We parked in the gravel parking lot of the Interagency Visitor Center just before 4:00am.  The building serves as both the visitor center for Gates of the Arctic National Park as well as the local headquarters for the Bureau of Land Management and the Division of Fish and Wildlife Conservation.

It may have been before 4:00am but the sun was brightly shining…just the way it had been for the last several continuous days and nights.

Our journey had begun the prior evening just outside of Denali National Park.  Ten hours of driving overnight while staring directly into the Sun along the road ahead had done quite the number to our equilibrium.

Uke managed to fall asleep almost immediately after parking the truck.  After that long intensive drive, I wasn’t sure how he could have possibly stayed awake any longer.

Myself, on the other hand, of course, lay awake staring directly into the Sun which was perched well above the horizon.