Way up in northern Alaska, far above the Arctic Circle, away from any roads, away from any other towns, away from any navigable rivers, smack dab in the middle of one of the most remote national parks in the American parks system is a small native Alaskan village surviving primarily on subsistence living and generations of tradition.  The community’s name is Anaktuvuk Pass and on a recent sunny day Julie and I had the rare chance to explore this small town and learn more about the fascinating people who live there.  And all of this because of the generosity of our kids and their partners.

How did this all come together? First of all, our kids and partners teamed up last year for my milestone birthday and gave me money to spend on something special when Julie and I were in Alaska.  Then we were hobbled for a week in Fairbanks with car trouble and this gave us the opportunity to do something we might not have otherwise done.

One of the themes of this trip is to visit as many national parks as possible.  There are eight national parks in Alaska but some of them are very remote and only accessible by plane.  So we chose a full day return scenic flight from Fairbanks to the seldom-visited Gates of the Arctic National Park and the only community in that park – Anaktuvuk Pass.  Google it to find it on the map – it is uber remote!

Anaktuvuk Pass, which means ‘place of caribou droppings’ in the local language of the Nunamiut (or Inland Eskimo) people, is about 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle on the north slope and the home of the last nomadic people of America.  In the early 1950’s these ancient people, who had been following and hunting caribou herds of the north for hundreds of years, finally settled in this beautiful valley partly in recognition of the changing modern times, encroachment of new settlers and hunters and to give their children a chance at a formal education.

The village, which currently has about 300 people, fell within the boundaries of the new Gates of Arctic National Park when it was founded in 1980.  In a unique arrangement the parks service agreed to allow the people to stay and continue their subsistence living, primarily depending on hunting the caribou, from within the national park.  This arrangement has had a few challenges over the years but is now said to be working well.

The only way to visit the park is by air as there are no roads, trails or facilities.  We jumped on an eight seat (that’s six passengers, the pilot and the empty co-pilot seat) Piper twin prop plane that was probably older than us for the 90 minute flight to Anaktuvuk Pass.  But what a flight it was, initially over the huge spruce forests, then the rolling arctic tundra plains, crossing the mighty Yukon River and finally climbing up and over the majestic Brooks Range.

The Brooks Range dominates northern Alaska and creates a natural barrier between the Arctic Ocean to the north and the rest of the state to the south.  Its highest peaks are jagged ridges of glacier-carved mountains with snow-melt braided rivers flowing through every crack and valley.  Our young pilot weaved his way up and over these peaks before skirting through a deep narrow valley, sometimes only clearing ridges or passing by mountain walls by a couple hundred feet, before landing on the gravel runway in the little community.

We were warned that the locals would be a little sensitive to outsiders wandering around but instead we were greeted by waves and friendly hellos everywhere we went.  This is not a prosperous community – most people live in small government-provided homes and their front yards feature combinations of old vehicles, old snowmobiles, old ATV’s and a local favourite – the eight wheeled open seating Argo.  A water truck delivers water to each house and generators provide the power but there is a health clinic and a fabulous new school that provides state schooling for almost 100 kids in K-12.

The town has a first class museum that tells the fascinating story of the Nunamiut people, nomadic hunters living a basic subsistence living who settled in this beautiful valley and now live comfortably as they straddle between their old world with important traditional ways and the complex modern world.

We had lunch at the ‘camp kitchen’ which turned out a pretty good ‘patty melt’ and visited their grocery store that provided all the basic western necessities for their simple requirements.  We were there on the first day school was open but learned that school will be closed during ‘the hunt’ when the caribou migrate through the valley in September and everyone in the community participates in this important event.  Without caribou to provide them with food for the winter and materials to make clothing and tools these people would struggle to survive.

Our flight out that afternoon was more exciting than the flight in.  Our new pilot was very short on safety instructions, ignored his seat belt and gave us some options on how we wanted to get home.  Without a moment more of delay he blitzed down the runway, banked hard left and headed up another narrow valley, clearly enjoying playing with his toy.

Pictures through old airplane windows don’t do justice to the amazing scenery we saw but the views were stunning.  He ran the obstacle course between the mountains and around the sheer cliffs, putting on a wild Indiana Jones performance.  At one stage he spotted a moose wallowing in a shallow lake and he banked hard right to give us a second look, skimming over the poor fellow by less than 100 feet.

We passed over the small road-less community of Bettles and tracked along the Alaska Pipeline for a while before zeroing in on Fairbanks and making a perfect landing.  It was a relieved ending to a perfect day – Gates of the Arctic National Park and the remote native Alaskan community of Anaktuvuk Pass.  That is one heck of a birthday present from the team back home!