Meet Dan Wetzel, Your Guide
In 1967, when I came to arctic Alaska, my boyhood dream of a wilderness cabin, a dog team and grizzly bears on the tundra began adventures that continue today. In the early years, nature travel meant lacing-up my snowshoes at 40- below zero to break trail for the dog team to haul firewood and water.
40 years later, the call of the wild still beckons. A retired doctor, who was birding with me in June, asked if I would guide him and two friends on a sled dog expedition across the Brooks Range in 2007.
For decades, I've blended wilderness skills with science, conservation and travel in many ways. I've studied grizzly bears on the tundra and polar bears on the pack ice. Packed geologists with my horses over the Arctic Divide. Traveled in umiaks with skilled Eskimo hunters. Wrote a Denali Park wildlife guide for 135,000 visitors. Helped create the first partnership between the tourism industry and Alaska Watchable Wildlife Conservation Trust. Heeded the wisdom of an old Indian musher, to raise a sled dog pup who won two Iditarods as the leader.
Since graduating from the University of Alaska in biological sciences, I have completed graduate studies in geology, atmospheric sciences, natural resources and journalism. Later, I served as a Director of the Alaska Quaternary Center at the University of Alaska Museum. In 2005, NatureAlaska Tours joined scientists from the International Polar Year to develop more innovative public educational programs on climate change, an issue of critical global importance. The late Carl Sagan, scientist, writer and teacher believed of the public that, "thinking scientifically is as natural as breathing". As do I.
Alaska and the world are changing, as are people's expectations of finding travel with meaning and value in their lives. Too often tourism is little more than sightseeing, full of hyperbole with a "guide" from the south on a summer job. A healthy and sustainable Alaska, and the visitors who come North, deserve better.
My commitment is to use NatureAlaska Tours to develop challenging new ways for countless, curious travelers to enjoy their vacations, so they are not only adventurous, educational and fun-filled, but life-changing experiences.
Come North with me, and we'll do this together. Dan L. Wetzel, your guide.
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