Polar bear and Brooks Range, ANWR, Alaska
A polar bear walks across the snow covered coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with the Brooks Range rising in the background. The soft pink and blue light of an Arctic sunset fills the sky above the mountains, casting a cool blue tone across the entire landscape. This is one of the most iconic views in ANWR, where the northern foothills of the Brooks Range meet the Beaufort Sea coast and the habitat of Alaska's polar bears.
The bear is moving steadily toward the camera, head slightly turned, looking relaxed and unhurried. Its white fur blends almost seamlessly with the snow, making the animal feel like a natural extension of the terrain rather than something separate from it. The scale of the scene is striking. The mountains stretch across the full width of the frame, and the bear, despite being a large adult, looks small against that backdrop.
Photographing polar bears with the Brooks Range visible behind them is only possible in a handful of locations along Alaska's Arctic coast. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the only place in the United States where polar bears regularly den and travel along the shoreline within sight of these mountains. That combination of wildlife and wilderness landscape is what makes ANWR such a significant location for polar bear photography.
Photo © copyright by Carl Donohue.