|
Share this
Mister Wong
Digg
Del.icio.us
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Googlize this
Blinklist
Facebook
Wikio
Print
E-mail
Tags
Going to Alaska's Kobuk Valley National Park isn't something you do at the last minute. In fact, it is so "out there" that the National Park Service doesn't require reservations for any type of travel or camping within the preserve, and there are no fees charged to get into the park.
It is so remote that there aren't any roads to get to the park. What the National Park Service will tell you is that commercial airlines provide service from Anchorage to Kotzebue, or Fairbanks to Bettles. Once in Kotzebue or Bettles, you fly to the park using various air taxi operators.
Summer access may include motorized/non-motorized watercraft, aircraft or by foot. Rangers, however, don't recommend traveling by foot in the summer: it would be an arduous, roundabout journey, they said.
So why would anyone want to go there?
As Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin posts on the state's TravelAlaska.com web site: "Alaska is different from every other destination in the world."
No kidding. It's that idea of ‘Wild Alaska' which attracts visitors to northwestern Alaska, or should we say ‘adventurers.' Kobuk Valley stretches from the Baird Mountains on the north to the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes in the south, the largest active dune field in arctic North America.
The park's 1.7 million acres sit in a semi-enclosed bowl about 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and the valley supports caribou, salmon, loons, the rare Kobuk locoweed, wolves and native culture.
The Western Arctic caribou herd travels through this area during its migration, and the tracks of about 400,000 caribou mark the tundra and the towering sand dunes in the southern designated wilderness area of the park.
Alaska's forest reaches its northern limit here, resulting in an open woodland of small trees in a mat of thick tundra. The region has a northern temperate climate, marked by cold winters and warm summers.
Whether immersing yourself in archeological prehistory, boating down the languid Kobuk River, thrilling your senses on a scenic flight, camping, or charting your own backcountry trek, the country is open for those willing-and prepared-to step into it.
If the idea of roughing it isn't enough to get you to northwestern Alaska, there's one other attraction in the works. In 2010 the Northwest Arctic Heritage Center in Kotzebue will be open for visitors.
Kobuk Valley National Park, and three other areas-Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, and Noatak National Preserve-are managed by the National Park Service collectively as Western Arctic National Parklands.
When the Northwest Arctic Heritage Center is complete, Western Arctic NP will be able to offer people of the region, and visitors from around the world, a high-quality interpretive experience, a variety of educational programs, and personal administrative services.
The single-story structure, located on the site formally occupied by NANA Museum of the Arctic, will be 12,350 square feet. Space will include 8,450 sq. ft. for visitor services and 3,900 sq. ft. for NPS operations.
A 90-person multipurpose room will be used for programs ranging from Junior Rangers, and research presentations, to native dancing.
After initial groundbreaking in August 2008, work began on the concrete floor and walls started going up in late September. Work will shut down for the winter and start up again in late spring.
So if you just happen to be in the area in 2010, stop by the new center. We're sure the rangers would love to have someone "pop in" to see them.
It is so remote that there aren't any roads to get to the park. What the National Park Service will tell you is that commercial airlines provide service from Anchorage to Kotzebue, or Fairbanks to Bettles. Once in Kotzebue or Bettles, you fly to the park using various air taxi operators.
 |
So why would anyone want to go there?
As Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin posts on the state's TravelAlaska.com web site: "Alaska is different from every other destination in the world."
No kidding. It's that idea of ‘Wild Alaska' which attracts visitors to northwestern Alaska, or should we say ‘adventurers.' Kobuk Valley stretches from the Baird Mountains on the north to the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes in the south, the largest active dune field in arctic North America.
The park's 1.7 million acres sit in a semi-enclosed bowl about 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and the valley supports caribou, salmon, loons, the rare Kobuk locoweed, wolves and native culture.
The Western Arctic caribou herd travels through this area during its migration, and the tracks of about 400,000 caribou mark the tundra and the towering sand dunes in the southern designated wilderness area of the park.
 |
Whether immersing yourself in archeological prehistory, boating down the languid Kobuk River, thrilling your senses on a scenic flight, camping, or charting your own backcountry trek, the country is open for those willing-and prepared-to step into it.
If the idea of roughing it isn't enough to get you to northwestern Alaska, there's one other attraction in the works. In 2010 the Northwest Arctic Heritage Center in Kotzebue will be open for visitors.
Kobuk Valley National Park, and three other areas-Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, and Noatak National Preserve-are managed by the National Park Service collectively as Western Arctic National Parklands.
 |
The single-story structure, located on the site formally occupied by NANA Museum of the Arctic, will be 12,350 square feet. Space will include 8,450 sq. ft. for visitor services and 3,900 sq. ft. for NPS operations.
A 90-person multipurpose room will be used for programs ranging from Junior Rangers, and research presentations, to native dancing.
After initial groundbreaking in August 2008, work began on the concrete floor and walls started going up in late September. Work will shut down for the winter and start up again in late spring.
So if you just happen to be in the area in 2010, stop by the new center. We're sure the rangers would love to have someone "pop in" to see them.
