| Lake Clark National Park and Preserve | |
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IUCN Category II (National Park)
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Lake Clark and the Chigmit Mountains |
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| Location | Lake and Peninsula Borough, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Bethel Census Area, and Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, USA |
| Nearest city | Anchorage |
| Area | 4,030,025 acres (1,630,893 ha) |
| Established | December 2, 1980 |
| Visitors | 7,463 (in 2010) |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
Established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve is a United States National Park in southwestern Alaska. The park includes many streams and lakes vital to the Bristol Bay salmon fishery. The park allows a wide variety of recreational activities year-round.
Lake Clark has been called "the essence of Alaska", for it concentrates in a relatively small area of the Alaska Peninsula, Southwest of Anchorage, a variety of features not found together in any of the other Alaska Parks: the junction of three mountain ranges, (the Alaska Range from the North, the Aleutian Range from the South, and the park's own rugged Chigmit Mountains), two active volcanoes (Iliamna and Redoubt), a coastline with rainforests on the East (similar to South East Alaska), a plateau with tundra on the West (similar to Arctic Alaska), and turquoise lakes.
No roads lead to the park and it can only be reached by small aircraft, floatplanes being the best method. The park, one of the least visited in the National Park System, averages just over 5,000 visitors per year.
The documentary film "Alone in the Wilderness" (2003) is set in what is now the park. Most of the film was taken in 1968 and shows the Twin Lakes portion of the park.
Originally a national monument, Lake Clark's status was changed to National Park and Preserve in 1980, and about two-thirds was designated Wilderness.
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2,619,550 acres (1,060,090 ha) of the National Park and Preserve is protected as the IUCN Category Ib Lake Clark Wilderness, where the Aleutian Range meets the Alaska Range in the Chigmit Mountains, an area known as Alaska's Alps. The mighty rain forest along Cook Inlet rises to alpine tundra and sparkling lakes sheltered by mountain fastnesses. Drainages plunge thunderously down hundreds of waterfalls. Vast numbers of moose, brown and black bears, wolves, wolverines, red foxes, Dall sheep, and caribou make their home here. Slender and 50 miles (80 km) long, Lake Clark itself reflects tall ragged spires of rock, and salmon and trout run in great numbers.
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