When people think states and big, they often attribute largeness to Texas because “everything bigger in Texas.” However, this is about as far from the truth as one can get. The real expression should be “everything is bigger in Alaska.” Alaska is the largest state in the country with the tallest mountains, the most glaciers, and the longest days. Even the wildlife and adventures in Alaska are larger than life. Private tours, custom tours, and family tours can be set up to accommodate groups of any size.
Alaska is home to eight national parks that encompass many of the natural features one would want to visit during a trip to Alaska.
Denali National Park is perhaps the most well-known national park in Alaska. Denali spans more than six million acres and is the home of Mount McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America at 20,237 feet in elevation. Denali National Park is the most visited national park in Alaska and includes a wide variety of sights to see including glaciers, unique rock formations, and incredible wildlife. Denali also houses the longest glacier in Alaska, the Kahiltna Glacier, which extends for over 44 miles. Dog-sledding, cross-country-skiing, and snowmobile riding (known as snow machining in Alaska) are popular activities in this park.
Glacier Bay National Park was founded in 1925 and comprises of 523,000 acres of public national park land and preserve. Most tourists arrive to the Glacier Bay using cruise ships where they can view the spectacular glacier and ice field landscapes. Grizzly bears, caribou, and dall sheep are abundant in their natural habitat.
Katmai National Park is named after the volcano Mount Katmai. At least 17 other volcanoes are also located on the nearly four million acre national park. One of the most famous tourist attractions is the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, where a 1912 eruption of Novarupta created a forty square mile pyroclastic flow with depths reaching 700 feet. Katmai National Park is also famous for its annual migration of grizzly bear, who go there to catch spawning
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is a national park and preserves expanding over 13 million acres of land. This national park contains some of the tallest mountains and largest glaciers on North America, some of them peaking at over 16,000 feet. Some notable glaciers include the Hubbard Glacier, the Malaspina Glacier, and the Nabesna Glacier.
Kenai Fjords National Park is a nearly 700,000 acre national park that protects the Harding Icefield, one of the largest ice fields in North America.
Kobuk Valley National Park is a nearly 2 million acre park famous for hiking and camping. There are no maintained roads or trails throughout the park. However, the park does contain migration routes used by caribou.
Gates of the Arctic is the northernmost and second largest national park in the United States, covering over seven million acres. The entire park is bound by the Arctic Circle.
Lake Clark National Park is a four million acre national park that is made up of hundreds of streams and lakes needed for the success for the Bristol Bay salmon fishery. Lake Clark National Park is only accessible by small boat or seaplane