Natural Creations: The Top 5 National Parks in Alaska

Denali National Park, Alaska

Denali National Park

Denali National Park It's more than a mountain. Denali National Park & Preserve features North America's highest mountain, 20,320-foot tall Mount McKinley. The Alaska Range also includes countless other spectacular mountains and many large glaciers. Denali's more than 6 million acres also encompass a complete sub-arctic eco-system with large mammals such as grizzly bears, wolves, Dall sheep, and moose. The park was established as Mt. McKinley National Park on Feb. 26, 1917. The original park was designated a wilderness area and incorporated into Denali National Park and Preserve in 1980. The Park was designated an international biosphere reserve in 1976.

The Top 5 National Parks in Alaska

Kenai Fjords National Park

Kenai Fjords National ParkSweeping from rocky coastline to glacier-crowned peaks, Kenai Fjords National Park encompasses 607,805 acres of unspoiled wilderness on the southeast coast of Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. The park is capped by the Harding Icefield, a relic from past ice-ages and the largest icefield entirely within U.S. borders. Visitors witness a landscape continuously shaped by glaciers, earthquakes, and storms. Orcas, otters, puffins, bear, moose and mountain goats are just a few of the numerous animals that make their home in this ever-changing place where mountains, ice and ocean meet.

Brown Bears Katmai National Park Alaska

Katmai National Park and Preserve

Best known for its Brown bears and large populations of Salmon and other sport fish, Katmai National Park and Preserve is located about 290 air miles southwest of Anchorage. The park is bounded by Shelikof Strait to the east, the Lake Iliamna watershed to the north, the Bristol Bay coastal plain to the west, and the Becharof Lake watershed to the south. Originally established as a National Monument in 1918 to preserve geological features related to the 1912 eruptions of Mt. Katmai and Novarupta volcano, the park was redesignated a national park and preserve as part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980.

Icebergs Glacier Bay National Park Alaska

Glacier Bay National Park And Preserve

Glacier Bay National Park is a 5,000 square mile area of Southeast Alaska that encompasses a diverse range of landscapes, scenery, vegetation, and wildlife. The namesake of Glacier Bay is of course, glaciers, and it is home to over 50. 10 of these glaciers are known as “tidewater” glaciers, and these are the glaciers that you can see up-close, on a Glacier Bay cruise. The bay itself, Glacier Bay, only makes up about 27% of the park, but it is most definitely the highlight of the park. A Cruise Ship is the best way to see Glacier Bay, as the only town near the park, Gustavus, is only accessible by air.

Lake clark national park alaska

Lake Clark National Park and Preserve

Lake Clark National Park and Preserve includes almost all of the rugged Chigmit Mountains, which are located at the convergence of the Alaska and Aleutian mountain ranges in Southwest Alaska. The Park and Preserve was created in 1980 under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. This act states that it is to be managed, "to protect the watershed necessary for the perpetuation of the red salmon fishery in Bristol Bay; to maintain unimpaired the scenic beauty and quality of portions of the Alaska Range and the Aleutian Range, including volcanoes, glaciers, wild rivers, lakes, waterfalls, and alpine meadows in their natural state; and to protect habitats for and populations of fish and wildlife, including, but not limited to caribou, Dall sheep, brown/grizzly bears, bald eagles, and peregrine falcons."

Wrangell St Elias National Park

Wrangell St Elias National Park

The Chugach, Wrangell, and St. Elias mountain ranges converge here in what is often referred to as the "mountain kingdom of North America." The largest unit of the National Park System and a day's drive east of Anchorage, the park-preserve includes the continent's largest assemblage of glaciers and the greatest collection of peaks above 16,000 feet. Mount St. Elias, at 18,008 feet, is the second highest peak in the United States. Adjacent to Canada's Kluane National Park, the site is characterized by remote mountains, valleys, wild rivers, and a variety of wildlife. Proclaimed as Wrangell-St. Elias National Monument Dec. 1,1978; established as a national park and preserve Dec. 2, 1980. Wilderness designated Dec. 2, 1980. Designated a World Heritage Site Oct. 24,1979.