Barrow Review

[RSF Cruiser]

We spent two nights in Barrow this past July, and as someone said to us, if you do your homework and know what to expect, you'll love Barrow. That said, Barrow is not for everyone. We went for two reasons - to visit a predominately native community above the arctic circle and see the midnight sun.

 

As I read and later observed, Barrow is a culture in transition from subsistence living to a cash economy. So we saw snowmobiles scattered in yards alongside wooden sleds. They use traditional wooden sleds to haul equipment and whales during the whaling season, but they don't use dogs to pull the sleds - they use snowmobiles. Many yards had drying racks with carabou ribs and hindquarters hanging on them - they still hunt for much of their food. They use traditional wooden ribbed boats covered in seal skin to hunt whales since they are fast and quiet (these boats were also scattered about), but they use motor boats to haul the whales back - no need to be quiet when you've already caught your whale... Yet it was summer, so we saw modern gas grills at the front door - no patios here.

 

It was fascinating to see how people adapt to such harsh living conditions. Gasoline gets delivered once a year in August by barge. Goods get there only by air year round. Large heavy things come by barge in August. So many things that might otherwise get thrown out in less harsh places are saved in case they are needed. And most of these things are saved in people's yards. So to some, the place looks rather dumpy. I thought it looked adaptive. You never know when you might need that spare car part.

 

When we arrived the sun was shining, but it was foggy most of the time and in the upper 30s/lower 40s. The breeze off the ocean was brutal. Our first night the sky cleared around 1:30 AM and we walked all over town and along the Arctic Ocean until about 5:00AM. We watched the sun hover above the horizon in the westerly sky, then it slowly "marched" across the horizon, through the northern sky, to the easterly sky where it started to rise. What an experience. Not many places where you can see this.

 

Barrow is barren - flat, no trees, gravel roads, and not very pretty in the usual sense. Yet, we saw two types of delicate arctic flowers in bloom, and got to walk on the squooshy tundra. We took a tour out to Point Barrow, and saw a snowy white owl. Driving on the gravely sand was quite an experience - our guide had us tighten our seat belts and instructed us to place our hands on the roof of the van so as we bounced around, we wouldn't hit our heads on the roof! I'm not a particularly religous person, but it was a spiritual experience to stand a the most northern point in the United States where the Chukchi and Beauford Seas of the Arctic Ocean join forces.

 

The Heritage Center has a wonderful bird exhibit and whaling museum that explains the old and new ways. The exhibits gave a wonderful background and explanation to what we were seeing in people's yards. Even if you are not with Tundra Tour (the main tour company that takes around most of the day trippers), you can pay to see the dance, song, and blanket toss demonstration at the Heritage Center.

 

We stayed at the King Eider Inn, which is across the street from the airport. We just wheeled our bags from the airport over to the hotel - a distance shorter than most lower 48 airport gates to baggage claim! King Eider is immaculate - mainly because they watch you like a hawk to be sure you don't walk anywhere in the hotel with your shoes on. With gravel roads, it's dusty in Barrow, and King Eider keeps the dust out by being a bit vigilant.

 

I find it hard to describe our experience. Before we went to Barrow I spent a lot of time surfing the net and saw many pictures and stories about Barrow, so I was pretty well prepared for what to expect. If you are interested in learning about living in an arctic environment, then Barrow is a great place to visit and I strongly recommend staying at least two nights.

 

Hope this writeup helps you decide if Barrow is a place for you to visit... We loved it.

[curiousl8y]

We spent two nights in Barrow this past July, and as someone said to us, if you do your homework and know what to expect, you'll love Barrow. That said, Barrow is not for everyone. We went for two reasons - to visit a predominately native community above the arctic circle and see the midnight sun.

 

As I read and later observed, Barrow is a culture in transition from subsistence living to a cash economy. So we saw snowmobiles scattered in yards alongside wooden sleds. They use traditional wooden sleds to haul equipment and whales during the whaling season, but they don't use dogs to pull the sleds - they use snowmobiles. Many yards had drying racks with carabou ribs and hindquarters hanging on them - they still hunt for much of their food. They use traditional wooden ribbed boats covered in seal skin to hunt whales since they are fast and quiet (these boats were also scattered about), but they use motor boats to haul the whales back - no need to be quiet when you've already caught your whale... Yet it was summer, so we saw modern gas grills at the front door - no patios here.

 

It was fascinating to see how people adapt to such harsh living conditions. Gasoline gets delivered once a year in August by barge. Goods get there only by air year round. Large heavy things come by barge in August. So many things that might otherwise get thrown out in less harsh places are saved in case they are needed. And most of these things are saved in people's yards. So to some, the place looks rather dumpy. I thought it looked adaptive. You never know when you might need that spare car part.

 

When we arrived the sun was shining, but it was foggy most of the time and in the upper 30s/lower 40s. The breeze off the ocean was brutal. Our first night the sky cleared around 1:30 AM and we walked all over town and along the Arctic Ocean until about 5:00AM. We watched the sun hover above the horizon in the westerly sky, then it slowly "marched" across the horizon, through the northern sky, to the easterly sky where it started to rise. What an experience. Not many places where you can see this.

