North of the Arctic Circle: Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic National Parks

We've all heard it be said ...

"Go Big or Go Home"

Well, with our van stuck in the repair shop, “home” wasn’t exactly an option. After a few nights in an Airbnb, the timing worked out perfectly for us to trade wheels for wings and catch a flight from Anchorage. We headed north to check two of Alaska’s most remote national parks off our travel bucket list.

Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic National Parks both lie north of the Arctic Circle, and neither one has any established roads or trails leading into them. While there are a few creative ways to officially "visit" these two national parks, I quickly decided that being dropped off by a bush plane for a few days of back-country camping or doing a multiple-day river rafting tour, while beautiful, would not be my preferred methods. 

  We decided to take the "easy" ... but not necessarily the "inexpensive" route.

Step #1 ... Book a commercial flight from Anchorage to the remote village of Kotzebue, Alaska which is located 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Cost: $400-500/person round trip

Step #2 ... Make a one to two night stay in the village's only hotel. Cost: $300/night

Step #3 ... Schedule a four hour bush plane tour that shows you a snippet of both parks by air and will land for a 15 minute "visit" in each national park. Cost: $1750/person.

And, you guessed it ... this all involves a bit of advance planning because their summer tour season is busy and short.

You will all be proud of us ... we actually (kind of) planned ahead!

But as we found out, a visit to Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic also involves Mother Nature agreeing to provide adequate flying conditions.

Yes, there is always that "weather" variable ... and that came into play when we arrived at the Anchorage Airport last Wednesday morning. A few minutes after reaching our gate, they announced that the flight to Kotzebue was cancelled. Seems that a huge volcanic ash cloud from an eruption in Russia had found its way across the Chukchi Sea and was hanging out over northern Alaska. Always trying to make "lemonade out of lemons",

... I was able to work on a blog in the airport's quiet and scenic observation deck,

... and Doug found another craft brewery to add to his list.

After re-booking our flight, hotel, and flight-seeing tour for Friday, we scurried to find lodging in Anchorage. With the Trump-Putin summit quickly approaching, our Airbnb pickings were slim and expensive ... but thankfully, not as expensive as the $700+/night that they were charging for hotel rooms,

... and our Airbnb came with some adorable pugs who were very willing to help "cheer" us up!

The weather forecast on Friday was favorable, and we were more than grateful to get out of Anchorage before the two world leaders arrived. One and a half hours later, we arrived ...

North of the Arctic Circle

... in the land of permafrost and muskox.

Kobuk Valley National Park

The sun was shining and the winds were calm when we arrived, so we checked in with the tour company when we arrived in Kotzebue. After a bit of "hurry up and wait", we got into their ten passenger flight-seeing plane.

Most of our fellow passengers were national park "geeks" like us, on a quest to "at least" step foot in all 63 of the United States's national parks. There were a few who were a bit more "hard core" and were being flown in and dropped off for a multi-day backpacking adventure ... a little too adventurous for me!

As we left Kotzebue, tundra, winding rivers, and an occasional small village could be seen from the air. 

Then the landscape changed. Ahead of us lie an immense stretch of sand that make up the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes. Left behind by retreating glaciers many years ago,

this stretch of sand would become our makeshift landing strip.

And thus, we had our 15 minute visit to Kobuk Valley National Park complete with a picture with the "mobile" national park sign 

along with photos of some of the hardy plants

that call Kobuk Valley "home".

Gates of the Arctic National Park

Taking off from our sandy air strip, we found ourselves in the air enjoying the twisty array of the rivers that weave through the valley. Gradually the landscape began to change as mountains appeared on the horizon. As quickly as I began to wonder where we were going to be able to land among these mountains, we touched down on the gravel bar alongside the Ambler River.

We stepped out of the plane and marveled at the sheer beauty of the mountains in the distance. We were at the entrance of Gates of the Arctic National Park. The 8.4 million acres of this national park provide a protected habitat for grizzly and black bears, musk oxen, caribou, Dall sheep, and more. 

Another photo op with the "unofficial" park sign, 

... and numerous pictures of the untouched beauty that surrounded us

... completed our short visit to this beautiful and remote piece of paradise.

Four hours later, we were back in the village of Kotzebue. A stop at the national parks visitor center to get the Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic park brochures and check out the park displays made our visit "official" ... at least in my mind.

