Travel Guide Kobuk Valley National Park

This 7,085 km² park is located 25 miles above the Arctic Circle. It is bordered by two mountain ranges, the Waring Mountains to the south and the Baird Mountains to the north. It is best known for its sand dunes and for being on the caribou migration route. The migration occurs twice a year, in the spring to the north and in the fall to the south, for nearly 400,000 animals. It is closely linked to the survival of the Inupiaq who live from hunting. As for the dunes, they were formed by the crushing of the sediments of the ancient glaciers that the wind and water brought to the Kobuk valley where the vegetation gradually retained them.