GREAT KOBUK SAND DUNES, AK

Kobuk Valley National Park is in northwestern Alaska 25 miles (40 km) north of the Arctic Circle. It was designated a United States National Park in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. It is noted for the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes and caribou migration routes. The park offers backcountry camping, hiking, backpacking, and dog sledding.



There are no designated trails or roads in the park, which at 1,750,716 acres (2,735.49 sq mi), is approximately the size of the state of Delaware. The park is entirely above the Arctic Circle.
No roads lead to the park. It is reachable by foot, dogsled, snowmobile, and chartered air taxis from Nome and Kotzebue year-round. The park is one of the least visited in the National Park System.



The landing strip can sometimes be hard to make out if you don't know what to look for. Up against the small creek running along the edge of the dunes there are some collapsed old buildings. On the dunes opposite these buildings is a flat area that is gravel mixed with sand. There is a broken down quad at the end of this flat area. This marks the touch down zone of one end. There is a small fence mostly buried in the sand that marks the other end. Use caution, this strip is sloped, but is difficult to tell because of the sandy terrain.