A land of extremes, Alaska is the largest state, one-sixth the size of the entire continental United States. Its coastline is the longest of the states, its mountains the highest and its climate the coldest in the country. Since all of the state is considered north, Alaska's far north literally means the region above the arctic circle.
Although Alaska is renowned for its snowy winters, its north coast is cold and dry, essentially a frozen desert. The land north of the Brooks Range--the north end of the Rocky Mountain formation--has less snowfall than central Alaska, but arctic conditions produce average winter temperatures of around -20 degrees. Summer temperatures can reach 90 degrees.
Because the earth rotates the sun on a tipped axis, the area near the north pole has long days in summer and long nights in winter. Alaska is known as the land of the midnight sun. Its northern region receives 24 hours of sunlight for a month around the June summer solstice and a month of darkness in December. Much of the winter is dark and severe, while summers are short, light and mostly cool.
Oil workers joke that there is a woman behind every bush on the North Slope, since there are very few of either to be seen. Flat, treeless arctic tundra covers much of the land north of the Brooks Range. A boreal forest extends from the mountain slopes into the foothills.
About 900,000 caribou roam Alask's far north, preferring the treeless tundra. The Western Arctic caribou herd, about 450,000 strong, migrates through the Noatak National Preserve in Alaska's northwest. The Porcupine caribou herds pass through the northeast, in groups of more than 160,000 animals. When the Alaska pipeline was built, the state required construction that allowed for caribou movement; it does not appear to have disrupted their normal migration routes.
Caribou are not the only animal to survive the arctic conditions of Alaska's far north. According to the state, nearly 180 species of birds come to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in spring and early summer to breed. Thousands of snow geese pass through in August on their way south. The Refuge is home to 45 species of mammals, including Dall sheep, moose, musk oxen, polar bear, grizzly and black bear.
