Koyukuk National Wildlife Refuge

The 3.5 million-acre Koyukuk National Wildlife Refuge lies within the flood plain of the Koyukuk River, in a basin that extends from the Yukon River to the Purcell Mountains, which are foothills of the Brooks Range. This is a region of wetlands, home to fish, waterfowl, beaver and moose, and wooded lowlands where bears, wolves, lynx and marten prowl.

The Koyukuk and Northern Innoko Refuges are part of the vast roadless region that makes up much of northern and western Alaska. Traversing the Koyukuk and Kaiyuh takes two days by motor boat and more than an hour in a small airplane. Commuter aircraft provide regularly scheduled air transportation from Fairbanks and Anchorage to Galena, where the refuge headquarters is located. Visitors can charter small aircraft for travel to the refuge from Galena. The Koyukuk River is a major tributary of the Yukon River, and some visitors, mostly moose hunters, use the river to enter the refuge by boat. The Koyukuk River mouth is approximately 312 miles downriver from Dalton Highway Bridge of the Yukon River or the Tanana River Bridge at Nenana. Local residents travel extensively up and down the Yukon and Koyukuk Rivers, by boat in the summer and snow machine in the winter.