Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe

Art journeys to one of the earth's most extreme environments—the high, rugged, and remote Altiplano. More lunar than earthly in appearance, Bolivia's high plain is a land lost in time. The Altiplano's dazzling dreamscapes include the world's largest salt flat, an island of golden cactus, scarlet-tinted lakes, twin volcanoes, and surreal skies.

The beautiful, protected waters in southeast Alaska are filled with islands and bays rich with wildlife. The concentration of diversity in this secluded environment is remarkable. Art goes by boat on a voyage of discovery, encountering dramatic calving glaciers and Sitka forests, breaching orcas and migrating humpbacks, eagles, and barnacle-eating bears.

Torres del Paine Park in the far southern Andes of Patagonia is remote and inaccessible. For adventurers it's the "edge" destination. Art's images tell a story of nature at its wildest—of a place where jagged peaks scrape the sky, icebergs catch the light, guanacos watch for pumas, and Andean condors rule the skies.

The remote Katmai Coast is the largest intact stretch of uninhabited coastline left in North America. Art takes advantage of the long days of Alaska's short summer in Katmai National Park, spending time with the largest population of grizzly bears in the world. Joined by bear biologists, he gets up close and personal with Ursus arctos to provide a fresh look at the behavior of these powerful predators in the wild.

Eighty million years ago, Madagascar split off from Africa. Separated from the mainland, the sturdy and lucky creatures that reached Madagascar's shores intact took off on a wild and bizarre evolutionary journey. Art documents Madagascar's most famous inhabitants: it's a who's who of the weird and wonderful, including dancing sifakas, rainbow-colored chameleons, a forest of upside-down trees, and a spiny desert.

America's Serengeti? Wilderness or wasteland? Art rafts down the icy Kongakut River to document America's last pure and untamed wilderness. He chronicles the desolate, yet abundant beauty of the tundra and the rugged landscapes of the Brooks Range. He turns his lens on the delicate birds and animals for which the Refuge is a vital habitat and intersects the great Porcupine caribou herd on its annual migration to the coastal plain.

It's a place where clouds conceal rare birds, animals blend into the forest, predators hide in the shadows, and native peoples are disappearing. Manu, in southern Peru, belongs to the largest area of protected rain forest in the Amazon. Art goes downriver and encounters the spectacular birds, animals, and peoples of the Amazon, who together are struggling to survive.

East Africa is a vast stage on which the circular, never-ending journey known as the Great Migration has played out for millions of years. After going eye to eye with thousands of wildebeest and zebra, Art enlists an old friend and bush pilot to help him capture aerial patterns of migrating herds and flocks of flamingoes. On the ground, he pursues giraffe on horseback and tracks rhino on foot.

Rugged Patagonia offers Himalayan-quality drama in a small package. Just above El Chalten, South America's unofficial trekking capital, rises the jagged silhouette of Mt. Fitz Roy—revered and iconic in the world of mountaineering and photographed thousands of times. Art sets off in search of a different and unique view of the peak. En route, he treks through an ancient forest, fords an icy river, goes under a glacier, and traverses one of the largest ice caps in the world.

The American Southwest is a geological time machine. Its bizarre and beautiful rock formations are the result of eons of erosion. In Utah's Zion National Park, Art explores surreal slot canyons carved from wind and water and encounters the strange rock spires—hoodoos—that punctuate the landscape like giant exclamation points. In Arizona's Canyon de Chelly, he goes by horseback with a Navajo guide to discover petroglyphs hidden in tribal lands. With its brilliant light, red desert rock, cobalt blue skies, golden cotton woods, and white-barked Aspens, the American Southwest is a photographer's playground.

Allahabad and Varanasi are India's holiest river towns. Allahabad hosts the largest religious gathering on the planet at the confluence of its sacred rivers. Art joins nearly 20 million pilgrims for a dip in the Ganges and captures images of Hindu holy men, ascetics, who have renounced all worldly pursuits. Downstream, in ancient Varanasi, the sacred and the ordinary meet in a swirl of color, fire, and ritual. Hindus strive to visit this spiritual epicenter at least once in their lives to bathe in the Ganges and cleanse their karma.

Lying between wind-ravaged Cape Horn and Antarctica, South Georgia Island is an icy oasis with an abundance of wildlife. Stunningly beautiful and rugged, this island sanctuary protects thousands of sea birds and marine mammals. Art returns to his favorite place on earth to explore its emerald bays and fjords and visit colonies of king penguins, wandering albatross, and elephant seals.

Ethiopia is like no other place in Africa. Some of the isolated animist tribes who have lived there for centuries are still unaware that they reside in a country called Ethiopia. In this episode, Art ventures into the Omo Valley, Ethiopia's nearly inaccessible and richest tribal zone. After enduring muddy, impassable roads and swollen rivers, he makes his way to the Hamer, Karo, and remote Surma tribes. He documents the tribes' unique body painting, elaborate adornments, and timeless ceremonies.