As FOX Weather celebrates America’s 250th birthday, FOX Weather Senior Correspondent Robert Ray showcases the amazing national parks he’s covered in the American Southwest, including Utah’s “Mighty 5.” See some of the world’s greatest natural wonders:
ALASKA – The warm summer months offer the opportunity to enjoy the plethora of national parks throughout the U.S., each offering diverse landscapes and histories that helped shape this great nation.
Kobuk Valley National Park is home to a wide variety of nature and wildlife year-round, but it has an unlikely quality for a park in the Arctic.
Within the national park is the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, which look as if they do not belong within the great state of Alaska, generally known for its frigid temperatures and vast wilderness.
The Great Kobuk Sand Dunes.
(NPS PHOTO)
One of the park’s most iconic sites is the dunes, which can unexpectedly reach heights of 100 feet.
Despite being in the Arctic, summer temperatures can reach 100 degrees.
According to the National Park Service (NPS), these dunes are a relic of the last Ice Age about 28,000 years ago, when the planet cooled and glaciers began to form high in the mountains surrounding the valley.
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Caribou bone within the Kobuk Valley National Park sand dunes.
Over time, the slow, grinding advance and retreat of the glaciers ground the rocks beneath them, turning them into a fine sand which was blown by the wind into the Kobuk Valley.
“When the glaciers began to retreat 14,000 years ago, they left behind 200,000 acres of rolling dunes along the banks of the river,” said the NPS.
The result of thousands of years of development is three dune fields covering 25 miles of golden sand, known for hiking and camping.
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July 1972 – walking on dunes – Great Kobuk Sand Dunes, Alaska.
(HUM Images/Universal Images Group / Getty Images)
The raw beauty of Kobuk Valley’s dunes reflects the history of how our planet was shaped and how humans have lived in the valley for at least 8,000 years, primarily along the banks of the fish-filled Kobuk River.
Besides the dunes, the national park offers stunning wildlife viewing, hiking, camping, boating, fishing, and many other activities.
