Alaska National Parks

Alaska national parks are expansive and diverse. Their magnitude is difficult to comprehend, but their rewards are many and apparent. For climate and topography, "the Great Land" constitutes a virtual subcontinent. Seventeen National Park System areas protect representative natural, cultural, and historic features of this immense landscape. Ten were created by the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

Visit these Alaska National Parks:

Algnak Wild River: The headwaters of the Alagnak Wild River lie within the rugged Aleutian Range of neighboring Katmai National Park & Preserve. Meandering west towards Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea, the Alagnak traverses the beautiful Alaska Peninsula, providing an unparalleled opportunity to experience the unique wilderness, wildlife, and cultural heritage of southwest Alaska.

Algnak Weather     Algnak Ratings

Alaska Public Lands: Alaska's state and federal lands are rich and varied. The Alaska Public Lands Information Centers, inter-agency centers located in Tok, Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Ketchikan, allow visitors to stop by or write to just onespot for all the information needed to plan on an Alaskan adventure, whilealso educating people about Alaska's public lands, people, natural resourcesand recreational opportunities.

Alaska Public Lands Weather     Alaska Public Lands Ratings

Aleutian World War II National Historic Area: Perched on Mount Ballyhoo in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, the concrete remains of the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area speak silently of a time of war. This magical place was the stage for two American tragedies: here, servicemen fought both the Japanese and the extreme weather, as hundreds of native Unangan people were interned a thousand miles away, longing to return to their island homes.

Aleutian World War II Weather     Aleutian World War II Ratings

Aniakchak National Monument & Preserve: Midway down the wild and roadless Alaska Peninsula in the Ring of Fire lies one of the Nation’s most fascinating recent volcanic features. Aniakchak, part of the US National Parks, is a 6-mile-wide, 2,000-foot-deep caldera formed by the collapse of a 7,000-foot mountain.

Aniakchak Weather    Aniakchak Ratings

Bering Land Bridge National Preserve: It was the year 1990. Only three miles across the Bering Strait, you could see the land of your friends and family, but traveling there was forbidden. You were on Little Diomede Island in the US, but they were on Big Diomede Island, in what was then known as the USSR. During the Cold War the people of Beringia were separated.

Bering Land Bridge Weather     Bering Land Bridge Ratings

Cape Krusenstern National Monument: North of the Arctic Circle, Cape Krusenstern National Monument stretches 70 miles along the Chukchi Sea shoreline. Beach ridges provide evidence of 5000 years of human activity. Inupiat people continue to use the resources today. Vast wetlands provide food, water, and shelter for migratory birds. Hikers and boaters can see carpets of tundra wildflowers and sometimes musk oxen, moose, or caribou.

Cape Krusenstern Weather     Cape Krusenstern Ratings

Denali National Park & Preserve: Denali, the "High One," is the name Athabascan native people gave the massive peak that crowns the 600-mile-long Alaska Range.Denali's dynamic glaciated landscape supports a diversity of wildlife with grizzly bears, caribou, wolves, Dall sheep and moose. Summer slopes are graced with birds and wildflowers. Whether climbing or admiring, the crowning jewel of North America’s highest peak is the awe inspiring 20,320 foot Mount McKinley.

Denali: Wildlife, Taiga, and Tundra: More than 650 species of flowing plants as well as many species of mosses, lichens, fungi, algae, and others grace the slopes and valleys of Denali and support Denali wildlife

Denali Weather    Video    Denali Ratings

Gates of the Artic National Park & Preserve: The floatplane disappears, leaving you on the lakeshore. For the next two weeks you must survive using the knowledge, skills and gear you bring with you. Traveling through this vast wilderness you will discover craggy ridges, glacier carved valleys and fragile flowers. You will walk or float through intact ecosystems where people have lived with the land for thousands of years.

Gates of the Artic Weather     Gates of the Artic Ratings

Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve: The marine wilderness of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve includes tidewater glaciers, snow-capped mountain ranges, ocean coastlines, deep fjords, and freshwater rivers and lakes. This diverse land and seascape hosts a mosaic of plant communities and a variety of marine and terrestrial wildlife and presents many opportunities for adventuring and learning about this unique and powerful place.

