How many national parks are in alaska

Getting There: Floatplane from Anchorage or Homer Time: Day trip for bear viewing, longer to stay at a lodge How to do it: Lake Clark offers bear viewing in an undeveloped area with fewer visitors. Here, coastal brown bears dig for clams or fish for salmon along the shore. Getting There: 1. The wide-open tundra makes it easy to hike for miles here. Visit the small native village of Anaktuvuk Pass to get a sense of life in the north, or plan a float trip on one of six Wild and Scenic Rivers.

Other remote national parks and preserves can be challenging to visit, requiring more time, a flexible schedule, and a budget that can cover charter flights and backcountry guides. Your reward for the high price tag is truly remote Alaska, and the prospect of seeing caribou migrating from the Brooks Range to the Seward Peninsula, or camping on Arctic sand dunes that can be feet tall.

Many preserves, public lands and state parks provide equally wild spaces and spectacular views. For example, Anchorage is nestled along the edge of Chugach State Park, and several convenient trailheads give immediate access to the park. The nearby Chugach National Forest further expands your options: hike to Thunderbird Falls , canoe on Eklutna Lake , go berry-picking, get great views of Anchorage from Flattop Peak , stroll through a temperate rainforest near Girdwood , or walk up to Byron Glacier and search for ice worms.

Visitors to Fairbanks appreciate the Chena River State Recreation Area and its miles of trails and year-round public-use cabins. Snowmachining, skiing, and dogsledding are popular winter pastimes here; canoeing, fishing, and camping are summer highlights. A short water taxi from Homer, the Kachemak Bay Recreation Area offers backcountry experiences just off the road system. Use the 80 miles of trail to find lakes, ridges, glaciers, valleys, and meadows, with campsites, public-use cabins, and yurts for rent along the way.

Wildlife and marine mammals are common, giving you chances to spot bear, moose, whales, and more. Expert Advice First Trip to Alaska? The restaurant at the Lodge is the only food available. Limited food options are available in Gustavus 10 miles away. Wrangell-St Elias is the largest national park in the United States!

In addition to being huge, it also includes 9 of the 16 highest peaks in the United States. It goes from glacier kissed ocean to over 18, feet at the top of Mt St Elias.

Mountains, glaciers, wildlife, wilderness. Make certain that your rental car company allows driving on gravel roads many do not. Make sure you have tire changing equipment and a spare, as gravel roads lead to more frequent flat tires. The McCarthy road is remote and gravel and a slow but incredibly scenic drive! Plan on the drive taking at least three hours for the 60 mile drive from Chitna each way. Make sure to bring food and water with you. There are a couple of food options in tiny McCarthy and a dining room at the Kennicott Glacier Lodge.

Otherwise there are no services and no gas. You can also fly in on a small plane. In the summer there is a shuttle between McCarthy and the Kennecott Mine Historic site which are about 5 miles apart. The park is open all year, but the best time for visitors is June through mid September. During this time, facilities are open for visitors and the road is maintained.

Early in the season there will be more mosquitoes, later in the season more cold weather. July is the most ideal time to visit this park.

There are couple of lodging options in McCarthy. There are a couple of campgrounds available along the McCarthy Road. In addition the national park service Jumbo Creek walk in campground is a favorite of many visitors.

It has no amenities of any kind and is a 1. The slow drive on the gravel park road 3 hours each way makes it impractical for a driving day trip.

If you are day tripping, take a local air taxi service and skip the road. The majority of rental car companies do not allow you to drive their cars on gravel roads such as the McCarthy Road. If you want to drive yourself, try a local, independent car rental company and make sure that gravel road driving is allowed.

Katmai National Park is known for bears and it is probably the bear capital of North America! Katmai is also home to many active volcanoes including Novarupta, home to the largest volcanic eruption in the 20th century worldwide in Volcanoes build new land all the time, blow themselves up and meanwhile glaciers and ice erode that land away. Katmai is one of the Alaska national parks that is not accessible by road and requires a flight on a small plane.

