North Fork Koyukuk River

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A couple weeks ago I floated on the North Fork Koyukuk River, a designated Wild River located entirely in Gate of the Arctic National Park. The river is where Robert Marshall traveled in the 1930s and had his revelation about the power of wilderness and the frontier on the human psyche. This experience is one of main things that would eventually lead to the founding of the Wilderness Society and then the creation of "Wilderness" as a land use designation. Gates of the Arctic NP is almost 9 million acres of designated Wilderness and we didn't see any other people the entire week we were out there, and that's pretty normal.

Smoke jumpers prepping for a drop in Bettles


The mountains were peaky.


The Middle Fork Koyukuk, we floated part of this too. It's like the North Fork but a bit bigger and less scenic.


This is the feature called "Gates of the Arctic". It marks the start of the super rugged mountain terrain. Marshall named it in 1929. On the left is Frigid Crags, on the right is Boreal Mountain. Each is about 6000' above the river bed in the middle. It was smokey that day due to wild fires to the north. You can see huge fields of Aufeis in the foreground. There's pics of that later.

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Like a lot of national parks in Alaska, you could hide a Yosemite in it and nobody would notice if they flew over it.

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There was a huge field of aufeis south of our put-in spot. Aufeis is formed on rivers when the frozen river breaks open and water flows out and then freezes to in deep sheeted layers. Aufeis is a killer if you are traveling on the river in the winter and it can be a hazard in the summer before it melts. We filled our water bottles on this one.

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What you don't see between the first and last photo in this series is the hail storm, the canoe dumping and rescue, and the lighting that danced along the ridge lines.

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We did some nice hikes.

That canyon in the middle ground has 1000' sheer cliff faces. Maybe a dozen people have been up there in last 50 years.


Fat fuck. To55er.


Teh Gates of the Arctic and Red Star Mountain.

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Shit loads of peregrine falcons nested in these cliffs.


Spot the human.

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2:00 in the morning.


An old cabin. Sometimes these remains have deeply personal shit in them (it's hard to remove things from a remote area so it is often left behind).


Where the North Fork hits the Middle Fork Koyukuk.

[The Obama Nation]

Awesome. Thanks for that.

I'm surprised you didn't see Mr. bear. Maybe the rape of the Bering pollack bycatch has killed the runs, and removed the bears from river patrols?

[rider5]

Canoes! That must have been a cold capsize. I was on one river trip where a guy brought a canoe - we switched boats some & it was a lot of fun on a river. You better have good quality dry bags.

Bob Marshall sure got around. As you probably know there's a wilderness area named after him in Montana.

Did you have to portage around the aufeis? How far?

I've noticed there's been a lot of fires in Alaska this summer. Do they fight them all or just the ones that threaten homes? It seems crazy to use smoke jumpers for anything less than saving houses there.


Thanks for the pics.

[The Obama Nation]

I've noticed there's been a lot of fires in Alaska this summer. Do they fight them all or just the ones that threaten homes? It seems crazy to use smoke jumpers for anything less than saving houses there.

There is a lot every summer.

One year, 6,000,000 acres burned- figure Massachusetts. I was in the middle of it. The town almost ran out of food because planes couldn't land for a week. Visibility was down to 50 feet at one point. The smoke lasted for two months. I developed a smoker's cough and I don't even smoke. One night, I thought the world was going to end. Fire surrounded the town on three sides, the smoke was so thick it blotted out the sun, and the sky glowed orange from the reflected fire. And it just snowed ash. It was amazing.

They concentrate on saving homes and cabins.

[section8]

We saw almost no widllife, although there was lots of wolf tracks and scat about and they were howling one night.


rider, the aufeis had melted back off the river so we didn't have to portage. it even had a nice little pull out spot for our boats.

Lots of fires in Alaska, usually more acres burn up here than in the lower 48. What we lack are the sprawling miles of mcmansions built right where wildfires occur and their attendant shrieking owners yelling at the fire crews. When I fought fires we always seemed to be saving communication towers.

The boats were grabner inflatable canoes. They are quicker and more responsive than rafts and still have good weight capacities. They work pretty good for easier rivers that require fly-in and that are longer trips with lots of weight. Compared to hard canoes, though, they are sloooooooooow.

[Harry Chorpita]

Great pics but those canoes look scary.

The weight of winter lies heavy on that place-quite barren.

[pezworld]

Oarsum.

[judik]

You had sun

[section8]

It was 90F one day.

[judik]

i don't believe it.In fact i think the pics were photoshopped.Our friend kept showing us pictures of perfectly clear skies and I didn't believe him either

[The Obama Nation]

i don't believe it.In fact i think the pics were photoshopped.Our friend kept showing us pictures of perfectly clear skies and I didn't believe him either

It's a whole different climate north of the Alaska Range. Hot, clear skies, and lightning storms. This holds until you are north of the Brooks Range, where it is treeless, can snow on any day, and the wind is constant from the NE at about 30 MPH.

This has been a particularly cold and rainy June. You should tell Al Gore. I built a fire this morning, June 30.

[judik]

This has been a particularly cold and rainy June.

Here too
Not uncommon in an El Nino year

I do want to go up further north on my next trip

[CatScanMan]

Incredible.

So this is what envy feels like.

[section8]

If it makes you feel worse, I got paid to go on that trip.

[CatScanMan]

Wankkker.

[avalon_]

Beautiful. I'm envious too.

[RandomThoughts]

Really pretty.

[purplegemini]

Beautiful! another envious poster here too.

[polardude1]

that's a nice backyard you have