting when you can’t trust your eyes. Whenever I find bear tracks…
I’ll admit that I’m biased towards this photo. I took it on an exploratory custom trip in the headwaters of the Colville River a couple years ago. Perhaps it is a good picture in its own right, but for me it is also infused with the thrill of an unknown river, the excitement of early…
If caribou are a fitting icon for the arctic, then Brown Bears are certainly the symbol for Katmai National Park. Katmai has some of the highest densities and largest bears in the world. We offer a couple of trips in Katmai each summer, including a base camp trip on Katmai’s pacific coast and a canoe…