Lake Clark National Park Things to Do

Watch bears dig­ging for clams, wan­der­ing the sedge grass, or nurs­ing their young – all in a short flight from Homer to Kat­mai or Lake Clark Nation­al Park. Smokey Bay’s bear tours last about five hours total — includ­ing flights and about three hours on the ground. On any giv­en day there will always be a morn­ing out­ing (leav­ing at 8 a.m. at the lat­est) and pos­si­bly one that leaves around 2 p.m.

View­ing brown bears in their nat­ur­al habi­tat is one of the most amaz­ing things you can do in Alas­ka. If it’s high on your list, book a flight-see­ing/ bear view­ing trip with Trail Ridge Air, know­ing that per­son­able pilots will take you to where bears splash and fish, and where vis­i­tors run out of words to describe their amazement.

For many Alaskan trav­el­ers, bears are the ulti­mate high­light. Pair a mag­nif­i­cent sight­ing with a gor­geous heli­copter flight­see­ing ride and you’ll have an unfor­get­table expe­ri­ence. On this unique tour from Homer, you’ll take a heli­copter ride out into one of Alaska’s gor­geous nation­al parks to wit­ness these spec­tac­u­lar crea­tures in the wild.

Hop aboard one of Regal Air’s planes depart­ing from Anchor­age and after a short, scenic flight you can be watch­ing enor­mous brown bears swat salmon from Alaska’s rush­ing waters. Tours vis­it one of two des­ti­na­tions: Lake Clark Nation­al Park or Brooks Falls in Kat­mai Nation­al Park.

Take off by sea­plane for an all-day bear-view­ing expe­di­tion. Fly past glac­i­ers and vol­ca­noes to the brown-bear coun­try of south­west Alas­ka. Your Sea­plane Bear Safari will take you to Brooks Riv­er Falls in Kat­mai Nation­al Park, home of the world ’ s largest salmon run. You can also fly 70 miles south­west of Anchor­age to Lake Clark Wilder­ness Pre­serve for amaz­ing bear view­ing and lux­u­ri­ous accom­mo­da­tions at the Redoubt Bay Lodge. Rust’s, which has  ...more

Fly out of Sol­dot­na with Natron’s own­er and pilot, Tim. You’ll soar over the Cook Inlet towards Mt. Iliamna Vol­cano and land on a beach, right where the bears are. You’ll watch them play­ing and clam­ming and be close enough to take amaz­ing photos.

With Alas­ka Air Ser­vice you’ll fly from Anchor­age to Lake Clark Nation­al Park, where they’re a licensed park con­ces­sion­aire. On the 6- to 7‑hour expe­di­tion with an inti­mate group (there’s a 4‑to‑1 guest-to-guide ratio), you’ll start with a land­ing inside the park on a beach or in the grass­lands to watch bears. Then you’ll trav­el, unrushed, to oth­er spots in the park. Few oper­a­tors include mul­ti­ple loca­tions, but show­ing you as much of the park’s  ...more

In the best way pos­si­ble. you’re out­num­bered by bears dur­ing your stay at this pri­vate fly-in wilder­ness camp. Fly by char­tered plane from Homer to Alas­ka Bear Camp on a 5‑night, 6‑day all-inclu­sive pack­age. This deluxe back­coun­try camp accom­mo­dates just 14 guests in some of the best bear habi­tat in the world. In con­trast to day trips cater­ing to dozens of vis­i­tors at a time, Bear Camp offers a rare and exclu­sive wilder­ness immersion.

You’ll spend either 4 or 7 days sail­ing around Lake Clark, expe­ri­enc­ing all the nat­ur­al majesty this nation­al park has to offer, with its many crag­gy moun­tains set close to the water. Anchor each night in a new loca­tion. Look for wildlife, hike, explore with kayaks and pad­dle­boards, and enjoy bon­fires on the beach. 

Choose this trip if you def­i­nite­ly want to vis­it Richard Proenneke’s cab­in and you want a chal­leng­ing hike. Of the main three Lake Clark back­pack­ing trips, this trip offers the most chal­leng­ing ter­rain and requires the most back­coun­try nav­i­ga­tion skills.

Choose this trip if you want to com­mit to few­er miles and don’t mind a lit­tle bushwack­ing. The flights for this trip are typ­i­cal­ly the least expen­sive of the trips list­ed here; since it’s the clos­est to Port Alsworth it requires less flight time.

This trail makes a loop around a small beaver pond and con­nects back via the Tana­lian Falls trail. It’s espe­cial­ly beau­ti­ful in fall, fall, when gold­en birch trees explode in col­or. This is the gen­tlest of the avail­able hikes in Port Alsworth.

This 12-plus-mile back­pack­ing route lets you see the park’s most icon­ic lakes: the alpine Turquoise Lake and the bore­al Twin Lakes. Wildlife is com­mon along this route, espe­cial­ly Dall sheep in the alpine val­leys between the lakes.

This is the most stren­u­ous of the hik­ing options in Port Alsworth, but the views are worth the effort. From the sum­mit of Tana­lian Moun­tain, you’ll enjoy a 360-degree view of Lake Clark, Kon­trashi­buna Lake, and the Chig­mit Mountains.

This rel­a­tive­ly lev­el, mod­er­ate­ly intense trail mean­ders through the for­est, with inter­mit­tent views of Lake Clark to the North, Tana­lian Moun­tain to the east, and Holey and Martha’s Moun­tains to the south. It ends at the impres­sive­ly pow­er­ful Tana­lian Falls. Make it a loop by return­ing via the Beaver Pond Loop.

This trail leaves from the Emer­son Creek delta, on the north side of Upper Twin Lakes, just east of the stream that con­nects the Upper and Low­er Twin Lakes. A good end­ing point is a large water­fall, 1.75 miles up the trail. You can stop at the bot­tom of the falls or climb a steep trail to the bluff above the falls. The trail con­tin­ues into the alpine, but even­tu­al­ly dis­ap­pears into the tundra.

Climb the only main­tained trail out­side of Port Alsworth. Fol­low the trail for one mile to cross Portage Creek. Con­tin­ue anoth­er two miles into the alpine tun­dra. From the end of the trail, you can explore for miles along an alpine ridge over­look­ing Lake Clark. 

Begin this hike on the Tana­lian Falls trail; con­tin­ue past the falls to the shores of Kon­trashi­buna Lake. This long, nar­row lake is nes­tled between steep moun­tains on either shore. The offi­cial trail ends at the lake, but a brushed, unmain­tained social trail con­tin­ues along the lake’s north shore. 

This trail leaves from the prim­i­tive camp­ground at Hope Creek. The trail fol­lows the south side of Hope Creek ascend­ing the creek’s val­ley for miles. This is a great val­ley for catch­ing a glimpse of black or brown bears or Dall sheep. 

This out-and-back trail leaves from the His­toric Proen­neke Cab­in site and ascends to a promi­nent point ½‑mile behind the cab­in to the north of Hope Creek. A unique­ly bal­anced rock marks the end of this trail and makes a great spot to take in the view of Upper Twin Lake. 

Lake Clark boasts some incred­i­ble fish­ing — whether fight­ing Dol­ly Var­den on a fly rod in the Chi­likadrot­na Riv­er or toss­ing a line into Upper Twin Lake in search of Grayling, Lake Clark’s boun­ti­ful lakes and many rivers mean you are nev­er far from excel­lent fish­ing. Guid­ing fish­ing is avail­able at sev­er­al of the lodges in Lake Clark.