Kobuk Valley National Park

Kobuk Valley National Park
Meanders in the Kobuk River from the air
Map showing the location of Kobuk Valley National Park
Map showing the location of Kobuk Valley National Park
Location in Alaska
Map showing the location of Kobuk Valley National Park
Map showing the location of Kobuk Valley National Park
Location in North America
LocationNorthwest Arctic Borough, Alaska, USA
Nearest cityKotzebue
Coordinates67°33′N 159°17′W / 67.550°N 159.283°W / 67.550; -159.283
Area1,750,716 acres (7,084.90 km2)[1]
EstablishedDecember 2, 1980
Visitors17,616 (in 2023)[2]
Governing bodyNational Park Service
Websitenps.gov/kova Edit this at Wikidata

Kobuk Valley National Park is a national park of the United States in the Arctic region of northwestern Alaska, located about 25 miles (40 km) north of the Arctic Circle. The park was designated in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act to preserve the 100 ft (30 m) high Great Kobuk Sand Dunes[3] and the surrounding area which includes caribou migration routes. Park visitors must bring all their own gear for backcountry camping, hiking, backpacking, boating, and dog sledding. No designated trails or roads exist in the park, which at 1,750,716 acres (2,735.5 sq mi; 7,084.9 km2),[1] is slightly larger than the state of Delaware.[4] Kobuk Valley is one of eight national parks in Alaska, the state with the second most national parks, surpassed only by California which has nine. The park is managed by the National Park Service.

Since no roads lead into the park, visitors arrive via chartered air taxi from Nome, Bettles, or Kotzebue. Flights are available year-round, but are weather dependent. The park is one of the least-visited American national parks,[5] along with others inaccessible by road, including the neighboring Gates of the Arctic, Isle Royale in the middle of Lake Superior, the Dry Tortugas at the end of the Florida Keys, as well as Katmai and Lake Clark in southern Alaska.

  1. ^ a b "Listing of acreage – December 31, 2011" (XLSX). Land Resource Division, National Park Service. Retrieved 2012-03-07. (National Park Service Acreage Reports)
  2. ^ "Annual Park Ranking Report for Recreation Visits in: 2023". nps.gov. National Park Service. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference npskova2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "State Area Measurements and Internal Point Coordinates" Archived 2018-03-16 at the Wayback Machine. census.gov. United States Census Bureau. 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  5. ^ "NPS Annual Recreation Visits Report". National Park Service. Retrieved 2019-03-08.