By Deborah L. Williams Los Angeles Times
Share this story

The pure, utter wildness of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will overwhelm you. When I was there one June, I watched thousands of caribou migrating purposefully to their birthing grounds on the refuge’s coastal plain. The Porcupine caribou herd had once again traversed 400 miles to reach this incomparable place — remote, pristine, rich with resources for the mothers and their calves.