Inside Gates of the Arctic National Park
Some landscapes become part of our imagination through their absolute otherness. Gates of the Arctic National Park exists at the outer edge of what the national park system contains — not just geographically, though it sits entirely above the Arctic Circle in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska, but philosophically. This is the park that has no roads leading to it, no trails within it, no visitor facilities inside its boundaries, no entrance station, and no fee. It is 8.5 million acres of arctic wilderness — larger than Switzerland — where the only way to arrive is by small aircraft or by walking in from the Dalton Highway, and where everything that happens after arrival is entirely the visitor’s responsibility.