Audubon Guide to the National Wildlife Refuges: Alaska & the Pacific Northwest: Alaska, Oregon, Washington

Alaska, that place of superlatives, harbors only 16 of the United States' more than 500 national wildlife refuges--but those Alaskan refuges, all but two of them roadless, add up to an area half the size of Texas, with one refuge alone taking in more land than the state of West Virginia. The states of the Pacific Northwest comprise another 38 refuges, all but 10 of them open to public visitation. The refuges protect an astonishing range of plant and animal species, from the marine mammals and shorebirds of Washington's San Juan Islands to the spotted owls, jumping mice, and bobcats of Oregon's Willamette Valley. Naturalists Loren MacArthur and Debbie Miller point the way to these essential places, offering notes on when and where to travel and what to do and see when you arrive. --Gregory McNamee