Arctic_Interagency_Visitor

Arctic Interagency Visitor Center (Alaska)

This visitor center is located in Coldfoot, Alaska, on
the Dalton Highway, a mostly gravel road which runs
up to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean. The visitor
center is north of the Arctic Circle. It is run jointly by
the National Park Service, the Fish & Wildlife
Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, all
divisions of the Department of Interior. I was there
in 2007 and found the displays about arctic Alaska to
be quite interesting, especially the one on how to
survive alone in such rugged terrain. The center is
five miles away from the edge of Gates of the Arctic
National Park & Preserve. That park site has no
visitor center. Those few people who visit it usually
fly in. One could hike into Gates of the Arctic from
the Dalton Highway but it would be strenuous and
you would have to be on the lookout for bears and
other animals.

Contact Information

Arctic Interagency Visitor Center
c/o Bureau of Land Management
1150 University Ave.
Fairbanks, AK 99709

(800) 437-7021 or (907) 474-2320

Link to the Bureau of Land Management Website
page for this site. Or link here.

Junior Refuge Manager
badge

Junior Ranger patch

The national parks in
northern Alaska, such
as Gates of the Arctic
National Park &
Preserve, Cape
Krusenstern National
Monument, and
Noatuk National
Preserve, are
extremely difficult to
reach. Those who go
there usually fly in on
chartered bush
planes. Thus very few
children go there and
these parks do not
have their own Junior
Ranger programs. If
you wanted to do a
Junior Ranger
program covering
these parks, you
would want to do the
one offered by the
Arctic Interagency
Visitor Center. That
too is difficult to reach
in person so you might
want to try to do it by
mail, like I did. (This
is like the situation
with the Alaska Public
Lands Information
Center.) Their Junior
Ranger booklet also
covers the Bureau of
Land Management
and the Fish & Wildlife
Service, which is why
the Junior Ranger
badge has the Fish &
Wildlife Service
insignia on it. I
included the badge
and patch here
because the Arctic
Interagency Visitor
Center is partially
managed by the
National Park Service.

Sam Maslow's

National Parks
Junior Ranger Site

Sam Maslow has over 300 Junior Ranger badges, patches, and pins.

Sam Maslow lectured on the Junior Ranger program to the 5th grade classes at Liberty Magent School, Sebastian, Florida, in Jan. 2008.

On his Alaska trip in 2007, Sam Maslow took a tour boat to Holgate Glacier, in Kenai Fjords National Park.

To reach the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center, one would have to either fly in to Coldfoot, Alaska, or drive north of the Arctic Circle to it on the harsh Dalton Highway, used mostly by truckers ferrying supplies between the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and Fairbanks.

There are no facilities on the Dalton Highway between Coldfoot and Prudhoe Bay -- 240 miles.

Inside the visitor center, my parents are pointing to where it is located, north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska.

Driving the Dalton Highway in Arctic Alaska - part 1

Driving the Dalton Highway in Arctic Alaska - part 2

Driving the Dalton Highway in Arctic Alaska - part 3

Driving the Dalton Highway in Arctic Alaska - part 4

Driving the Dalton Highway in Arctic Alaska - part 5

Driving the Dalton Highway in Arctic Alaska - part 6

Driving the Dalton Highway in Arctic Alaska - part 7

Globe display inside the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center

Arctic animal display inside the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center