Bering Land Bridge National Preserve
This 2.7 million-acre wilderness preserve sprawls across the northern Seward Peninsula and was named for the land link that connected Alaska and Asia during the last Ice Age when sea levels were about 300 feet lower than today. Most archeologists agree that it was across this Bering Land Bridge, also called Beringia, that humans first passed from Asia to populate the Americas some 10,000 years ago.
Only 70 miles from the Siberian mainland, the preserve ranges from the wet-tundra flatlands along the coast to the rolling, treeless uplands and the Bendeleben Mountains in the central section of the peninsula, the northernmost extension of the continental divide.
The Seward Peninsula is the crossroads of the Asiatic-North American flyway, providing ample opportunity to spot more than 100 species of migratory birds. Hawks and eagles are also common. Brown bear, caribou, musk ox, moose, Arctic fox and wolverine also take up residence in the preserve. Along the coast, visitors can spot bearded, hair and ribbon seals, walrus and humpback, fin and bowhead whales.