Kobuk Valley National Park is also mountain enclosed — by the Baird and Waring mountains. Major natural features that the park protects include the central section of the Kobuk River, the 25-square-mile Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, and the Little Kobuk and Hunt River dunes. Additional dunes that have been stabilized by vegetation now cover much of the southern portion of the Kobuk Valley. Sand created by the grinding action of ancient glaciers has been carried to the Kobuk Valley by winds — westerly in summer and easterly the rest of the year — and by water. River bluffs composed of sand and standing as much as 150 feet high, hold permafrost ice wedges and the fossils of Ice Age mammals. Up to 1,500 feet wide, the placid Kobuk River falls a mere 2 to 3 inches per mile. Its valley provides important fall and winter range for the western arctic caribou herd. Bands of bulls and cows may be seen here from late August through October as they migrate across the Kobuk River on their extensive annual migrations.

Native people have lived along the Kobuk for at least 12,000 years. Their history is best recorded at the Onion Portage archeological site. The Salmon River, within Kobuk Valley National Park, is classified as a national wild and scenic river.

Activities on Kobuk Valley National Park

Motorboats, kayaks, canoes, and rafts are used on the river for a variety of floating experiences. The Great Kobuk Sand Dunes can be reached at their northern tip — once you have floated the river into hiking range, that is — by an easy cross-country hike from the Kobuk River following the uplands near Kavet Creek.

Caribou

Caribou migrations are one of the wonders of the subarctic and arctic realms. Traditionally, caribou have been among this region's chief food sources for humans, predators, and scavengers. The populations of some other animal species may even fluctuate with that of the caribou. Native peoples have depended on caribou for food, clothing, shelter, and tools, using the entire animal. For food: meat, greens from the stomach, and fat. For clothing: hides for coats called parkies, trousers, boots called mukluks, and mittens, plus sinew to sew them. For shelter: hides for tents. For tools: antler and bone for needles, sleigh brakes, fish spears, knife handles, arrowheads, hide scrapers, and snow shovels.

Truly migratory, caribou move about the tundra in constant search of plants and food to support their body weight: 150 to 300 pounds for bulls. Tundra is a mat of mostly prostrate vegetation that can grow where short summer s and other conditions preclude tree growth. Tundra is underlain by permanently frozen ground called permafrost. The ground surfaces of wet tundra and moist tundra thaw in the summer and stay waterlogged because permafrost prevents real drainage. Alpine tundra often grows on rocky ground that drains very rapidly: the ground thaws in summer, but plants must resist drying out.

Caribou feed on grass-like sedges; small shrubs and their berries; and twigs and bark. In winter, when these are not available, they eat significant amounts of lichens called reindeer moss. Caribou can dig through snow to find food unless the crust is too hard, in which case they may suffer malnutrition and even starve. Besides predators, the chief antagonist of caribou in summer are the caribou warble fly, caribou nostril fly, black fly and mosquito. Caribou may even stop eating while trying to avoid the Arctic's summer hordes of biting insects. Mosquitoes, however, are an important food source — converting the productivity of plants into protein — that sustains abundant bird and fish life in the north.

Known as "nomads of the north", caribou have lived in most of Alaska except its southeastern panhandle. In their yearly wanderings, caribou of the western arctic herd range over 140,000 square miles, including the entire three parks that make up the Northwest Alaska Areas. The herd — North America's largest — is more than 300,000 at this writing.

Spring migration begins in March: the herds main body crosses the Nobuk and Noatak Rivers moving northward to calving grounds on the Arctic Coastal Plain. Many of the caribou begin to cross the Noatak southward in late August and the Kobuk in September. The winter range lies south of Kobuk National Park and the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge.

The principal predators of the caribou are wolf and bear. Wolverines, foxes and eagles prey on calves. Any of the above, as well as weasels, lemmings, some hawks, ravens, Canada jays, and gulls will scavenge caribou carcasses. Some wolves, especially on North Slope calving areas, will follow the caribou herd. However, many wolves reside in specific locations.

Wolves hunt caribou by stealth and ambush, by relay running, or by culling victims of falls from running in a tightly massed herd. Healthy adult caribou can normally outrun single wolves and have the advantage on ice. Wolves have the advantage on soft tundra and in some snow conditions.

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