*Sketching landscapitos at the Wood River below the lodge.*

In late August thirteen of us—a lucky number—met up in Fairbanks, Alaska, for our first Alaska Field Arts Bootcamp. We enjoyed a visit to the Sandhill Crane Festival and the Morris Thompson Visitor Center in town, then boarded our chartered flights to the remote Wood River Lodge in the Alaska Range. This historic property dates to the gold rush days in the late 1800s and is a gem of comfort (a hot tub right off the cabins and next to the beautiful river!) and true Alaska charm, surrounded by tens of thousands of wilderness acres. Moose, grizzly and black bears, Dall sheep, caribou, wolf, and wolverine are all in the area, and we saw peregrine and goshawks every day, plus dozens of songbirds and Willow ptarmigan and sage grouse. The Thorgesen family—all twelve of them!—kept us well fed and met all our needs. The full bar and custom cocktails crafted from local ingredients like spruce tips and berries kept us well watered. While there was a scary moment at the beginning when it looked like our flights might be grounded due to weather, we all made it in and spent four days in pure field arts discovery: tracking, birding, paint and ink making, hiking, field sketching, botanizing, berry picking, and much more.

From Wood River we flew back to Fairbanks and then drove the group by van halfway up the “Haul Road”—aka the Dalton Highway—over the Yukon River, across the Arctic Circle, to the quirky and very Alaskan Coldfoot Camp. All in all it was an epic time!

If you would like to join us next year, please >sign up< for our interest list (which does not guarantee you a slot, just a timely notification when we open registrations). We hope to see you here in the great Alaskan wilds!