Day 51 & 52 (July 4 & 5). Barrow

[Updated re-post of the pictures.]

Anchorage to Barrow by air, and back.

The next day was overcast with drizzle, and chilly.  Karen and I explored some more of Anchorage, then headed down to the airport to catch a flight to the town of Barrow, on the northern edge of Alaska, the northernmost town in the US.  We were hoping for some views of the Alaska Range with Denali, but the cloud cover was solid.  It did break after that, and we got some nice views of the Brooks Range, “The Gateway to the Arctic.” These are not nearly as high, and none were snow-capped, although the ravines on the north sides still had bits of snow.  Further north, there were some nice views of summer tundra.

Flight to Barrow.  Left: the Brooks Range. Right: Tundra in summer.

Once we landed in Barrow, Karen’s knee was bothering her from a stumble earlier in the week, so we just hung out at the “Top of the World” hotel.  Since we were well north of the Arctic Circle, I chose to try for a third time (after two cloudy/smoky nights in Inuvik) to get a shot of the fabled Midnight Sun. This time I succeeded; it was beautifully clear. Even better, since the hotel was close to the beach and near the “whalebone arch” that is their iconic structure, I got to take the shots over the Arctic Ocean.  The local time of this shot is 2:32 am, when the sun was at its lowest point, skimming the horizon.  The sun’s direction is due north, something you only see up here in the northern hemisphere.  You are actually looking over the pole to see the sun.

The next “morning,” Karen’s knee was better, and we took pictures of each other wading in the Arctic Ocean. Unlike Tuk, which was on an inlet, Barrow is exposed to the open sea.  Although the day was unusually warm, in the 60’s, the water was absolutely frigid.  We were later that there were ice floes on this seawater up until about two weeks ago; of course in winter it freezes up completely.  We collected some Arctic Ocean water, sand, and small rocks as souvenirs for a display that we will construct later.  Here is a shot of me ankle-deep in icewater. 

In the afternoon, a group of 7 or 8 intrepid explorers took a 4-hour bus tour of Barrow and the surrounding regions, seeing what there was to see and listening to a local (an Inuit) tell us about the place. Below is a photo taken of Karen and me by our guide, about a mile and a half south of Point Barrow itself – as far as the road went.  The point itself is faintly visible in the background.  I assume this is as far north as I will ever be – 71 degrees, 23 minutes. 

When the tour was over, it was about time to head to the airport for the flight back to Anchorage.  This time it was partly clear over the Alaska Range, and we got some great views of big, ice-covered mountains.  Below is one shot that may or may not be Denali. Karen had an early flight out in the morning so we drank a quick toast to Alaska and went to bed. 

The Alaska Range from the flight back.  The left may or may not be Denali. 

I will add a few words about the town of Barrow, now that I am back. It is home to about 4000 people, which makes it a big town for this region.  Most of the residents are Inuit or Dene, but there are people from all over the world here.  There are three grocery stores, and one gas station – there are a lot of trucks here, considering that there is no road to Barrow from lower Alaska.  The town has an elementary school, a middle school, a high school, and a two-year college.  In addition to the modern commercial airport, there is a large military runway that is no longer used for flights but is used by the locals for everything from unloading cargo ships to butchering the 25 bowhead whales they are allowed to harvest every year. There is still an American military presence here in the form of an old Distant Early Warning (DEW) radar site built in the 1950’s and meant to detect Soviet bombers flying over the pole, and it is still active as a research station.

The area has been occupied more-or-less continuously by humans for thousands of years. One of the cool sites we saw on the tour were these “mounds” on the edge of the sea with whale bones sticking out of them.  These are collapsed shelters built by ancient whale hunters, and the people who built them used whale bones as the supporting structure in this treeless place.  Carbon dating on some of the exposed whalebones you see in these pictures date back 2000 years.  The permafrost preserves everything.

Archaeological studies suggest these mounds are collapsed dwellings that were supported by whale bones (protruding).  The bones date back 2000 years and more. 

The modern town, which amazingly gets satellite TV, has no paved streets due to the issues of building on permafrost.  The houses, mostly one-story affairs, are built on pilings for the same reason, and often appear to be almost randomly oriented on their properties.  With the absence of basements and garages, almost every yard contains snowmobiles and pretty much anything else that does not need to be inside.  The result is a look that appears a bit disheveled, but I suspect that if I lived here year round my yard would look exactly the same. There were plenty of dogs, but none of them were running loose, and there wasn’t much litter. Part of me is tempted to come back in winter sometime, to see this place in its pre-eminent state.

Left: Our very nice hotel in Barrow, on piers and prefabricated.  Right: picture inside the elevator (!) of the whale bone arch in winter, with the ocean frozen.

Town of Barrow.  Left: Signpost and Will Rogers / Wily Post Memorial. Right: A Barrow street.