Alaska Range. A vast land of overwhelming beauty, abundant resources, and few people, America's Last Frontier stretches across some 660,000 square miles (1.7 million square kilometers) of rugged land. More than a third of mineral-rich Alaska is forested; a quarter is set aside as parks, refuges, and wilderness. The Alaska Range, pictured above, stretches from Canada's Yukon border in the east to the base of the Aleutian Range in the west. Ugak Bay. Bay sleeps beneath a winter sun. Many of these long inlets deeply cleave the coast: No site on land is more than 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the sea. Grayling Lake Trail. A water lily-carpeted pond edges Grayling Lake Trail, north of Seward, Alaska. One of the lakes along the trail abounds in grayling, surface feeders with long dorsal fins. Tents on the Ayakulik River. Fabulous fishing creates tent towns on the Ayakulik. Six salmon species—chinook, sockeye, pink, coho, steelhead, and chum—spawn in it. Snug Outpost, Old Harbor. Snug outpost, Old Harbor—population 298—nestles beneath sheltering peaks. On Kodiak (Island) nearly everyone fishes, including the island's huge brown bears, which roam a renowned wildlife refuge. Breaching Whale. Whale-watchers flock to such spectacles (as breaching) during the spring-to-fall feeding season off Alaska, while scientists debate whether groups of whales hunt cooperatively. Alaskan Brown Bear. Coastal (brown bears) emerge from their dens in March, April, or May, often with snow still on the ground. By August the bears are eating as much as 90 pounds (41 kilograms) of food a day to prepare for their winter sleep. Cubs, usually twins, are born in the den in January or February; they stay with their mother for two or three years. She teaches them to fish, forage, hunt, and defend themselves. Tana Glacier. As summer sun melts ice atop the (Tana Glacier), rivulets disappear into surface holes. In time trickle becomes torrent, and a hole widens to a moulin, a gaping cave that plunges into the bowels of the ice likely more than a thousand feet (305 meters) in this case. Shishmaref Inlet. The livid light of late October illuminates Shishmaref Inlet, located just 21 miles (34 kilometers) south of the Arctic Circle in Alaska. The Inuit living in the village of Shishmaref may soon be the first refugees of global warming. Rising sea levels and the melting of permafrost are causing their island to quickly erode into the Chukchi Sea. Icy Bay Moonlight. Nearly midnight on Icy Bay, and late June twilight still mixes with moonglow. Glaciers that covered this spot 90 years ago continue to carve new features on the many faces of Wrangell-St. Elias (National Park). Ice Ride. Riding through slush, members of a team of three cyclists press on in their effort to traverse the rugged Alaska Range by mountain bike. Chandalar Aurora. A herd of stars makes tracks across Alaska's northern lights in a time exposure taken when the temperature reached minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 50 degrees Celsius). Tongass Starfish. When the tide goes out, a starfish is exposed to the elements in Tongass National Forest. A popular spot for tourists along the Inside Passage, the Tongass is the largest remaining temperate forest in the world even as the logging industry lobbies for greater access to it. Kodiak Brown Bear. This subspecies (the Kodiak brown bear), among the world's largest bears, is unique to the Kodiak archipelago. To limit access to these popular animals and to offer a lifetime thrill, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service runs a viewing program; 250 people from around the world applied for 90 slots in 1992. Vic Barnes (at left), who started the program, radio collars a bear with his 11-year partner, state biologist Roger Smith. Sea Otter Swim. A sea otter shares the waters of Alaska's foggy Prince William Sound with a spill- containment vessel nearly a decade after the Exxon Valdez ran aground and fouled these pristine waters with 11 million gallons (40 million liters) of crude oil. Intense clean-up efforts after the disaster lasted more than four years. Kachemak Hammock. After a dinner of fresh halibut and oysters, guests at Kachemak Bay Wilderness Lodge relax in a hammock amid the scenic grays and greens of surrounding Kachemak Bay State Park. Whale's Tail, Frederick Sound. Commercial hunting of humpback whales, like this one flashing its flukes in Alaska's Frederick Sound, reduced their population to just a few thousand worldwide in the 1960s. But an international whaling ban has helped them rebound, and new census numbers show the North Pacific population alone could be more than 10,000 and possibly as many as 25,000. Brown Bear Hunt. A brown bear hunts for fish in Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge on an island off the southern coast of Alaska. A male Kodiak brown bear can rear up some 10 feet (3 meters) and, at 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms), move at speeds as high as 35 miles (56 kilometers) an hour. Killer Whales, Glacier Bay. Killer whales break the water's surface of Glacier Bay in Alaska. Also known as orcas, these marine mammals often use echolocation to find their prey, which usually consists of fish and squid.
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