The Washington Post reports on an epic-ish trip to "one of North America's last remaining wild expanses" - aka - Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). A trip that author Paula Stone worried about ahead of time incessantly and needlessly since the trip turned out to have beautiful weather. Dangers and annoyances like huge mosquitoes and bears were dealt with humor and awe respectively. And the experience and vistas were worth it:"No amount of reading could have prepared me for the beauty of this treeless place. I kept kneeling on the tundra to inspect gorgeous wildflowers, grasses clinging to fragile soils, swelling berries and tiny spiders, while [my husband] clambered on the rocks. Overhead, chattering birds -- most of which had migrated thousands of miles to breed here -- raced the clock to raise their young during the short summer season. The vistas were enormous, stunning: a distant mountainside was awash in pink; another bloomed wispy white. We walked along ancient animal trails, over spongy tussocks, across shivery streams, in the wake of bear, wolf and caribou tracks. A rainbow halo encircled the sun."
Read the full story: No roads, no regrets
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