It was now time to find our way to our home for the next two days ... the Nullagvik Hotel. And although we were still pretty much in the middle of nowhere, we enjoyed some seriously luxurious accommodations. The hotel is an Alaskan Native owned company, and their pride in ownership was evident from the clean surroundings, top-notch restaurant, and friendly and hard-working staff.

Kotzebue, Alaska 

Kotzebue is the largest village and the central hub for commerce, education and health in northwest Alaska. The Iñupiat people have called this place home for many centuries, and still maintain many of their subsistence traditions that include fishing, whaling, seal and caribou hunting and berry picking. We were grateful to be able to talk with a few locals and hear their stories about how they embrace the often difficult life north of the arctic circle.

Summers are spent hunting and gathering nature's food. In a land where roads are rough or non-existent, their mode of transport is the ATV. In order to reach the surrounding villages, they have to depend on a boat or bush plane.

During the winter months of October through April the cold temps freeze the waterways that separate the villages making the "snow machine" the popular transportation choice. One young lady that I talked to said that winter was her favorite season, because it was so much easier to hop on her snow machine and visit her grandmother in a nearby village as ... "I can't afford to fly there to see her in the summer".

Walking around town, we saw many structures in disrepair, and heaps of garbage because it is so difficult and expensive to get supplies in and garbage out of this remote village.

Yet, despite these extreme hardships, the people maintain a great love of family, community, and the nature that surrounds them.

Some highlights of our visit to Kotzebue included ...

Easy access to the seaside boardwalk where we were never quite able to see a sunset unless we stayed up until almost midnight,

An absolutely fabulous honey-garlic glazed salmon dinner

accompanied by beautiful views of the Chukchi Sea from the hotel dining room,

And the chance to slow down for a few days and experience the beauty and culture of this remote community north of the Arctic Circle.

When we started thinking about visiting these two very remote national parks, I wondered why an area this large and this isolated would be designated as a national park. And after spending time north of the Arctic Circle, the answer is clear ...

Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic National Parks preserve not only the region’s remarkable Arctic landscapes and wildlife, but also the cultural heritage and traditions of the Indigenous people who, for centuries, have called this land home.

From Sky to Shore: The Remote and Wild Wonders of Katmai & Lake Clark National Parks

I’m not sure who promoted this furry fellow to beach patrol, but he was clearly on duty as our float plane came in.

 Just down the shoreline, two juveniles were putting on a wrestling show complete with some pretty convincing bear hugs.

And off in the distance, the local “town crier” dashed away, clearly announcing to everyone that “The plane! The plane!” had arrived.

After months of planning, miles of driving, and a significant drain of our "fun" budget, we were ready for a “bear-y” good day.

From sky

to shore,

we were ready to explore

the remote 

and wild wonders of

Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks

(OK, truth be told ... I was a lot more nervous than I looked in this photo!)

The Journey is (usually) as Fun as the Destination

Being able to set foot in Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks is not an easy (or inexpensive) feat. For most travelers, it takes months, if not years of planning. But for "last minute" planners like us, it somehow worked out nonetheless.

Here are a few options that we considered in order to visit these two remote national parks:

Option #1: Take a flight from Anchorage to visit one or the other park (but not both).  The price range is $1000 to $1500/person depending on which national park you choose to visit. If you plan to stay overnight, lodging is extra. This option requires a lot of advanced planning.

Option #2: Take a day trip by boat from Homer to visit Lake Clark, but not Katmai. The price is approximately $800/person.

Option #3: Take a four hour day trip on a float plane from Homer to visit either one of the two national parks. The price is approximately $1200/person.

Option #4:  Take an eight to ten hour day trip on a float plane from Homer to visit locations in both of the national parks. The price is approximately $1800/person.

We went with Option #4 and booked our trip with Beryl Air just four days ahead of time based on a favorable weather forecast.

Of course, Baby Beest and Mother Nature both sometimes challenge our best made plans ...

For the last few weeks, Doug has been noticing that he was slowly losing coolant. As we came into Homer, the "check engine" light came on. After investigating the warning code, he was fairly certain that there was a problem with the head gasket. While it needs to get fixed, he determined that it was still driveable, so we continued our national parks plan after making an appointment for Baby Beest at an expensive "spa" in Anchorage for the following week.

