Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic National Parks

As most readers of this blog are aware, at the start of this trip we set a goal to see all of the National Parks. We didn't really know what that meant when we started, and we only ever committed to doing our best to reach them all.

A few things I didn't understand in those early days:

• 12 parks are not even on the US Mainland. This includes 8 parks in Alaska, 2 in Hawaii, 1 in the Virgin Islands, and 1 in American Samoa.
• Of the 8 parks in Alaska, only three are reachable by automobile. 1 is reachable fairly easily by ferry. 2 are theoretically reachable by boat, but it would be a heck of a journey to either. The other 2 are definitely only reachable by air.

Those last two are Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic.

To be honest, I'm not sure why these are national parks. Are they beautiful? Absolutely. Should they be protected? Probably. Are there ways to do that other than a "National Park" designation? Yes.

You'll hear that "national parks are owned by the people." They are ours as Americans. But it's kind of a jerk move to give me something that's so hard to enjoy. Regardless, they are on the list of 63, so that meant they were on our list.

That said, these could be considered "out of principle" parks. We had hit 70% of the parks in the system by the time we got to Alaska, so we were kind of in it to win it at this point. We understood that we'd end up spending a ton of money for not much more than the privilege of saying "We were there," but I was at peace with that. I've been told to spend money on experiences instead of things, and this was me doing that to the extreme. Also, as expensive as it was, it would be that much more expensive if I had to get back to Alaska to try again in the future.

So we booked a "flightseeing" tour that would take us to both parks, putting us on the ground for about 30 minutes in each.

Jordan's first flight! She'd have 9 more by the time we left Alaska.

You may notice that someone is missing. That will be a recurring theme for these Alaska parks. Julie doesn't like to fly, which meant it wasn't as expensive as it could have been!

The first flight to Kobuk Valley was the longest. We flew north out of Fairbanks, headed for the Kobuk Valley sand dunes. That's right; there are sand dunes in the middle of northern Alaska. Who knew?

As beautiful as the scenery was, some of us did find it monotonous at times

I had neglected to pack ear plugs, and our pilot only had three extra headsets. I don't know if you've ever flown in a small plane, but some sort of ear protection is basically mandatory. It was a mistake I wouldn't make again, but it severely affected my enjoyment of the flights.

The weather in Fairbanks was not great when we took off (or for the other 5 days we were there, for that matter). But once we cleared the low clouds, we had a pleasant surprise: A clear view of Denali! We didn't know it at the time, but this turned out to be fortuitous, because as is the case with most visitors to Denali National Park, we wouldn't see the mountain while we were there.

After about two hours, we landed at the Kobuk Valley Regional Airport. Just kidding. We landed on the sand in the middle of a multi-acre dunefield in the middle of Nowhereville, Alaska. And we weren't alone! A few minutes after we touched down, another small plane joined us. It wasn't a total coincidence, though. The other pilot was our pilot's cousin, and they both work for the family company.

There's no official park sign for Kobuk Valley

We are not alone! The other plane was actually piloted by our pilot's cousin.

Sand... stream... forest. It's all very odd.

I bet Asher is one of not many people who have read a book on the sand at Kobuk Valley!

We spent about 30 minutes exploring the sand. Despite being north of the Arctic Circle, the weather was absolutely beautiful, much better than we left behind in Fairbanks.

After our time in the sand, it was back on the plane for the flight to Gates of the Arctic.

There's no official park sign for Gates of the Arctic

This time we landed in the middle of a river. It was technically a gravel bar in the middle of a river, but still.

Our landing spot was at the very edge of the park, but it didn't really matter. We were inside, so it counts. And there's really no way to get around the park no matter where you are inside due to there being zero hiking trails. So a gravel bar in the middle of a river on the edge of the park would have to do.

But it was beautiful. We didn't know it at the time, but it was some of the best weather we'd see during our entire time in Alaska.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but we're on an island

The kids skipped a lot of rocks

After leaving the gravel bar, we landed in Bettles to refuel. Our trip to Bettles took us through a large portion of the park. We flew through the mountains... yes, through. Remember, we were in a small plane. Small planes can fly through mountains instead of over. This leg was the best of the four we'd do.

I'd love to post some amazing pictures from our flight, but it's pretty hard to get amazing pictures through the crappy windows of a small Cessna — I actually quit trying early on and decided to just enjoy the flight — so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Bettles is technically outside of the park, but it's close and therefore houses the official visitor center. And... it was closed. The ranger had posted a hand written sign saying he or she would be back soon, but that never happened while we were there.

We picked up some snacks in Bettles, snacks that had to be flown in from Fairbanks, which is where we were staying

After 30 minutes on the ground in Bettles, it was a short hop back to Fairbanks.

Was it worth it? I don't know how to answer that. From a cost to hours ratio, it's hard to argue that it was. But we got to see things that most people will never see. We saw Denali from the air. We saw the vast expanse of Alaskan tundra (which we'd call "swamp" in the south). We saw moose and caribou grazing from the air. We flew close enough to mountain peaks that it almost felt like we could reach out and touch them. We experienced beautiful weather north of the Arctic Circle.

And we checked two of the most difficult parks off of our list.