Gates of the Arctic National Park Trivia
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47 free Gates of the Arctic National Park trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Gates of the Arctic National Park trivia quiz covers the vast, roadless park that sits entirely north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska's Brooks Range, the northernmost and least-visited national park in the United States. Questions cover the geography (eight and a half million acres, six wild rivers, Walker Lake, Mount Igikpak, the Arrigetch Peaks), the climate that swings from −75 °F to 90 °F, the tundra and boreal forest, and the caribou herds that stream through twice a year. History covers 12,500 years of nomadic hunters, the Nunamiut and the founding of Anaktuvuk Pass, forester Bob Marshall's 1929 naming of the 'Gates', his bestselling Arctic Village and his Wilderness Society, the Park Service's 1968 proposal, Jimmy Carter's 1978 monument and the 1980 Alaska lands act, plus the Dalton Highway, the pipeline and the proposed Ambler Road. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. If you enjoy this one, try our Denali and US National Parks quizzes next.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which line of latitude runs closest to the park's southern boundary?
The Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle, at about 66°33′ N, passes a short way south of the park; the whole park lies north of it, making it the northernmost national park in the United States.
Q 02How many recreation visitors did the park record in 2021?
7,362
The park recorded 7,362 recreation visits in 2021, the fewest of any US national park that year; by comparison Great Smoky Mountains, the busiest, drew more than 14 million.
Q 03Roughly how long is the Brooks Range, which the park protects the centre of?
About 700 miles
The Brooks Range runs about 700 miles (1,100 km) from the Chukchi Sea coast east across northern Alaska into Canada's Yukon; the park protects its central section.
Q 04In which year did Bob Marshall name the two peaks the 'Gates of the Arctic'?
1929
Bob Marshall coined the name in 1929, on his first trip up the North Fork of the Koyukuk, for the pair of peaks he saw framing the valley like a portal to the Arctic.
Q 05What is the name of the two mountains that form the 'Gates'?
Frigid Crags and Boreal Mountain
Boreal Mountain stands 6,375 feet and Frigid Crags 5,501 feet, facing each other across the North Fork of the Koyukuk.
Q 06Bob Marshall's bestselling 1933 book about the tiny Koyukuk settlement where he lived was called what?
Arctic Village
Arctic Village (1933) became a bestseller; it describes the Koyukuk gold-mining settlement where Marshall lived for about a year in 1930–31, and he shared the royalties with its residents.
Q 07Which conservation organisation did Bob Marshall spearhead and largely bankroll from 1935?
The Wilderness Society
Marshall co-founded The Wilderness Society in 1935 and paid most of its early bills; he died at 38 in 1939, and in 1964 the society helped pass the Wilderness Act.
Q 08Which president proclaimed Gates of the Arctic National Monument under the Antiquities Act?
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter proclaimed the monument on 1 December 1978, using the Antiquities Act to protect some 56 million acres of Alaska while the Alaska lands bill was stalled in Congress.
Q 09Which 1980 law turned the monument into today's park and preserve?
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act
The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), signed 2 December 1980, made the monument a national park and preserve; the 1971 Native Claims Settlement Act had triggered the federal land review behind it.
Q 10How large are the park and preserve combined?
About 8.5 million acres
The park and preserve together cover about 8.5 million acres (8,472,506 acres), an area larger than Belgium; roughly 85 percent of it is designated wilderness.
Q 11Together with the adjoining Noatak backcountry, the park's protected core forms what?
The largest contiguous wilderness in the United States
The Gates of the Arctic and Noatak wilderness areas adjoin to form the largest contiguous wilderness in the United States, close to 13 million acres; the Noatak basin is also the country's largest intact mountain-ringed river watershed.
Q 12How many roads, trails, campgrounds and visitor centres are inside the park?
None at all
Visitors arrive by bush plane or hike in from the highway to the east; a few informal ATV tracks lead out of the one settlement, but that is all.
Q 13Which road passes within about five miles of the park's eastern boundary?
Q 21What is the largest lake in the park?
Walker
Walker Lake, about 14 miles long and a mile wide on the south slope of the range near the Kobuk headwaters, is the park's largest lake and a National Natural Landmark.
Q 22How many Wild and Scenic Rivers does the park contain?