Glacier Bay Weather     Glacier Bay Ratings

Inupiat Heritage Center: On the rooftop of the world, the Iñupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska tells the story of the Iñupiat people. They thrived for thousands of years in one of the harshest climates on Earth, hunting the bowhead whale whom they call "Agviq." In the 19th century, these lonely seas swarmed with commercial whalemen from New England, who also sought the bowhead for its valuable baleen and blubber.

Inupiat Weather     Inupiat Ratings

Katmai National Park & Preserve: Katmai was declared a national monument in 1918 to preserve the living laboratory of its cataclysmic 1912 volcanic eruption, particularly the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Since then most surface geothermal features have cooled, but protecting brown bears has become an equally compelling charge.

Katmai Weather     Katmai Ratings

Kenai Fjords National Park: Ice stretches across the Alaska horizon as far as the eye can see, interrupted by an occasional jagged nunatak, Eskimo for "lonely peak. The Harding Icefield’s expanse covers more than half of 607,805-acre Kenai Fjords National Park and conceals a mountain range under ice several thousand feet thick.

Kenai Fjords Weather     Kenai Fjords Ratings

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park: Gold! Headlines read in 1897, starting the rush. Thousands, hoping to ease the woes of economic depression, sold farms, dropped businesses and boarded ships to follow their dreams north. They braved icy passes to reach the interior of Canada, only to find the gold claims staked by prospectors who preceded them. A few struck gold; many more returned home penniless, yet richer for the adventure.

Klondike Gold Rush Weather     Klondike Gold Rush Ratings

Kobuk Valley National Park: Caribou, sand dunes, the Kobuk River, Onion Portage - just some of the facets of Kobuk Valley National Park. Half a million caribou migrate through, their tracks crisscrossing sculpted dunes. The Kobuk River is an ancient and current path for people and wildlife. For 9000 years, people came to Onion Portage to harvest caribou as they swam the river. Even today, that rich tradition continues.

Kobuk Valley Weather     Kobuk Valley Weather

Lake Clark National Park and Preserve: Lake Clark National Park’s nearly 2.6 million acres include the rugged Chigmit Mountains bounded by the Aleutian Range to the south and the Alaska Range to the north. Earthquakes, and glacier scraping, scouring, and mounding created the Chigmits’ awesome, jagged array of peaks.

Lake Clark Weather     Lake Clark Weather

Noatak Preserve: As one of North America's largest mountain-ringed river basins with an intact ecosystem, the Noatak River environs features some of the Arctic's finest arrays of plants and animals. The river is classified as a national wild and scenic river, and offers stunning wilderness float-trip opportunities - from deep in the Brooks Range to the tidewater of the Chukchi Sea.

Noatak Weather     Noatak Weather

Sitka National Historic Park: Sitka's story is one of exchange between cultures, economies, educational systems, technologies, and ideologies. Here, the cultural heritage of the Tlingit interacted with the traditions of the Russians and the Aleuts, Finns, and others who accompanied them.

Sitka Weather     Sitka Ratings

Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve: The Chugach, Wrangell, and Saint Elias ranges converge here in what is often referred to as the "mountain kingdom of North America." The largest unit of the National Park System, this spectacular wilderness includes the continent's largest assemblage of glaciers, and greatest collection of peaks above 16,000 feet, including 18,008' Mount St. Elias, the second highest peak in the United States.

Wrangell St. Elias Weather     Wrangell St. Elias Ratings

Yukon - Charley Rivers National Preserve: Located along the Canadian border in central Alaska, adventure begins in Yukon-Charley Rivers. Whether you choose to leisurely float the water of the mighty Yukon River in a state of the art vessel or homemade raft, or experience the premier whitewater of the Charley River in a sturdy and suitable inflatable, you will make memories to last a lifetime.

Yukon Charley Weather     Yukon Charley Ratings