The mountain range running through northern Alaska and regarded as the northernmost major range in the United States is the Brooks Range. It stretches roughly 700 miles from western Alaska across the Arctic region and continues into Canada’s Yukon Territory.
The range forms a major divide between rivers flowing north toward the Arctic Ocean and those draining south toward the Pacific. Its highest summit is Mount Isto, about 2,736 metres above sea level. The Dalton Highway and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline cross the mountains through Atigun Pass on their way to Alaska’s North Slope oil fields.
Much of the Brooks Range remains remote and lightly settled. It includes or borders major protected areas such as Gates of the Arctic National Park, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and Noatak National Preserve. Caribou, Dall sheep, grizzly bears, wolves, and other Arctic wildlife inhabit the region. A common mix-up is the Alaska Range, which contains Denali and is much higher, but lies farther south. The Brooks Range was named in 1925 for geologist Alfred Hulse Brooks.