Northern Alaska Part Two - Wainwright to Nuiqsut to Barrow - and home!

Continuing my trip to Northern Alaska, on our last evening in Wainwright Chester took us on a boat ride across the inlet. We had originally planed to go up river, but the the weather was bad so we stuck to calmer waters. We donned Mustang suits to stay warm, and set out for a walk across the tundra and along the shore. Alana, who works with the Tribal government, did some salmonberry picking. Technically they're called low-bush salmonberries, also known locally as aqpik, and called cloud berries in Scandinavia. I'd had them before when we visited Sweden, but it took me a while to figure out they were the same thing. The boat trip back across the inlet was pretty choppy, but we made it after quite a bit of work getting unstuck from shallow sandbars.

Getting the boat ready.

Walking in our Mustang suits.

An old antler.

Chester working on some fishing line.

Chester was super nice and a great impromptu tour guide!

A mossy skull on the tundra.

The squishy ground stretches along for hundreds of miles.

Alana picked a lot of salmon berries!

Back on the boat.

Well I thought it was an enjoyable ride. :)

Pulling the boat back out of the water.

The next morning we said goodbye to Wainwright and caught a flight to our second town of the trip - Nuiqsut. It's much closer to Deadhorse / Prudhoe Bay, and as opposed to Wainwright it's located inland along a river rather than on the coast. It's also a bit smaller than Wainwright, with 400 people.

All of the cars coming to meet our flight out of Wainwright.

The North Slope police!

George with his harpoon.

Another foggy/rainy day.

Coming in for landing on the gravel airstrip at Nuiqsut.

An overview of Nuiqsut.

The Nuiqsut airport. It's not staffed, but it's a heated room.

Nuiqsut is very flat and sprawls across the tundra.

Our hotel was surprisingly large. It could easily host a hundred people. Mostly it's for oil workers.

I guess this is North Slope humor?

A lot of people smoke in northern Alaska.

Like in Wainwright, a lot of the dumpsters were painted.

Another painted dumpster.

Meeting with Tribal staff.

Photo of a whale hunt in the corporation office.

A cool carved totem in the office.

The Nuiqsut cemetery.

They had a nice basketball court in town.

Like everywhere in the North Slope, all of the buildings are elevated above the permafrost.

Trees! Well, kind of. These were by far the biggest plants I saw anywhere in Northern Alaska.

The central park.

"Underwater bicycle" or "sunken childhood."

We took a little walk away from town. The tundra was covered in little shallow lakes.

More sign humor.

George with one of the huge oil well trucks.

We had a short but productive day in Nuiqsut. It had much more of an oil presence than Wainwright, since there are wells nearby. The hotel felt a little more bustling, even though it wasn't very crowded. Plenty of people came in to get food to go, since the hotel restaurant is the only one in town.

The next morning I began my long journey home by catching the flight to Barrow (Utqiaġvik). We had about a 3 hour layover in Barrow, just enough to take a short driving tour of town with a colleague. Barrow is the northernmost settlement in the US, and it's much larger than any of the other north slope towns, with over 4,000 people. It has several restaurants and hotels, a large hospital, and it gets some tourists. We were able to see most of the town, including a short drive to the farthest north I've ever been (71.356715, -156.536517). This is exactly 200 miles further North than we were when we visited Narvik, Norway, the previous farthest North I'd ever been.

Amazon Prime is everywhere.

This time the plane only had 6 seats.

More of the unique tundra pattern.

Landing in Barrow.

The shores of Barrow from the plane.

Barrow is pretty large, so it has several churches.

A whale arch on the ocean.

The sun came out for a few minutes!

The whale arch with some boats. This is a big photo spot for tourists.

Surprisingly, Barrow has a turf football field for the high school.

This is the view from the farthest north road in the United States, at the turn around point. Just north of here is Point Barrow.

The farthest north billboard. I guess that's cool?

I didn't have much time in Barrow since we were just passing through, so I'd love to return some day, especially to try to spot a polar bear and other elusive arctic wildlife. But we had a flight to Anchorage to catch.

It was mostly cloudy for the whole flight (again) but I caught just a glimpse of the Alaska range.

They had Alaskan Icy Bay IPA on the plane!

And I had a beer in the airport before flying to Denver then Atlanta.

My trip to northern Alaska flew by, but it was a really amazing experience. I never imagined I'd stand on the shore of the Arctic Ocean or climb down into a permafrost cellar filled with whale meat. I only scratched the surface of a culture that is both American and sovereign, with deep traditions but an enthusiasm for new technology and improved methods. Our work there should help to prevent injuries and save resources. Hopefully one day I'll return!