 It was a beautiful partly cloudy day when we arrived at our campground in Homer the day before our scheduled flight. But by that evening, more clouds and rain moved in. We fell asleep to the van swaying not-so-gently in the strong winds. I was a tad bit nervous about flying in the small float plane to begin with and the strong winds definitely added to my anxiety. Thankfully, when we got up the next morning, we found out that our flight was canceled. With a bit of flexibility in our schedule, we looked ahead at the long range forecast and saw that the sun was scheduled to reappear in three days, so we were able to rebook and just hang out in Homer for a few more days

... while admiring the snow-capped mountains of the national parks across the bay.

The day of our tour turned out to be truly a "sun" day. With blue skies, scattered clouds, and light winds, we (along with our pilot, Annalynn, and another couple) took off in a six passenger Cessna 206 float plane. The views were amazing as we crossed Kachemak Bay and headed to Brooks Falls in the heart of ...

Katmai National Park.

Katmai is world famous for its brown (grizzly) bear population and has over 2,200 bears who call it "home". During the summer months,  sockeye salmon make their way back to the area rivers. Because they tend to congregate in large numbers just before Brooks Falls, the largest concentration of Katmai's bears gather around the falls from July until September for the "all-you-can-eat" seafood buffet. The raised boardwalks and platforms make this the perfect location for park visitors to view this bear banquet.

When we landed our first order of business (after dodging our beachside bear "greeters") was to attend "bear school", a thirty minute class presented by the park rangers in order to ensure the safety of both visitors and bears.

After that we had a little less than three hours to explore the area. After a 1.5 mile hike,

we arrived at the iconic Brooks Falls viewing platform, and much to our delight, there were about eight or so bears out there enjoying the sunny day as much as we were. Although maybe a little unappealing to us, the bears seemed to thoroughly enjoy their raw salmon lunch.

After two hours and way too many photos ...

it was time to return to the plane in order to continue our flight. Next up ...

Lake Clark National Park

Lake Clark is often called "Alaska in Miniature" because it has a little bit of everything that Alaska is famous for ...

mountains,

glaciers,

rivers,

lakes,

and even active volcanoes.

Can you spot the steam coming out of Mount Iliamna?!!

Some scientists predict that another eruption may occur in the near future ... 

And we flew really close to it!

While Lake Clark also has its fair share of bears, it's better known for its pristine and remote wilderness. Many outdoor enthusiasts venture there to escape into its solitude. One such person was Richard Proenneke, who built and lived in a primitive lakeside cabin from 1968 to 1998 after he retired from a successful career as a carpenter and mechanic.

After his death in 2003 at age 86, Proenneke bequeathed his meticulously handcrafted cabin and all its intricate furnishings to the National Park Service. Situated on the shores of Twin Lake, this cabin was to be the location where we could say that we "officially" set foot in Lake Clark National Park.

But when our pilot first landed on Twin Lake, we didn't think that we would be able to officially set foot on solid ground. The afternoon winds had picked up making it difficult to bring the plane to shore in order to disembark. And at the same time, the waves were making it difficult to take off, so for a moment, I feared that we would just drift out to the middle of the lake. But our amazing pilot literally took a deep step into the frigid cold water in order to bring the plan to shore.

A "refreshing" arctic dip ... all in a day's work for this float plane pilot.

While our pilot, Annalynn, held the plane lines secure and waited for the wind to die down, we celebrated being able to officially step onto the soil of another national park. We walked a short distance in order to find the Proenneke Cabin and found this slightly dilapidated structure that looked more like a storage shed than a historical building. I wasn't feeling confident that we had found the "real deal", but we took a "we were here in Lake Clark National Park" selfie just in case it was.

While the others hung around the plane still waiting for the winds to decrease, Doug and I decided to venture out on a shoreline trail in order to do a hike in this national park. And about a half mile down shore, we found the "official" national park treasure,

... and it was as uniquely constructed and well cared for by the park service as I imagined it would be.

The intricate handcrafted treasures that we found inside were icing on the cake! Richard's ability to design useful tools out of the items found around him reminded me of a few other engineering minds that I know and love ... namely my father and my husband.

After we returned to the plane, Annalynn was cautiously optimistic that the winds and waves had subsided a bit. I, on the other hand, was thinking that we may need to embrace the pioneering spirit of Richard Proenneke and use some "wilderness survival" skills to hunker down for the night. With a lot of determination (and a few prayers from this nervous passenger in the back of the plane), we were able to take off and enjoy some of our last aerial views of this incredible land and seascape.

After a bird's eye view of Homer Spit, we touched down, feeling grateful and relieved to be able to go from ...

Sky to Shore

to visit two more of the United States remote and wild wonders,

... and, of course, collect the "official" national park guides to add to my collection!