Lake Clark National Park and Preserve

Infobox_protected_area | name = Lake Clark National Park and Preserve
iucn_category = II

---

caption =
locator_x = 27
locator_y = 165
location = Lake and Peninsula Borough, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Bethel Census Area, and Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, USA
nearest_city = Anchorage
lat_degrees = 60
lat_minutes = 58
lat_seconds = 0
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 153
long_minutes = 25
long_seconds = 0
long_direction = W
area = 4,030,025 acres (16,308 km²)
established = December 2, 1980
visitation_num = 5,549
visitation_year = 2007
governing_body = National Park ServiceEstablished 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.

ee also

* Richard Proenneke

External links

* [http://www.nps.gov/lacl Official NPS site]
* [http://www.photo-mark.com/articles/lakeclark/index.html Exploring the Sublime in Lake Clark National Park ]