Arctic Alaska

Arctic Alaska, also referred to as Far North Alaska, is a vast region of Alaska extending from around the Arctic Circle to the Arctic Ocean.

Cities

• 1 Anaktuvuk Pass
• 2 Bald Head Summit Bald Head Summit (a mountain) is on the north shore of Norton Bay, 35 mi (56 km) NE of Elim.
• 3 Coldfoot — very small town, although an important stop with services on the Dalton Highway
• 4 Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay — town of oil operations at the northern end of Dalton Highway, just a few miles south of Arctic Ocean coast
• 5 Elim
• 6 Golovin
• 7 Kotzebue
• 8 Moses Point is a historic point at the mouth of Kwiniuk River on the north shore of Norton Bay, 8 8 mi (13 km) northeast of Elim.
• 9 Nome is the major city on the Seward Peninsula with a population of about 4,000 people, about half of whom are Alaska natives. It is the transportation and commerce center for Northwest Alaska and the western terminus of the Iditarod Trail.
• 10 Shaktoolik
• 11 Solomon — small town between Nome and Council, along the Nome-Council Road and Iditarod Trail
• 12 Teller
• 13 Unalakleet - large town along the Iditarod Trail and Norton Sound
• 14 Utqiaġvik (Barrow) — the northernmost town in the United States
• 15 White Mountain
• 16 Wiseman — small town 3 miles off Dalton Highway, with several historical buildings

Other destinations

Aerial view of Igichuk Hills, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, in summertime

• 1 Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is accessible from the tiny native settlement of 17 Kaktovik
• 2 Gates of the Arctic National Park - home to six wild and scenic rivers that offer opportunities for unparalleled wilderness experiences
• 3 Little Diomede — the westernmost point of North America (Save for the Aleutian Islands) is a small island in the Bering Strait almost on the International Date Line
• Western Arctic National Parklands - Western Arctic National Parklands is a unit which includes:

• 4 Bering Land Bridge National Preserve - During the Ice Age the people of Beringia were separated.
• 5 Cape Krusenstern National Monument - stretches 70 miles along the Chukchi Sea shoreline
• 6 Kobuk Valley National Park – Ancient arctic sand dunes and a sub-arctic river that traverses the boreal forest, this park harbors archeological sites more than 10,000 years old, and supports small communities of inland Inupiat peoples.
• 7 Noatak National Preserve – As one of North America's largest mountain-ringed river basins with an intact ecosystem, the Noatak River environs features some of the Arctic's finest arrays of plants and animals.

Talk

Native Inuit and Yupik languages are spoken in many small towns. However, English is the primary language, spoken by most Alaska Natives except perhaps the most elderly. There are only a handful of persons fluent in any other languages.

Get in

By plane

The main method of arriving to Arctic Alaska is by air. Alaska Airlines offers almost daily commercial flights to the cities of Barrow (Utqiaġvik) (BRW ^IATA), Deadhorse (SCC ^IATA), Kotzebue (OTZ ^IATA), Nome Airport (OME ^IATA) while Ravn Air only offers service to Unalakleet from Anchorage (ANC ^IATA). Additionally,Bering Air offers small turboprop services to additional towns/airstrips throughout the region, such as Anaktuvuk Pass Airport (AKP  ^IATA), Buckland Airport (BKC  ^IATA), Elim Airport (ELI ^IATA), and Unalakeet (UNK  ^IATA) from Nome, Anchorage and each other in this region. Additional destinations in the area and to/from Canada, the lower 48, and the Russian Far East can be made on a chartered basis.

By car

See also: Tips for road trips and Winter driving.

• The Dalton Highway (SR-11) connects Deadhorse and the Prudhoe Bay oilfields with Fairbanks. The highway is one of only two roads across the Arctic Circle in North America and provides a unique experience, running through the Brooks Range, Atigun Pass, North Slope and Coastal Plain. The highway can be accessed via the Steese and Elliot highways from Fairbanks. There are no roads connecting between Prudhoe Bay to Utqiaġvik (Barrow) along the north coast or anywhere in the region.

By bus

• Dalton Highway Express, ☏ +1 907 474-3555. Goes up from Fairbanks to Deadhorse in Prudhoe Bay through the Brooks Range along the Dalton Hwy (SR-11). They use the Ford Econoline E350 or the Chevy/GMC Express vans to transport passengers and cargo up along the Dalton Hwy rather than a full size bus. (updated Mar 2016)

Get around

Small planes, including ones with skis or pontoons, are the best way of accessing this remote and vast region. Most small towns have an airstrip or are located near a lake. Air travel in this region provides spectacular views of remote terrain and the only thing available to get around the vast distances of the region.

The Dalton Highway runs through the Brooks Range, North Slope, and Coastal Plain to Deadhorse. This road is a great way to view these remote areas without a plane. Additionally, several roads extend outward from Nome into surrounding areas.

Sled dogs may be used in wintery months, but the extreme cold of this region in the middle of the winter can be very treacherous. Most commonly, snowmachines are used to get from place to place in the long, dark winter of the Alaskan Arctic.

See

• Inupiat Heritage Center - On the rooftop of the world, the Iñupiat Heritage Center in Utqiaġvik tells the story of the Iñupiat people
• The Great Kobuk Sand Dunes - Left behind by the last great Ice Age, these sand dunes in the upper Kobuk Valley stretch over 100 square miles and appear for all the world to be a piece of the Sahara in the middle of Arctic tundra.

Itineraries

• Dalton Highway
• Iditarod Trail

Drink

It is important to note that many villages in this area of Alaska are dry, meaning that it is illegal to possess or to drink alcohol in them. This varies on a village by village basis, and is less common in the larger cities, so it is important to be aware of the rules in each village on your itinerary.

Sleep

In remote villages or towns too small to have hotels, it may be possible for schools to accommodate visitors, sometimes in classrooms converted into makeshift sleeping quarters.