 

Barrow is barren - flat, no trees, gravel roads, and not very pretty in the usual sense. Yet, we saw two types of delicate arctic flowers in bloom, and got to walk on the squooshy tundra. We took a tour out to Point Barrow, and saw a snowy white owl. Driving on the gravely sand was quite an experience - our guide had us tighten our seat belts and instructed us to place our hands on the roof of the van so as we bounced around, we wouldn't hit our heads on the roof! I'm not a particularly religous person, but it was a spiritual experience to stand a the most northern point in the United States where the Chukchi and Beauford Seas of the Arctic Ocean join forces.

 

The Heritage Center has a wonderful bird exhibit and whaling museum that explains the old and new ways. The exhibits gave a wonderful background and explanation to what we were seeing in people's yards. Even if you are not with Tundra Tour (the main tour company that takes around most of the day trippers), you can pay to see the dance, song, and blanket toss demonstration at the Heritage Center.

 

We stayed at the King Eider Inn, which is across the street from the airport. We just wheeled our bags from the airport over to the hotel - a distance shorter than most lower 48 airport gates to baggage claim! King Eider is immaculate - mainly because they watch you like a hawk to be sure you don't walk anywhere in the hotel with your shoes on. With gravel roads, it's dusty in Barrow, and King Eider keeps the dust out by being a bit vigilant.

 

I find it hard to describe our experience. Before we went to Barrow I spent a lot of time surfing the net and saw many pictures and stories about Barrow, so I was pretty well prepared for what to expect. If you are interested in learning about living in an arctic environment, then Barrow is a great place to visit and I strongly recommend staying at least two nights.

 

Hope this writeup helps you decide if Barrow is a place for you to visit... We loved it.

 

What a fascinating read, thanks!

 

We're not going to make it to Barrow this trip, but it's definitely on my itinerary someday.

 

No polar bears? I know they have 'em because I have a picture of the Barrow sign warning about them. :) I would dearly love to see a polar bear...

 

Linda

[fti]

Thanks too for your review. Barrow is on my potential list to see in 2009. I also had a question about whether you tried to see polar bears. Also, what did you do the full day you were there? Did you go to the point? Did you hire a taxi/driver to get you around?

 

What was the cost of the King Eider Inn? Did you leave any luggage in Fairbanks before flying to Barrow? If so, where?

 

Thanks.

 

John

[Yukon]

Excellent report, RSF. Is it ever foggy in Barrow this morning - http://www.gi.alaska.edu/snowice/sea-lake-ice/barrow_webcam.html (BRRRRR)

 

Linda, the polar bears can only be seen as the sea ice is forming (usually late September, but varies dramatically from year to year) and Barrow isn't a good spot anyway. For polar bears, do it properly and go to Churchill.

 

Murray

[RSF Cruiser]

What a fascinating read, thanks!

 

We're not going to make it to Barrow this trip, but it's definitely on my itinerary someday.

 

No polar bears? I know they have 'em because I have a picture of the Barrow sign warning about them. :) I would dearly love to see a polar bear...

 

Linda

 

And I didn't want to see any polar bears, either, because they are so dangerous. Here'a another interesting tid bit... When we were on our tour outside of town, our tour guide carried a rifle - just in case a polar bear swam to shore (which is really rare in the summer), or we came across some other wildlife that got spooked and charged us.

 

Thanks too for your review. Barrow is on my potential list to see in 2009. I also had a question about whether you tried to see polar bears. Also, what did you do the full day you were there? Did you go to the point? Did you hire a taxi/driver to get you around?

 

What was the cost of the King Eider Inn? Did you leave any luggage in Fairbanks before flying to Barrow? If so, where?

 

Thanks.

 

John

 

We did a more or less self guided walking tour - there's an excellent street map available. Barrow has two parts: Barrow and Browerville. We just walked up and down the streets, went into some stores, walked on the beach - while we were there a large pod of beluga whales went by. Spent a few hours at the Heritage Center. Took pictures under the famous whale bone arch. Saw the Will Rogers Monument. Checked out Pepe's (didn't eat there) and Top of the World Hotel. Barrow has tons of taxis zipping around, but we went everywhere on foot - that way we could stop wherever we wanted and take pictures. As you can tell by my writeup, I was fascinated by their yards and houses. There are some traditional looking houses, but people also live in quanset huts left from World War II, and converted containers from trucks or shipping cargo.

 

We hired Daniel for his 7:30 PM tour (got his name and number from King Eider). We were the only ones on the tour that night, so since we had seen so much on foot in Barrow he didn't repeat those things. We went out to Clear Lake where there are hundreds of birds, took a short hike on the tundra, drove through the gravel pit where he found some whale bones for us, saw the US Radar Warning System Station, and of course, went to the Point, toname just a few of the things we did. We were out with Daniel for about 4 hours. He charges $70 per person, and it was worth every cent. I doubt there was much we missed.

 

King Eider was $205 a night. We only had one suitcase each, so we had all of our luggage with us (Barrow was part of a 16 day land trip and since we wanted to easily carry everything, we ended up washing several times during the trip). Plus, Barrow was our last stop before returning to California.

