Alaska Regions: Far North
Lodges & Adventure Wildlife & Bear Viewing Alaska Cruise Tours Alaska Railroad Tour Packages Alaska In Winter Day Excursions & Activities Driving Packages Escorted Groups Arctic Cultural Fishing Alaska

Far North

Reach for the Extremes - Arctic Living


Regional InformationA Native Alaskan wearing a handmade Parka
The Far North is a sparsely populated arctic wilderness, a place where caribou outnumber people. Here you will find Athabascan, Inupiaq and Nunamiut Eskimo villages, where locals will tell you about their history, culture, and the ways their traditions have changed with the modern era. Barrow, Anaktuvuk Pass, Bettles, and Fort Yukon are some of the most visited villages.

 

Nome, located on the Bering Sea, is a Gold Rush town where you can still pan for gold right on the beach before dining on a fresh king crab feast. It also has a rich dog sledding history as the end of the Iditarod Trail. Deadhorse is a more recent community built at Prudhoe Bay when the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was under construction. The Pipeline carries oil 800 miles south from Prudhoe Bay to the terminal in Valdez.

 

Gates of the Arctic National Park, Kobuk Valley National Park, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, and other nationally protected lands cover much of the Far North. These undeveloped parks are not serviced by park rangers and are completely wild, irresistible to adventure seekers.

 

This is a land of extremes, where record temperatures range from 80 degrees below to 100 degrees above zero. In Barrow, the farthest north community in the US, the sun does not set for 75 days during the summer and it does not rise for 60 or more days of darkness in the winter.

 

Accessibility View of the Brooks Range from the Dalton Highway

There is only one highway that links this vast, remote region to the rest of Alaska. The Dalton Highway is mostly unpaved and prohibited by rental car agencies. The best way to travel the highway is on a van or bus tour from Fairbanks to the Arctic Circle, or the entire length of the highway to Prudhoe Bay. You will see the Pipeline at several points along this route, as well as the 2300-mile long Yukon River.

 

Most destinations in the Far North are accessible only by airplane. Alaska Airlines jets offer service to Barrow, Nome, and Kotzebue, while bush planes are used for Bettles, Anaktuvuk Pass, and other villages, national parks and wildlife refuges.

 

Select Tours

AN ALASKAN ODYSSEY Tour 200
11 Day/ 10 Night overland journey from the Gulf of Alaska to the Arctic Ocean. Travel by train, motorcoach and airplane to the Eskimo community of Barrow. Tour is roundtrip from Anchorage and includes Prince William Sound, Denali, Fairbanks, Coldfoot, Prudhoe Bay and Barrow.Musk Ox near Nome

 

NOME AND THE BERING LAND BRIDGE Tour 212
4 Day/ 3 Night tour to the edge of the ancient Bering Land Bridge that once connected Asia with North America. Recommended for adventurous travelers seeking off-the-beaten-track and unusual destinations.

 

BETTLES LODGE Tour 167
Stay at a remote lodge north of the Arctic Circle in the Brooks Range. Enjoy a village tour, as well as several optional excursions to raft distant rivers or tour Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley National Parks.

 

BARROW - TOP OF THE WORLD Tours 204-205-208-209
Journey with Alaska Airlines to the highest reaches of the Arctic. Barrow, located on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, is the largest Inupiaq Eskimo community in Alaska. Day and overnight tours from Anchorage and Fairbanks.

 

Please contact us if you have any questions about visiting Alaska's Far North or the services we offer.

 

Click to visit other regions of Alaska:

Far North - Interior - Southcentral - Southeast - Southwest

 


Alaska's Regions

top