Watch for the Fortymile caribou herd in this area. Here you’ll find a pullout with three information panels about the Fortymile region, Mount Fairplay, the Taylor Highway, and the Fortymile caribou herd. The Fortymile area is home range to this caribou herd, once a massive herd of 500,000 animals, the herd declined to a low of 6,000 in the mid-1970s. A 4-year recovery effort by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game using wolf control increased the herd from 22,500 to about 40,000. The herd moves east across the highway in late fall for the winter, and returns again in the spring for calving. During the summer, small groups of caribou can sometimes be seen in the high country above the timberline.
