The Noatak River

The Noatak River flows and forks unaltered to the Arctic Ocean.

NPS Photo/Ann Carlson

Unsurpassed Free-Flowing Beauty

Largely unaffected by adverse human activity, Noatak National Preserve protects a nationally significant, intact, and biologically diverse arctic-subarctic river basin ecosystem. The Noatak River is the largest mountain-ringed river basin and the longest free-flowing river in the United States. Designated as a Wild and Scenic River, the Noatak flows naturally without any diversion, impoundment, or waterway modifications for 330 miles; 265 miles of which run through Noatak National Preserve.

As a designated Wild and Scenic River, the Noatak River possesses high water quality, and outstandingly remarkable values for protecting wildlife, subsistence traditions, scenery, and recreational opportunities.

The Noatak River starts east in Gates of the Arctic National Park and flows westward past tundra, canyons, snow-capped peaks, and glacial valleys before draining into the Kotzebue Sound. Along its westward journey, the river meanders through 65 miles of dissected valley known as the Grand Canyon of the Noatak River. Carved by the river over millennia, the hills and mountains flanking its side helps to illustrate the dynamic power of water against stone.

Rugged and Peopled Since Time Immemorial

The Noatak Wilderness constitutes over 6 million acres, the western half of a 13-million-acre designated arctic wilderness that limits development and protects the nation’s largest unaltered river basin and free-flowing wild river. Encircled by mountains and underlain by permafrost, this expansive landscape extends from the western terminus of the Brooks Range to the headwaters of the Noatak River in the east – over 300 miles of unaltered, untamed landscape.

To some, the term “wilderness” may trigger images of land free of humans. However, Noatak National Preserve has been inhabited by the Iñupiat people since time immemorial. Within park boundaries, nearly 200 archeological sites, some dating back 5,000 years have been found so far. The national preserve helps protect these important sites and provides opportunities to study the cultural ecology of the Nuataagmiit homeland and some of the earliest New World cultural adaptations.