Cape Krusenstern National Monument

By the time that Vicky and I had gotten back to Kotzebue from Kobuk Valley, Andrew had already booked us for a flight to the Cape Krusenstern National Monument.  Cape Krusenstern is another undeveloped wilderness area north of Kotzebue on the Chukchi Sea.  It’s got lots of coastline, large lagoons, narrow ponds, sandy and gravelly ridges, and a region of permafrost with only low growing plants and shrubs.

This area is also an archaeological preserve with evidence of perhaps as many as 9,000 years of human habitation.

This was another Golden Eagle Outfitters flight but this flight only took about twenty minutes.  We took the same two planes that we took to and back from the parks with the same pilots.

Our short flight still provided some interesting aerial views.  You can see some ‘Icy Polygons’ in the second photo.  These are linked ice wedges that create geometric patterns on the tundra.  The Arctic continued to fascinate us.

Our landing strip was very near the coast and the plants were very small and short but as we walked inland the plants got taller and woodier as you can see in the third photo.  

The ground looked relatively flat but it actually fluctuated up and down by several feet.  We crossed small streams and boggy areas like where April is in the fourth photo. 

We didn’t find any archeological evidence of human remains but we found plenty of bones and antlers as we walked across the plain.

The land looks pretty flat in the last photo but where are Vicky’s boots? 

The tundra was full of hummocks so it was more mounds and holes walking.  It was not hard to walk there but we had to pay some attention to our steps.