Kobuk Valley National Park, along with Gates of the Arctic, are the least visited national parks. Kobuk Valley is larger than the state of Delaware. The park itself is over 1,750,000 acres. The Kobuk Sand Dunes are a small part of the park and cover about thirty square miles. The sand dunes are a relic of the last Ice Age and are located on the southern bank of the Kobuk River. So while the dunes are not necessarily typical of the park as a whole, it was nonetheless the part that we wanted to visit. The sand dunes are surrounded by boreal forest, much like we camped in at Gates of the Arctic NP.

We set up camp in Kobuk Valley the same as in Gates except that everything was sand and we didn’t have to cross a stream to do it. Flat ground was easy to come by but we still had to pack our baggage a short distance from where we landed. I suppose that it was about forty yards or so from our landing site to our camp tent and that much again to our sleeping tents. You can see us packing the short distance in the first photo.

Andrew and April had their tent near ours and you can see them after setup in the second photo. I chose the third photo to be at a distance on purpose. It gives a better understanding of our situation on the dunes. Our sleeping tents are on the left. Our camp tent is the larger tent to the right.

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Photos may make things look warm with all the sand but it was about the same temperature as in Gates except that there was nothing to block the wind.

I’m enjoying a cup of coffee the next morning and Andrew and April are up and about in the following photo. We were bundled up pretty well during breezy times.

On a side note, if you look just to the left of me or A&A in the photos and on the right side of the camp tent, you can see a white metal barrel. That’s where we kept all the food. It was completely bear proof.