Kobuk Valley National Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kobuk Valley National Park | |
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| IUCN Category II (National Park) | |
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| Location: | Alaska, USA |
| Nearest city: | Fairbanks, AK |
| Coordinates: | |
| Area: | 1,669,813 acres (6,757 km²) |
| Established: | December 2, 1980 |
| Total Visitation: | 6,309 (in 1999) |
| Governing body: | National Park Service |
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 1.7 million acres (7,000 km²), is approximately the size of the state of Delaware.
Bounded by the Waring Mountains in the South and the Baird Mountains in the North, it is the center of a vast ecosystem between Selawik National Wildlife Refuge and the Noatak National Preserve. It is over 75 miles (120 km) by river to the Chukchi Sea. The Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve lie 32 miles (50 km) to the west. The most visible animals are the 400,000 caribou of the Western Arctic herd. The herd migrates annually between their winter breeding grounds, south of the Waring Mountains, and their summer calving grounds, north of the Baird Mountains. The herd's annual crossing of the Kobuk River is central to the Inupiaq people's subsistence hunting.
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.
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Photos of Kobuk Valley National Park - Terra Galleria
- In depth information
- A traveller's experience visiting the park
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