Kobuk Valley National Park

Kobuk Valley National Park protects an Arctic anomaly - 25 square miles of active sand dunes located entirely above the Arctic Circle. These Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, rising 100 feet high and reaching 100°F in summer, create a surreal Sahara-like landscape surrounded by boreal forest and tundra. The dunes formed from glacial grinding and wind transport over millennia. The park serves as crucial habitat for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, numbering 250,000 animals undertaking one of Earth's great migrations. Twice yearly, caribou swim across the Kobuk River at traditional crossings used for thousands of years. Iñupiat peoples continue subsistence hunting at these same locations, maintaining cultural connections spanning generations. No roads or trails penetrate this 1.7-million-acre wilderness. The wild Kobuk River provides the primary travel corridor, its clear waters supporting abundant grayling and salmon. Grizzlies, wolves, and wolverines patrol vast expanses while millions of migrating birds nest in wetlands. This roadless park preserves an intact Arctic ecosystem where natural processes and indigenous lifeways continue uninterrupted.

Water Features

Kobuk River, wetlands

Ecosystem

This destination features a polar & tundra ecosystem.