Beaufort Sea in the context of "Western Rocky Mountains"

Alaska (/əˈlæskə/ ə-LASS-kə) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is considered to be the northernmost, westernmost, and easternmost (the Aleutian Islands cross the 180th meridian into the eastern hemisphere) state in the United States. It borders the Canadian territory of Yukon and the province of British Columbia to the east. It shares a western maritime border, in the Bering Strait, with Asian Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean lie to the north, and the Pacific Ocean lies to the south. It is a semi-exclave of the U.S., and is the largest exclave in the world.

Alaska is the largest U.S. state by area, comprising more total area than the following three largest states of Texas, California, and Montana combined, and is the seventh-largest subnational division in the world. It is the U.S. state with third-least populous, most sparsely populated, and closest to another continent which is Asia. With a population of 740,133 in 2024, it is the most populous territory in North America located mostly north of the 60th parallel, with more than quadruple the combined populations of Northern Canada and Greenland. Alaska contains the four largest cities in the United States by area, including the state capital of Juneau. Alaska's most populous city is Anchorage, and approximately half of Alaska's residents live within its metropolitan area.

Yukon (Canadian French: [jukõ]) is a territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada's westernmost and smallest territory by land area. As of the 2021 census, Yukon is the middle of the three territories in terms of population, but the most densely populated. As of the 2025 third quarter estimates Yukon had a population of 48,278, which would make it the most populated territory. Whitehorse, the territorial capital, is the largest settlement.

Yukon was split from the Northwest Territories by a federal statute in 1898 as the Yukon Territory. The current governing legislation is the Yukon Act passed by the federal Parliament in 2002. That act established Yukon as the territory's official name, although Yukon Territory remains in popular usage. Canada Post uses the territory's internationally approved postal abbreviation of YT. In 2021, territorial government policy was changed so that The Yukon is recommended for use in official territorial government materials.

The Chukchi Sea (Russian: Чуко́тское мо́ре, romanized: Chukótskoye móre, IPA: [tɕʊˈkotskəjə ˈmorʲe]), sometimes referred to as the Chuuk Sea, Chukotsk Sea or the Sea of Chukotsk, is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The principal port on the Chukchi Sea is Uelen in Russia. The International Date Line crosses the Chukchi Sea from northwest to southeast. It is displaced eastwards to avoid Wrangel Island as well as the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug on the Russian mainland.

The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch 3,000 mi (4,800 km) in a straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Canada, to New Mexico in the Southwestern United States. Depending on differing definitions between Canada and the U.S., its northern terminus is located either in northern British Columbia's Terminal Range south of the Liard River and east of the Trench, or in the northeastern foothills of the Brooks Range/British Mountains that face the Beaufort Sea coasts between the Canning River and the Firth River across the Alaska–Yukon border. Its southernmost point is near the Albuquerque metropolitan area, adjacent to the Rio Grande rift, and north of the Sandia–Manzano Mountain Range, also near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Being the easternmost portion of the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are distinct from the tectonically younger Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada, which both lie farther to its west.

The Rockies formed 55 million to 80 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny, in which a number of plates began sliding underneath the North American plate. The angle of subduction was shallow, resulting in a broad belt of mountains running down western North America. Since then, further tectonic activity and erosion by glaciers have sculpted the Rockies into dramatic peaks and valleys. At the end of the last ice age, humans began inhabiting the mountain range. After explorations of the range by Europeans, such as Sir Alexander Mackenzie, and Anglo-Americans, such as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, natural resources such as minerals and fur drove the initial economic exploitation of the mountains, although the range itself has never experienced a dense population.

Old Crow Flats (Van Tat in the Gwichʼin language) is a 6,170 km (2,382 sq mi) wetland complex in northern Yukon, Canada along the Old Crow River. It is north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Beaufort Sea, and is nearly surrounded by mountains.

The Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR; Inuinnaqtun: Inuvialuit Nunangit Sannaiqtuaq – INS; French: Région désignée des Inuvialuit – RDI), located in Canada's western Arctic, was designated in 1984 in the Inuvialuit Final Agreement by the Government of Canada for the Inuvialuit. It spans 435,000 km (270,000 mi), including 90,650 km (35,000 sq mi) of land and 12,980 km (5,010 sq mi) of subsurface mineral rights. The ISR is mainly above the tree line, and includes several sub-regions: the Beaufort Sea, the Mackenzie River delta, the northern portion of Yukon ("Yukon North Slope", Herschel Island), and the northwest portion of the Northwest Territories. The ISR includes both Crown Lands and Inuvialuit Private Lands. Most of the ISR is represented by Nunakput, the territorial electoral district, meaning "our land" in Inuvialuktun.

The ISR is one of the four Inuit regions of Canada, collectively known as Inuit Nunangat, represented by the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK). The other regions include Nunatsiavut in Labrador, Nunavik in northern Quebec, and the territory of Nunavut. The ISR is the homeland of the Inuvialuit. The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, established in 1986 as the receiver of the lands and financial compensation of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement, is controlled by the Inuvialuit population and is responsible for ISR operations. From 1996 until 2016, Nellie Cournoyea, former Premier of the Northwest Territories, was the Chair and CEO of the Board. She had been elected nine times before declining to run again. In 2016, Duane Ningaqsiq Smith, was elected to replace her, was re-elected in 2019, and acclaimed in 2022.

The Interior Plains is a vast international region that spreads across the Laurentian craton of central North America. It extends along the east flank of the Rocky Mountains from the Gulf Coast region to the Arctic Beaufort Sea. In Canada, it encompasses the Canadian Prairies separating the Canadian Rockies from the Canadian Shield, as well as the Boreal Plains and Taiga Plains east of the Mackenzie and Richardson Mountains. In the United States, it includes the Great Plains of the West/Midwest and the tallgrass prairie region to the south of the Great Lakes extending east to the Appalachian Plateau region.