Wilderness Wandering

Day 16, August 7,2025

We were at the airport early for our Alaska Airlines flight from Anchorage to Kotzebue. The location of Kotzebue is west of Hawaii and north of The Arctic Circle.  The city has a population of 3000 people. 80% are of native heritage. Fishing, hunting and healthcare are the primary occupations. Many people work more than one job here if they’re able to find them. Unemployment is also high. Things are very expensive there because almost everything has to come via cargo airplane. A few things arrive via ship. Getting a car to Kotzebue adds at least $7000 to the price for delivery. Gas for your car is $7.99 per gallon. The good news is there are hardly any roads so you don’t use too much gas driving around. A high percentage of the people are living below the poverty line.

The flight left on time and was pleasant. We met Laron and Cathy on the flight. They’re from Idaho headed to Kobuk Valley NP. It is their 63rd park, which means they will have been to all of them. We enjoyed our conversation. 

We walked over to Golden Eagle’s Outfitters’ Office, about a block away, and checked in with Julien so they knew we were in town for our excursion. He said for us to come back at 1 PM and we would see about going out that afternoon. We walked over to the Northwest Arctic Heritage Center in Kotzebue and stamped the passport. Then we walked to Louie’s and ordered a breakfast bowl to share. It was tasty.

Fun fact- It is around 1.25 miles from one end of town to the other, which is the same length as the airport runway!

Julien called and said that we would be flying the next day. We finished lunch and headed for our Airbnb. It was partly cloudy, and in the mid 60s. The sea was quite calm. We were walking along the waterfront and a pickup with the window rolled down pulled up and the driver said, “Get in Beth!” It was our host Joe. He took us to his house and got us settled. The house is really beautiful! We have an ocean view. We relaxed for a while. We walked to Empress and shared tofu pad Thai for dinner. We had a really nice conversation with Claire, the owner who grew up in Southern California. Her story of how she ended up here was a hoot ! After dinner, we walked out of town along the shore. We had nice conversations with several people we met along the way. We had quite a few questions about life in such a remote place.  Julien texted us to be at the hangar at 10:30 AM tomorrow. It was still full daylight when we went to bed at 10:30 PM. 

Day 17, August 8,2025

We had breakfast at the Airbnb. I did a nice shore walk.  

We walked down a different street on our way to the hangar and walked past the grade school, high school and college!  It started to mist as we walked. Arriving at Golden Eagle Outfitters at 10:30, we met all the other people hoping to fly today. There were two guys just coming back from a week long fishing trip. Julien weighed everyone and figured out the load. Tim and I and 8 other people were the morning group. We were headed to two parks, Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic. Gates of the Arctic is the least visited National Park. Kobuk Valley is roughly the size of Delaware and was made a NP to protect an 85 mile stretch of the Kobuk River. The park also protects two mountain ranges. Hunters have been coming to this area for at least 12,500 years to Onion Portage where the caribou gather to cross the river. 

Neither of these parks has any roads. On our way to Gates of the Arctic, we flew over Kobuc Valley and landed at Ambler, AK, a remote village. Laron, Cathy and their equipment deplaned for their week camping and fishing in Kobuk Valley.

We took off and landed a short time later in Gates of the Arctic National Park on a gravel bar along the Ambler River.  It was raining quite hard. The river was a beautiful turquoise color. We deplaned and took a few photos in the rain. I can only imagine how gorgeous the river would have been in the sun! We took off again and headed back to the sand dunes at Kobuk Valley, our second park.  We landed on the sand dunes. There are 25 square miles of dunes. The dunes were created by the grinding of the glaciers.   It was still raining. We all took our photos and walked around a little. 

Then we headed back to Kotzebue. Our pilot Jared is one of the owners along with his dad and cousin. He was an excellent pilot and we felt very safe. All his landings and takeoffs were quick and smooth. We were amazed at quickly he got the plane airborne!

When we got back we learned that the forecast for the rest of the day wasn’t good, so the afternoon trips to GOTA and KV were rescheduled for tomorrow. We were lucky we got our two parks in today! We made another stop at the Northwest Arctic Heritage Center to see all the excellent exhibits and stopped for lunch at The Bison. As we walked back to our Airbnb in the rain, a bus stopped and asked us if we wanted a ride. It was two flight nurses that are stationed in Kotzebue. They gave us a ride to our house. We had booked our Airbnb and flights with extra time in town in case we didn’t get to fly today. So we spent the rest of the afternoon rebooking flights and hotels. We have visited 60 national parks! Only three more to go!