Alaska National Parks

About the Alaska National Parks

Alaska is home to 8 national parks: Denali National Park, Gates of the Arctic National Park, Glacier Bay National Park, Katmai National Park, Kenai Fjords National Park, Kobuk Valley National Park, Lake Clark National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Tap a park to check it off, drop a pin on the map, and track your progress — your checklist here counts toward the full National Park Tracker of every US national park. Each park links to its own guide with current hours, entrance fees, alerts, campgrounds, and things to do.

Alaska: Eight National Parks, Most of Them Roadless

Only California has more national parks than Alaska — and nowhere else has parks like these. Wrangell–St. Elias is the largest national park in America at 13.2 million acres, bigger than Switzerland. Denali surrounds the highest peak in North America at 20,310 feet. Gates of the Arctic lies entirely above the Arctic Circle with no roads and no trails, and neighboring Kobuk Valley hides 25 square miles of sand dunes where half a million caribou cross each year — the two of them are perennially the least-visited parks in the country.

The rest of the eight: Glacier Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where tidewater glaciers calve into the sea (most visitors arrive by cruise ship); Katmai, home of the brown bears that fish the falls at Brooks Camp and of the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes; Kenai Fjords, where the Harding Icefield spills glaciers into the Gulf of Alaska; and Lake Clark, a fly-in wilderness of turquoise water, steaming volcanoes and bear-filled salt marshes.

Practical reality: only three — Denali, Kenai Fjords and Wrangell–St. Elias — can be reached by road. The rest take a bush plane or a boat, which is why an Alaska parks trip is usually the crown jewel of a life list rather than the first entry on it.

Beyond the Parks: Other National Park Sites in Alaska

• Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park — Skagway's boomtown streets and the Chilkoot Trail, gateway of the 1898 stampede.
• Sitka National Historical Park — totem poles in a coastal rainforest, on the site of the 1804 battle between Tlingit warriors and Russian traders.
• Noatak National Preserve & Bering Land Bridge National Preserve — vast Arctic wilderness protecting one of America's greatest river basins and the land bridge where the first Americans crossed.
• Aniakchak National Monument — a six-mile-wide volcanic caldera on the Alaska Peninsula, arguably the least-visited unit in the entire park system.

All eight parks count toward your national park checklist — checking off Alaska alone gets you an eighth of the way to 63.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many national parks are in Alaska?

Alaska has 8 national parks: Denali National Park, Gates of the Arctic National Park, Glacier Bay National Park, Katmai National Park, Kenai Fjords National Park, Kobuk Valley National Park, Lake Clark National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

How do I track the Alaska national parks I've visited?

Tap a pin on the map or a park's photo to check it off. It counts toward your progress — both here and on the full National Park Tracker of all US national parks.

Can I download or share my Alaska parks map?

Yes. "Download Your Map" saves a personalized image of the parks you've checked off — ready to post so friends can compare.

National Parks in Other States

American Samoa (1) Arizona (3) Arkansas (1) California (9) Colorado (4) Florida (3) Hawaii (2) Idaho (1) Indiana (1) Kentucky (1) Maine (1) Michigan (1) Minnesota (1) Missouri (1) Montana (2) Nevada (1) New Mexico (2) North Carolina (1) North Dakota (1) Ohio (1) Oregon (1) South Carolina (1) South Dakota (2) Tennessee (1) Texas (2) Utah (5) Virgin Islands (1) Virginia (1) Washington (3) West Virginia (1) Wyoming (2)

Or see them all at once on the US National Park Tracker — the interactive checklist and map of every national park.