2 Best Sights in The Bush, Alaska

The most northern mountain range in North America stretches some 700 miles west to east across northern Alaska into Canada's Yukon Territory. Considered a subrange of the Rocky Mountains, the Brooks Range is the highest range above the Arctic Circle, with peaks of nearly 9,000 feet. Noatak National Preserve, Kobuk Valley National Park, and Gates of the Arctic National Park all lie within it. At the range's western end, the Baird Mountains, where Mt. Angayukaqsraq is the highest peak (4,700 feet), are in Kobuk Valley National Park.

If you're hiking the wildflower-carpeted tundra around Kotzebue, you are entering a living museum dedicated to permafrost, the permanently frozen ground that lies just a few inches below the spongy tundra. Even Kotzebue's 6,000-foot airport runway is built on permafrost—with an insulating layer between the frozen ground and the airfield surface to ensure that landings are smooth. These days, thawing permafrost can cause problems for communities like Kotzebue: as the ice that binds frozen ground melts due to warm temperatures, the ground collapses and splits, damaging buildings, roads, and other infrastructure.