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Newfoundland offers Woodland Caribou, Quebec offers Quebec-Labrador caribou, the Yukon offers Mountain caribou, and Nunavut offers Central Canadian Barren Ground caribou.
But the quintessential Western caribou is Alaska's barren ground caribou. They have big antlers, good meat, and can be hunted on surprisingly affordable do-it-yourself hunts.
The Mulchatna River herd, located only a couple hours from Anchorage, used to be the predominant draw for out-of-state hunters. But the herd decreased in size several years ago, causing the bag limit to be reduced to one animal.
As the Mulchata herd became less attractive for planning a hunt, the Western Arctic herd became better known. A number of outfitters and air taxis hunt this herd out of Kotzebue, which can be accessed via airliner from Anchorage. Several of them have marginal track records, so choose carefully and check lots of references.
When I hunted the Mulchatna herd in 1999, I booked through Cabela's, who used Lake Clark Air. Their caribou hunts were good, but a subsequent moose hunt with them revealed that they just don't have a good area for moose -- the moose hunt was terrible.
Caribou are between deer and elk in size. They can soak up a lot of punishment. Both of the caribou I killed went back to feeding after I shot them the first time -- even if the shot was fatal -- allowing me to put in a follow-up shot or two. I took both of my bulls with a .30-06 shooting 180 grain Nosler partitions. My partner used the same for his two bulls. The early September weather was surprisingly nice. There was little rain, and we even got a little hot during the day. Beautiful time of year to be out on the tundra and high hills.