Some National Parks are tough to get to. Then there’s Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley. There are no roads in/out of these Alaskan parks. The only way to visit is by bush or float plane. And if you want to stay overnight, then you need to wilderness camp. We’re pretty in tune with how to behave in bear country, but we’re a couple decades past trying to wilderness camp, let alone north of the Arctic Circle.
We visited Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic in June 2021
Getting
There
Most everyone we encountered on our trip to Gates/Kobuk was on a quest to visit National Parks and clearly, everyone had to work extra hard to get here. We accessed the park via Bettles, a former goldrush town from the late 1800’s. Now it’s a thriving metropolis of maybe 30 people, with a “lodge” that caters to park visitors in the summer and Aurora Borealis seekers in the winter. Bettles isn’t inside the park, but its WW2 airstrip is the closest for daytrips that land in both parks, giving visitors the chance to see the beautiful interiors and actually set foot inside the parks.
66.5 Degrees N
That’s a latitude, although it was unseasonably warm during our visit, which kicked off the mosquito season. We took a local tour of Old Bettles (goldrush) and when we landed our raft along the Kuyakuk River, the dragon sized mosquitos descended on us by the hundreds. Fortunately, we had nets to wear over our heads/torsos. Anyway, Bettles, as well as both Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic sits north of the Arctic Circle. That’s the imaginary line on the planet at 66.5 degrees latitude where the sun is visible 24 hours/day on the summer solstice. That means that our visit in mid June was never blessed with darkness. Fortunately, our blackout curtains allowed us to sleep, a little.
It’s the
Misadventures
You Remember
One day of our stay at the lodge was reserved for us to take a float plane from Bettles into both parks. We weren’t the only two on this adventure. When we were at Lake Clark NP the week prior, we met an amazing couple from Kansas City (Pam & Dennis Lee) that was completing their full list of 63 National Parks at Gates/Kobuk the same time of our visit. We were driven from the lodge to the lake with the floatplane and climbed aboard with our pilot. After starting the engine, he maneuvered the plane around for takeoff. But, as he throttled up the engine, it began backfiring loudly. We all looked at each other as he tried it again and it backfired again. Wisely, we pulled the plane back to the dock and called a mechanic while we rested back at the lodge for two hours. Well, the sequel was much better and we took off this time without issue. The flight to Kobuk Valley was uneventful, other than a few moose on the tundra below. We flew over the famous Great Sand Dunes which seem totally out of place in the Arctic. We landed the plane on the Kobuk River and learned that rivers can change significantly over the winter and spring. In this case, the change was a shifting sandbar into the part of the river where we landed and got stuck. This is where the real fun began. Our initial attempts to throttle off the bar failed, so our pilot shut off the plane, jumped into the river, and physically tried to push the plane off the bar. When that didn’t work, he decided we needed to lighten the load, so he told me (Mark) he was going to carry me to shore. And he did, but even that wasn’t enough to free the plane. And he kept pushing. Finally, I feared that he was going to have a heart attack and we’d all be stuck out in the middle of the Arctic as bear soft tacos, so I jumped into the river to assist. It wasn’t cold at all and maybe thigh deep. When I asked him which pontoon to push on, he stopped his pushing, looked me straight in the eye and said “they’re not pontoons, they’re floats.” Wow. I considered returning to shore and letting him have his heart attack, but chose to ignore the semantics argument and joined in the pushing. Eventually, we got the plane in a position to get free and unloaded Rainy, Dennis, and Pam safely to shore. At this point, the pilot told us he was going to fire up the engine and move the plane downstream to his intended beaching area. But he needed us to hold the plane in position while he got everything running. So, Rainy, Dennis, and I held onto the appropriate rope as he started up the engine and pointed the plane in the right direction. When he goosed the throttle to free the plane, the wash from the engine knocked all three of us backward and most of us onto the ground. It was like a blindside hit. The last thing I saw was my baseball hat flying up and away like something from The Wizard of Oz. We did get everything in order and enjoyed an hour exploring about the riverside (yes I found my hat up on a nearby hill). Our departure off the Kobuk River was seamless and we were off to Gates of the Arctic, 100+ miles away. It was a mostly clear day, but some clouds had settled around the Arrigetch Peaks, one of the iconic sites of the park. As we got closer, there was a partial clearing and we got to see most of these absolutely stunning peaks. They were even more abrupt and sharp than the Andes or anything we’d seen in North America. But we had to land in order to make our visit official, so we landed on Takahula Lake (we called it Taco Truck Lake) for a visit. It’s a beautiful lake with snowy mountain peaks all around. Here we took pictures with Dennis and Pam as they celebrated their 63rd and final (for now) National Park. Soon, the wind started kicking up and the skies began to darken. Our pilot called us back to the plane to get moving, so we left Takahula behind and began our flight back to Bettles. Even this was very cool, or scary depending on your disposition, as we dodged several thunderstorms in a few of the passes. Eric, our Bettles Lodge owner/host met us as disembarked and apologized for some of the difficulties we encountered. No apology required! We wouldn’t want it any other way. That’s a memory we’ll always remember.
The Bettles
Lodge
You don’t have a lot of choices for lodging if you’re venturing to this part of the world. That said, the Bettles Lodge was exactly what you need and exactly what you’d expect. It was an old, but well maintained facility that could host a few dozen visitors. It was early in the season, so there were maybe 6 of us there at any one time. They get more as the summer goes on and they also run Aurora tours in the winter. That must be amazing (and cold)! They also have a group (pack? herd? team?) of sled dogs that are super friendly. And some of the newer pups have clever names based on the challenge of the times. Anyway, booking the trip along with the air tour to the parks was a piece of cake and the couple of midstream changes was handled seamlessly. The lodge owners, Eric and Heather Fox were super friendly and genuinely driven to make sure everyone had a fantastic trip. The rooms were comfortable, clean, and most importantly dark. The food from the kitchen was good and plentiful. The difficulty to deliver these services shouldn’t be underestimated. Everything comes via air, except when the ice road is operational in the winter. Like the other places we’d hit in Alaska, everyone was great. Eric, Heather, and staff were happy to share and make sure the visitors were well taken care of. And fortunately for us, there’s an NP Visitor Center a few yards away from the lodge with passport stamps for both parks.
If you’re considering a visit to Gates/Kobuk, you’re likely either a National Park collector (like us) or an extreme adventurer looking for an ultra-remote, multi-day, off the grid, rafting/camping trip. In this case, you’ll want to pack a gun and a satellite phone. You’re on your own. Help is hours, if not days, away. Either way, the Bettles Lodge is a perfect jumping off point and you’ll almost certainly meet some awesome people.
