Lake Clark Alaska.

Lake Clark needs to be on your itinerary if you have a desire to see large and majestic waterfalls.

Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, is found on the western coast of Cook Inlet, south central Alaska; founded as a national monument in 1978, and then as a national park in 1980. The park encompasses a large area of the Aleutian Range.

The park and its scenery includes jagged peaks, glaciers, two active volcanoes with symmetrical cones, and hundreds of waterfalls. Lake Clark, the largest of the park’s many glacier lakes, is the headwaters for the most important North American spawning ground for red salmon.

Lake Clark National Park and Preserve is a composite of ecosystems representative of many regions of Alaska. The spectacular scenery stretches from the shores of Cook Inlet, across the Chigmit Mountains, to the tundra covered hills of the western interior. The Chigmits, where the Alaska and Aleutian Ranges meet, are an awesome, jagged array of mountains and glaciers which include two active volcanoes, Mt. Redoubt and Mt. Iliamna. Lake Clark, 40 miles long, and many other lakes and rivers within the park are critical salmon habitat to the Bristol Bay salmon fishery, one of the largest sockeye salmon fishing grounds in the world. Numerous lake and river systems in the park and preserve offer excellent fishing and wildlife viewing.

Summer is the time of life in Lake Clark as caribou calve, buds turn to leaves, mosquitoes hatch, and salmon return to spawn. Fireweed, lupine, blueberry, and bearberry abound. In autumn the burgundy-hued tundra blankets the slopes around Turquoise Lake. Fish include five species of salmon, rainbow trout, Dolly Varden, lake trout, northern pike, and arctic grayling. Dall sheep, caribou and moose forage the area. Brown and black bear are present, as well as wolves, lynx, foxes and other mammals.