Selawik Wilderness

The Selawik Wilderness is composed of about 240,000 acres, all part of the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge. The wilderness acreage is located in the Waring Mountains on the north side of the National Wildlife Refuge, right up against the boundary with Kobuk Valley National Park. This is an area of spruce-forested foothills that rise to about 1,700 feet. Included in the wilderness is a group of vegetated sand dunes that were left behind during the last glacial recession. The Great Kobuk Sand Dunes further to the north are part of this dune complex.

While most of Selawik National Refuge is geologically composed of river and lake deposits over glacial moraine, the Waring Mountains are built on layers of sedimentary rock. That means there are significantly fewer kettleholes and pingos in the permafrost underlying parts of the wilderness area.

Access isn't easy: there is jet service to Kotzebue but you'll probably need a charter (as in: bush) flight from there into the National Wildlife Refuge (because aircraft are not allowed to land in wilderness areas). Then you get to hoof it... and this area is about as remote as it gets.