You can also fly there on a small plane directly from Anchorage. Summer is the only practical time to visit Katmai. The bear viewing is best in July and September when salmon runs are happening. Even in this remote Alaska national park, Brooks Camp gets quite busy, especially with fly in day trips.

Being ready for rain and wind anytime of year is imperative in Katmai. The Brooks Camp campground must be reserved in advance and has room for 60 campers. They also have a bear fence, cooking shelters and a food cache for storing food, cooking supplies and toiletries. It is also possible to backcountry camp in Katmai if you have extensive backcountry experience including very remote travel, river fords and off trail travel.

They also serve buffet meals three times a day. Plan extra days into your itinerary to account for the possibility of cancelled small plane flights due to weather. You will also need to bring everything with you to Katmai as there are no groceries available in the park. Bears rule in Katmai. A land of volcanoes and glaciers , like Katmai and much of Alaska and the Pacific Ring of Fire, these volcanoes constantly build mountains while also blowing themselves up from time to time.

Meanwhile glaciers both past and present, grind down the land to fine silt. Getting to Lake Clark National Park involves a flight in a small plane. There are wheeled planes that take you to beaches and gravel bars, or float planes that take you to lakes. Tour operators and lodges are in full swing June through September. Camping here is free but requires visitors picking up a free permit at the ranger station. Backcountry camping is popular at Glacier Bay and primarily done by kayak.

To do this, campers must complete a mandatory backcountry camping orientation and fill out a permit with the park service. For detailed backcountry camping information visit the parks backcountry camping page. Other lodging options in Gustavas include:. Lake Clark is home to some of the most extraordinary landscape scenery on the planet. This Alaska National Park is another one sculpted by glaciers and volcanic activity. The only problem, as is the case with most of the Alaska parks, is getting there.

Getting to Lake Clark, while not quite as difficult as Gates of the Arctic or Kobuk Valley, is still pretty darn tough. Visitors must take a small plane to reach jumping off points into the park. Lake Clark is one of the more remote Alaska National Parks which means getting there is logistically challenging. There are a few options, all of which require a flight on a small plane. The gateway town to the park is Port Alsworth which can be reached from Anchorage or another one of the small, nearby coastal towns like King Salmon, Homer, or Kodiak.

No, you cannot drive to Lake Clark National Park as it is too remote with no roads leading into the park itself.

The only way to access the park is by air or water, with flights being the easiest and most popular way. Good news here, folks! Lake Clark National Park does not charge an admission fee to access the park. There are no developed campgrounds or sites in Lake Clark National Park.

There is however, an abundance of camping opportunities of the make your own adventure variety. For detailed information on backcountry camping guidelines and rules visit the NPS page. Gates of the Arctic is a breathtakingly beautiful place that is nearly impossible for the average person to get to.

Getting into the park requires multiple flights, a guide to do it safely , and thousands of dollars. It seems to us this park would have been more fitting for a wilderness designation than a National Park. For that reason it ranks near the bottom of our list. Gates of the Arctic National Park is extremely remote and as such requires some work to get there.

The easiest way to get to Gates of the Arctic National Park is to catch a flight from Fairbanks to the small town of Bettles which is an hour or so by flight. Bettles is the best jumping off point for the park offering guide services and charter flights into the park. Gates of the Arctic does not have any developed campgrounds or lodging options other than the ones you create yourself.

Backcountry camping is the only way here. Do expect and plan for rain regardless of the forecast as the overwhelming odds are that you will see rain during your trip.

Kobuk Valley is a jaw-droppingly beautiful place that is nearly impossible for the average person to access. For that reason it ranks at the bottom as the official least accessible Alaska National park. To get there, one must first fly 1 hour 45 minutes from Anchorage to the extremely isolated town of Kotzebue.

From there you can pick up a flight and guide into the park. We actually ranked ALL 63 National Parks from best to worst using the same point system featured in this article here.

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As one of the newest national parks, the list of things to do at Pinnacles National Park is still growing but already full of fun activities.

A day in Katmai National Park could end up on an Alaska postcard. A brown bear snaps a jumping salmon out of The largest national park in the United States, everything about Wrangell-St.

Elias National Park is big. Close Menu. National Parks Near Anchorage. Denali National Park.