Kotzebue Alaska
Kotzebue Alaska - Plan Ahead
Kotzebue, Alaska is a small village by most standards. It has 3200 residents, the majority are native Inupiak people. Kotzebue is located 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle. It's the land of the Midnight Sun.
Kotzebue is also the largest village in the Northwest Arctic Borough, almost half the people in the borough live in Kotzebue.
In Alaska, a Borough is roughly the equivalent of a county in the lower 48 states, except much bigger. The Northwest Arctic Borough is about the size of the state of Indiana.
Getting to Kotzebue
Getting to Kotzebue is easy. Alaska Airlines has feeder service to dozens of smaller cities in Alaska. While airline service to a town of less than 3500 people might not be affordable in the rest of the United States, it works in Alaska. That's because the whole state of Alaska has fewer miles of roads than many larger cities in the country. Everything going into or out of Kotzebue is shipped by boat or by air.
In fact, Alaska Airlines has three (3) flights a day into and out of Kotzebue. We suggest you set your itinenary to fly in on Flight #151 on the day you are scheduled to go into the field. It's an early morning flight that will have you arriving around 7:30am
Why so early???? .....
Alaska Hunting Regulations
Your Alaska caribou hunting or Alaska moose hunting trip is made possible by the fine people at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. They're the ones who oversee the distribution of licenses and the drawing of specific tags.
They also are the ones who have set up some regulations that might seem strange to outsiders. One example would be how you have to handle the meat you take. We won't go into details here, because we want you to read the official Department of Fish and Game website in case they've made any changes.
Kotzebue Weather
If you're coming from the lower 48 for our Alaska caribou hunting, or Alaska moose hunting, you may be checking on the weather in Kotzebue as an indictor of the kind of weather you'll see out in the field.
Our advice: use it for some guidance, but remember that you may be a hundred or more miles inland, higher in elevation, and away from the ocean.
Generally, expect temperatures to be a little colder and conditions a bit windier, depending on the camp site you end up at for your hunt.
