Iron Dog race expands route to Huslia, Shungnak, Ambler

The Iron Dog snowmachine race will expand its route to include Huslia, Shungnak, and Ambler after a multi-year effort to reverse a federal decision that had blocked the change.

The expanded route will pass through portions of the Koyukuk National Wildlife Refuge, Selawik National Wildlife Refuge, and Kobuk Valley National Park. A December 2022 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Comprehensive Conservation Plan had prevented the route expansion. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Sara Boario overturned the denial in February 2026 after Senator Dan Sullivan's office began assisting Iron Dog Race Inc. in 2025 by drafting an appeal that challenged the plan. All necessary permits, the Environmental Assessment, and the Finding of No Significant Impact have since been completed.

The Iron Dog race is a long-distance snowmobile competition of more than 2,000 miles across Alaska.

Iron Dog Race Inc. says the route expansion will bring new economic opportunities to Huslia, Shungnak, and Ambler, including increased visitor spending and local business activity during the race. The organization also links the expansion to expanded snowmachine safety and education programs in participating communities, including outreach to youth.

Reuben Hanke, Trail Committee Chairman and Board Member of Iron Dog Race Inc., said the expansion represents years of collaboration, discussion, environmental review, and partnership building. He thanked Senator Dan Sullivan's office for assistance throughout the process, as well as villages, cities, tribal organizations, and Alaska Native corporations along the new route.

Huslia, Shungnak, and Ambler are small, predominantly Alaska Native communities that rely on mixed cash-subsistence economies. Huslia, an Interior Alaska Koyukon Athabascan community on the Koyukuk River, is already a checkpoint on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Shungnak and Ambler are Iñupiat communities on the Kobuk River in Northwest Alaska.