As for the OP...
I flew in Alaska for seven years. Recon of a landing area before landing - short of an attended airport - was standard fare for me.
High recon then low recon. A full pattern staying high on the upwind too, checking things out, looking for wildlife (moose or caribou will ruin your day in an airplane, however fun it is to see 'em, and if there is a large flock of waterfowl hanging out at the runway threshold or a bunch of geese browsing the nicely mowed runway grass I want to know about it) then configure for slow flight, flaps 10 or 20 and a low pass. How low? Well you don't necessarily need to drag the runway. Low enough to see potential foreign objects and large holes, and to visualize your potential go-around on landing. I also flew at a constant speed to measure the landing area if I didn't have good info on length. Speed? Not too slow. If trees are a factor beware of offsetting to the right too much
No need to be in a hurry to land. At unfamiliar strips with a length or ground conditions that was at all doubtful I might do two or three low passes.
Now I realize the vast number of aviators on here won't be landing on unimproved short landing strips not listed in the A/FD, or off airport, ever, but there are plenty of places down here which are sleepy and where problems on the runway might go undetected for hours or days. And almost everywhere has large ungulates of some species or another running around the woods nearby. NORDO aircraft taxing below, or lawnmowers, ATV's, kids playing on the runway. In the winter, uncertain snow or ice conditions. In the rain, poor drainage and standing water.
A high then low recon may be overkill most of the time. Sometimes simply paying attention to the runway and its immediate surroundings on crosswind or midfield, downwind, base is enough. Maintaining proper lookout. At my home gravel airstrip (which happened to be a registered airport with weather reporting) constant hazards of wildlife and also service vehicle traffic on the runway, busy summer helicopter ops, and in the winter weird snow conditions, plus very squirrelly winds and rising terrain at one end, enforced a sense of caution and seldom did I skip a very close look at the strip before any attempt to land there.
