Chugach National Forest

Spanning nearly 6.9 million acres of southcentral Alaska, the Chugach National Forest is the second largest national forest in the United States, stretching from the Copper River Delta on the east to the Kenai Peninsula on the west. The forest encompasses an extraordinary range of landscapes including massive tidewater glaciers, rugged coastal mountains of the Chugach Range, boreal forest, and the largest contiguous wetland on the Pacific Coast of North America. The Columbia Glacier, one of the fastest-moving glaciers in the world, calves enormous icebergs into Prince William Sound within the forest's boundaries.\n\nThe Chugach offers world-class salmon fishing on the Kenai and Russian Rivers, where millions of sockeye, silver, pink, and king salmon return each summer to spawn. Brown bears, moose, mountain goats, and Dall sheep inhabit the forest, while the Copper River Delta serves as a critical staging ground for millions of migratory shorebirds during spring migration, including the entire Pacific Flyway population of western sandpipers. The historic Iditarod Trail and the Alaska Railroad corridor pass through the forest, connecting communities and providing access to remote backcountry.\n\nRecreational opportunities include sea kayaking in Prince William Sound among glaciers and wildlife, hiking trails like the challenging Crow Pass Trail, backcountry skiing in deep powder, and fishing in over 3,000 streams and rivers. The forest also contains significant gold rush history, with remnants of mines and settlements from the early 1900s. For visitors seeking accessible glacial scenery, the Begich-Boggs Visitor Center at Portage Glacier and the 26-mile trail system around the town of Girdwood provide outstanding day-use opportunities within easy reach of Anchorage.