Southern Arctic Foothills

Canon EOS 5D II; Canon EF 28-70mm @ 70mm; Gitzo tripod; RRS BH-55; RAW capture: f/ 11 @1/100 sec, -1 EV, ISO 100; Auto exposure, AV mode; Centerweighted-average metering; Auto WB

Spring finds Alaska's verdant North Slope awash in the brilliant greens of new growth. This is an ancient floodplain that appears to be an endless expanse of marsh pocked with watery potholes. It is a rugged, beautiful, wide-open country, essentially unchanged since wolly mammoths roamed these steppes. Repeated glaciations have shaped much of the rolling terrain here. The southern Arctic Foothills, below the Antigun Gorge, flank the Smith Mountains and Dalton Highway to the East as it follows the Sagavanirktok River on its journey across the North Slope to empty into the Beaufort Sea.