Big mountains, little people

Nina Bohlen, Tom Hunt and Sharon Smith hiked along the shore of Alsek Lake in the Tatshenshini-Alsek river system of the northeast Gulf of Alaska coast. The 140-mile Tat-Alsek valley is part of the largest protected wilderness area on the planet -- the 24 million acres of a Natural World Heritage Site comprising the Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Wilderness Park and Kluane National Park Reserve in Canada and the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve and Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. About 2,000 people float the Tatshenshini every year, generating about $2 million in revenue. (Photo by Anne Raup)

previous page	next page
Year in Pictures index