The north side of Atigun Pass is where the headwaters of the Atigun River come together. Here, on the other side of the continental divide, all rivers flow north to the Arctic Ocean. More interesting than that, though, is the absence of trees. I felt like i had walked into Iceland. Also, just like what happens when crossing the continental divide in Montana or Canada, the land on the other side is drier. The semi-arid climate, coupled with a 3 month growing season, makes it very hard for plants to grow, leaving most of the mountains completely barren just a few hundred feet up. It was definitely a kind of place i'd never been before, and i was reminded of what i'd previously read about it:
"Utterly remote wilderness and unpeopled distances characterize Gates of the Arctic. There are no signs, facilities, roads or trails in the park. In many areas of the park, it may be several days or weeks before you encounter another person. It is your responsiblity to choose where to go, decide how to travel, and have the appropriate equipment and skills..."
Walking into a seemingly timeless world of light and shadows gave me a new understanding of that passage, especially the part about having the appropriate equipment and skills. I was comfortable with the terrain on the south side of the mountains, but here in the treeless, barren mountains to the north i suddenly felt very inexperienced. Almost none of the mountains or lakes or streams had names anymore. Normal scale topo maps are not available for these regions. Going anywhere more than one valley over would make it easy to get confused about your location. The whole world of man is contained in the narrow strip of road and pipeline which, technically, is not in the park The park ends about a quarter mile from the road and starts again a quarter mile on the other side. For any practical conversation though, and in spite of the previous quote, it is a road through the park.
James Dalton Mountain and a big wild valley on the right that doubled the size of the Atigun River. I wonder which was named first, the highway or the mountain?
Gates of the Arctic National Park occupies 8.4 million acres. Yellowstone, the largest park in the lower 48, is 2.2 million acres. What's more, Gates of the Arctic shares borders with the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge is 20 million acres. Together, the two wilderness areas are the size of Ohio. But really, that's irrelevant because if you leave the protected areas nothing is any different, it's still empty wilderness with a few isolated Native communities scattered across a thousand miles of empty land.
Man, i sure wish i'd had a HD video camera so i could have done some time lapse footage of the sun and clouds moving across this place.
Galbraith Lake and grey stone slopes beyond. Without trees for reference, comprehending scale becomes difficult.
I ended up camping in the valley on the way back. At one point there was a boat (raft?) ramp by the Atigun River at the base of a craggy fortress looking mountain. The morning after, i decided to get experienced and climbed about 400 feet up the side of the mountain, to a plateau that was broad and flat on top.
The valley floor was covered with fields of tussocks. A three month growing season also means a three month decay window. With dead vegetation frozen most of the year, new growth actually outpaces decomposition. This creates wobbly mounds of plant colonies that can be hard on the ankles and often harbor watery pools on the permafrost between the tussocks. It's slow going but not too much to complain about. In time it is tiring. Above the tussocks (and similar to the Talkeetna tundra near Anchorage) it's like walking on deep padded carpet.
A mountain that deserves a name. The second picture on this blog is a close up of some of it's upper cliffs. At 15 minutes after midnight, the sun was still shining on the peak, so i don't know if it went down at all.
I confirmed on the way up that the rocks were indeed limestone, and within minutes found fossils. Specifically, crinoids, just like the ones you would find in Alabama! The upper bench was very spacious and flat, with some cool looking rugged valleys that bent around out of view. I was close enough to get a good detailed look at the upper cliffs and spotted numerous cave openings, one of which was easily reachable. Unfortunately i didn't bring a flashlight on my trip because i hadn't planned on seeing any darkness. I also didn't bring any water up with me, and it was starting to rain, and i couldn't breath without inhaling a couple of bugs every two minutes. Soooo, i didn't go check out the cave, but i'd go back there in an instant. There was tons of cool stuff to do in that valley.
There were numerous cave openings in these cliffs. A future expedition...
The Atigun River flows into Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Atigun Gorge is just visible ind the distance..
City park walking led to intriguing rugged valleys.
I didn't realize until weeks later, but climbing up to that plateau i had inadvertently wandered into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I didn't even know that was a place that you could walk into from the road. On the internet weeks later i found an account from 1978 (it's hard to find info about this area) of some people who rafted the Atigun River for a 4 or 5 days. They got in the river right where i camped and got out after it joined the larger, crazy sounding Sagavanirktok River. In their account they too mentioned spotting numerous caves in the Atigun Gorge area. There's virtually no exploration of that sort going on in the arctic. I wonder if the caves would be full of ice, being in a land of permafrost. You have to have liquid water though, to form a cave.
The pipeline stretches on towards oblivion.
Next Time: Welcome to MONGOLIA...
