When autumn arrives in the arctic, the Brooks Range and the surrounding tundra transform into a kaleidoscope of red, gold, orange, purple, and green. Photographers can hardly sleep this time of the year, as there is so much to focus the lens upon. The macro lens is busy on the tiny details of tundra, while the telephoto focuses on wildlife moving conspicuously through the landscape - caribou, having shed their velvet, migrate southward, moose go into rut, grizzly forage on plump ground squirrels and blueberries, Dall sheep move in scattered groups over precipitous crags.

Our fall base camp adventure comes at a time when the Western Arctic and Porcupine caribou herds, stately in their thick coats, have fattened up for the long winter. 'Night' has barely begun to return to the north, and on clear nights, we may see the faint beginnings of the Aurora Borealis dance across the sky. With the help of a competent bush pilot, we place ourselves along the southward migration route of the herd, and we experience firsthand the pulse of life in the north. With luck, we see bands of caribou stream through the valley--often thousands of caribou throughout our stay. The terrain offers unlimited opportunities for hiking. Surrounded by rugged mountains, you set the pace for your enjoyment on this trip, be it hiking, photography, wildlife observation,
or simply enjoying the peace and silence of a truly wild place.

This mini-expedition offers great flexibility in terms of interests you'd like to pursue, and even our exact destination. We may visit a small Gwich'in village en route to the Arctic Refuge, or an Inupiat village on the Arctic coast at trip's end. Each village offers a unique cultural perspective--the Athapaskan "caribou" people of the boreal fores, and the Inupiat whaling culture along the Beaufort Sea. We take a spectacular bush plane flight over the Brooks Range or arctic coastal plain to a location along the caribou migration route. Often, we camp at the edge of the Brooks Range foothills.

This year's expedition to Gates of the Arctic takes us from Fairbanks to the frontier settlement of Bettles, above the Arctic Circle, and by floatplane on a spectacular flight over the Brooks Range into the wilderness. We set up on the Arctic Divide, where the nexus of north and south-flowing river valleys provide natural travel corridors for the migration.