The sand dunes of Kobuk Valley National Park in Alaska/NPS
There are many units of the National Park System where you can explore and have fun on sand dunes – Death Valley National Park in California, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan, Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado … and Kobuk Valley National Park in Alaska.
According to park staff, Great Kobuk Sand Dunes are a popular destination for hiking and camping. If you fly your own plane, you can usually land right on the sand, they say. An alternative is to land on the Kobuk River in a float plane and backpack two miles across the tundra up to the dunes. However, getting there is an orienteering exercise that takes about 4 hours round trip from the river to the dunes.
Tents can be set up on any level surface and day hiking in any direction is possible. From hiking on the dunes in the summer and experiencing 100 degree Fahrenheit weather to observing the caribou migration in the fall, the sand dunes are truly a special place, the staff says.
Park staff say the sand was created "by the grinding action of ancient glaciers" and was carried to the Kobuk Valley by both wind and water. Dunes now cover much of the southern portion of the Kobuk Valley, where they are naturally stabilized by vegetation, they add.
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