This image “Grand Meander,” a Brooks Range river valley, is a great example of the magnificent landscape outside the window of the small plane on this day in late June: mountain peaks and braided streams in broad river valleys as far as my eyes can see. The Arctic summer sun shines intermittently through clouds as we make our way to a base camp location in the midst of the Porcupine caribou herd migration. We set down on a gravel bar in the middle of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the adventure begins! Arctic Wild’s Mission: Caribou 2026 expedition. Here’s the story behind the image.
What follows this exciting flight are six days of living in this vast open country, filling our eyes with long sweeps of hillside covered in grazing caribou, always on the move; tender tundra wildflowers close to the ground; as well as the many challenges of cold weather camping on rough ground! There were things I worried about before the trip that turned out not to be an issue at all, like bugs, which were deterred by the cold temps. Then things that never occurred to me to be a potential problem popped up right away, like crawling in and out of the tent over rocks on hands and knees. Ouch!
Now here in this wild country, the animals are the big draw for our group, and we watch hundreds of them moving day and night across the river valley all around us. The caribou groups are mixed, with bulls, cows, and new calves less than a month old. Sometimes they are walking, and then one of them gets a wild hair and starts to run, which spurs others in the group to follow. Some of our campers hike up to a nearby ridgetop to get a broader view. Other days we explore upriver and downriver of the camp. I get to spend one afternoon on my own taking photos of the delicate tundra wildflowers. I wander from tussock to moss- and lichen-covered stones, and back to the gravel bars, which support an amazing variety of plants. My favorites are the heather and a dwarf rhododendron, which I work up with some digital strokes when I return to the studio: Tundra Heather and Tundra Rhody.
The last day comes around too soon, but the flight out does not disappoint. We spend over an hour heading south before the last Brooks Range river valley falls away. We fly another hour and pass over the Yukon Flats, the mighty Yukon River, and the White Mountains before landing in Fairbanks. I’ve got several hundred photos to play with, and look forward to reliving this extraordinary experience back in the studio. I’m anxious to get started!
Digital Photo Artwork by Alaskan Artist Lillian Ruedrich. Love this image? Buy it here as a 5×7 blank notecard. Or click here to purchase more Unique Alaska Artwork for sale.