Six
Six: the Alatna, John, Kobuk, Tinayguk and North Fork Koyukuk wild rivers, plus the upper Noatak, were all designated in 1980 by the same act that created the park.
Q 23The Noatak River rises in the park's Schwatka Mountains and flows how far to the Chukchi Sea?
About 425 miles
The Noatak runs about 425 miles west from the Schwatka Mountains to Kotzebue Sound on the Chukchi Sea, most of that distance through Noatak National Preserve, and is a designated wild river.
The Dalton Highway
The Dalton Highway, built in 1974 as the haul road for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, runs 414 mostly unpaved miles north from Livengood; reaching the park from it means fording a river on foot.
Q 14Which Iñupiat settlement sits in the middle of the park, outside the wilderness designation?
Anaktuvuk Pass
Anaktuvuk Pass, the Nunamiut Iñupiat village on the divide between the John and Anaktuvuk rivers, is the only settlement inside the park boundary; its land was left out of the wilderness designation.
Q 15What does 'Nunamiut' mean?
People of the land
Nunamiut means 'people of the land': nuna is the Iñupiaq word for land and -miut means 'people of'. Unlike coastal Iñupiat who hunted whales and seals, they lived inland on caribou.
Q 16What does the name of the park's Nunamiut village mean in Iñupiaq?
Place of caribou droppings
The village's name means 'place of caribou droppings' in Iñupiaq, from anaq, 'dung'; the pass it sits in is a funnel for the caribou herds that cross the Brooks Range each spring and autumn.
Q 17The two peaks called the 'Gates' rise in which subrange of the Brooks Range?
Endicott Mountains
The Gates peaks stand in the Endicott Mountains, the central section of the Brooks Range; the same subrange holds Mount Doonerak and the John River valley.
Q 18The pipeline haul road crosses the Brooks Range east of the park at which pass?
Atigun Pass
The haul road crosses the Brooks Range at Atigun Pass, which at 4,739 feet is the highest highway pass in Alaska; the Trans-Alaska Pipeline crosses beside it.
Q 19The park is the northernmost range limit for which animal?
Dall sheep
Dall sheep, the white mountain sheep of Alaska and Yukon, reach the northern limit of their range in the Brooks Range; rams carry the curling amber horns prized by hunters.
Q 20Which sport fish is found in nearly every clear stream in the park?
Arctic grayling
Arctic grayling, with their tall, sail-like dorsal fin, live in almost every clear stream and lake in the park, feeding on insects in the brief Arctic summer.
Q 24What is the tallest mountain in the park?
Mount Igikpak
Mount Igikpak, in the Schwatka Mountains at the head of the Noatak, is the park's highest point at 8,276 feet (2,523 m); it was first climbed in 1968.
Q 25What does 'Arrigetch', the name of the park's famous cluster of granite spires, mean in Iñupiaq?
Fingers of the outstretched hand
Arrigetch means 'fingers of the outstretched hand' in Iñupiaq, a fitting name for this cluster of sheer granite spires west of the Alatna River, designated a National Natural Landmark in 1968.
Q 26The park straddles a continental divide separating the drainages of which two oceans?
The Pacific and the Arctic
The Pacific and the Arctic: rivers on the south slope feed the Koyukuk, Yukon and Bering Sea, an arm of the Pacific, while those north of the crest drain to the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean.
Q 27For how long have nomadic peoples lived in the Brooks Range?
As many as 12,500 years
Nomadic hunters have used the Brooks Range for as many as 12,500 years, since the end of the last ice age; the Arctic small tool tradition appears in the record about 4,500 years ago.
Q 28Which Northern Athabaskan people fought the Iñupiat in a great 19th-century battle and retreated south of the range?
The Gwich'in
They had lived in the area for the previous thousand years; the Gwich'in name for the Brooks Range is Gwazhał.
Q 29Where is the park's headquarters?
Fairbanks
The park's headquarters is in Fairbanks, on the Geist Road campus it shares with Yukon–Charley Rivers National Preserve; from there staff fly north to the park's gateway villages.
Q 30Who is allowed to hunt inside the national park portion (as opposed to the preserve)?
Local rural residents for subsistence
Only local rural residents may hunt in the park, for subsistence, a right written into the 1980 Alaska lands act; sport hunters are confined to the preserve units.