Our 12th park in this adventure was Kobuk Valley National Park in Alaska. The only way to access the park is by taking a plane. You fly from Anchorage, Alaska to Kotzebue (Kotz), Alaska and then hop on a little plane there to fly into the park. Like, Gates of the Arctic National Park it is one of the most remote in the entire National Park Service.
Usually flying to Kotzebue is not a very difficult thing to do. We happened to be flying there at the same time that President Obama was giving a speech about protecting the Arctic. We almost didn't make it in, but were able to hop onto the last flight before the stopped flights until after his visit.
Kobuk Valley is one of the parks that nags me to come back, I just don't feel like I did it justice. I flew in ran around on the dunes, jumped in the water and took some epic pictures of fall on the tundra. I want to hop into a raft and spend a week or two getting to know it. I don't know when, but I'll be back.