 

Thanks Murray for the compliment...

[qiangf2]

fantastic review. How did you get there? Is there regular flight service between Barrow and Anchorage?

[RSF Cruiser]

fantastic review. How did you get there? Is there regular flight service between Barrow and Anchorage?

Thanks... We took an Alaska Airlines regularly scheduled flight from Anchorage. It stopped in Fairbanks, but we did not have to change planes. They have at least two flights each day each way. We left Anchorage around 2:00 PM, arrived in Barrow around 5:30ish, and left Barrow at 10:30 AM-ish. The flight was interesting because the front half of the plane was boarded off for cargo, so even thought the plane was pretty big, there weren't that many passengers on board - 10 or 15 rows of pasengers.

[qiangf2]

Thanks... We took an Alaska Airlines regularly scheduled flight from Anchorage. It stopped in Fairbanks, but we did not have to change planes. They have at least two flights each day each way. We left Anchorage around 2:00 PM, arrived in Barrow around 5:30ish, and left Barrow at 10:30 AM-ish. The flight was interesting because the front half of the plane was boarded off for cargo, so even thought the plane was pretty big, there weren't that many passengers on board - 10 or 15 rows of pasengers.

 

Thanks for the quick response. It is interesting to see a passenger plane gets boarded up for cargo space. I guess that's another uniqueness in Alaska.

[RSF Cruiser]

And cargo is a higher priority than passengers - we had to wait for the cargo to be unloaded before they unloaded our luggage. Took at least half an hour, maybe more. Since we stayed at the King Eider, we walked across the street and checked in while we were waiting for our luggage.

[qiangf2]

And cargo is a higher priority than passengers - we had to wait for the cargo to be unloaded before they unloaded our luggage. Took at least half an hour, maybe more. Since we stayed at the King Eider, we walked across the street and checked in while we were waiting for our luggage.

 

ahaa! It highlights how much those remote posts depend on the external world to supply those life essentials. Your experience is really intriguing, which makes me want to do more study in this area.

[tee_harbor]

RSF Cruiser, thanks for bumping this thread back up. I'd meant to reply when you first posted, thanking you for a really detailed review. I've always wanted to go to Barrow, and you've made me want to go more!

 

I also really appreciate your open attitude towards the appearance of a small AK town. I wince when I read reviews that toss around terms like 'junky' to describe our homes. Not that I don't agree with the description, but there're valid reasons for that appearance.

 

Alaska Airlines has package tours to Barrow, if a traveler don't want to do the work.

 

Barrow also has a new sight to check out: http://www.adn.com/sports/prep/football/story/9234603p-9150230c.html I saw the original story on ESPN and it reduced me to tears. I'm happy to see the field has been completed and the Whalers are off to a good start.

 

I could have sworn there's been issues with polar bears coming around Barrow, feeding off of the whale remains during the summers, but maybe I'm thinking of another Arctic town. As their food supply withers, and the ice they need to hunt melts away, I won't be surprised if they don't start approaching human settlements. :(

[RSF Cruiser]

RSF Cruiser, thanks for bumping this thread back up. I'd meant to reply when you first posted, thanking you for a really detailed review. I've always wanted to go to Barrow, and you've made me want to go more!

 

I also really appreciate your open attitude towards the appearance of a small AK town. I wince when I read reviews that toss around terms like 'junky' to describe our homes. Not that I don't agree with the description, but there're valid reasons for that appearance.

 

Alaska Airlines has package tours to Barrow, if a traveler don't want to do the work.

 

Barrow also has a new sight to check out: http://www.adn.com/sports/prep/football/story/9234603p-9150230c.html I saw the original story on ESPN and it reduced me to tears. I'm happy to see the field has been completed and the Whalers are off to a good start.

 

I could have sworn there's been issues with polar bears coming around Barrow, feeding off of the whale remains during the summers, but maybe I'm thinking of another Arctic town. As their food supply withers, and the ice they need to hunt melts away, I won't be surprised if they don't start approaching human settlements. :(

Glad you liked the review. We took an extensive land tour throughout Alaska, but I only wrote the review on Barrow, since I thought I had something to add to what others had written.

 

Actually, Giangf2 bumped the posting up...

 

Thanks for the link about the football game. I had read about the football team last year - I could tell the people of Barrow are investing in their children - the school facilities and focus on education was impressive - I read the junior college catalogue while sitting in the Barrow airport and their offerings are extensive and practical. And there were flyers for enrolling in the college on the tables at Arctic Pizza. Guess the adults are trying to build a positive future for the younger generation through education. I could feel the community pride.

[cruisernh]

Alaska Airlines has package tours to Barrow, if a traveler don't want to do the work. :(

 

 

 

The package through Alaska air is 499 for next year from looking at the prices is is about 20 bucks more seems worth it

[sharp_cruiser]

RFCruiser:

did you have any photos that you could post? thanks for the great report.

[RSF Cruiser]

RFCruiser:

did you have any photos that you could post? thanks for the great report.

I have an album on kodak.com. I require people to sign in, so if you send me your email address, I'll send you an invite to my kodak.com album.