National Park Service units

Trails in Alaska

There are 8 National Park Service units that include territory in Alaska. The directory below links to every park guide we maintain for the state. For multi-state parks, you'll see the same entry on each state's page — the trail catalog itself is identical.

Trip planning from Alaska typically means balancing drive time against trail effort. A weekend out of state can be more efficient than a one-day push to a closer unit if it means daylight on the actual trail rather than behind the wheel. Use the per-park guides to compare difficulty and seasonality before locking in dates.

National Park

Denali National Park & Preserve

Six million acres of subarctic wilderness centered on Denali, the highest peak in North America at 20,310 feet, accessed by a single 92-mile gravel road.

📍 AK 🥾 7 trails
National Park

Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve

Trailless wilderness above the Arctic Circle in the central Brooks Range, with no roads, established campgrounds, or marked trails.

📍 AK 🥾 1 trail
National Park

Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve

Tidewater glaciers, rainforest, and protected marine waters in southeast Alaska, accessible primarily by boat or floatplane.

📍 AK 🥾 2 trails
National Park

Katmai National Park & Preserve

Volcanic landscape with the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and the world-famous Brooks Falls brown-bear viewing platforms.

📍 AK 🥾 2 trails
National Park

Kenai Fjords National Park

Coastal park of icefields, tidewater glaciers, and rugged fjords sheltering abundant marine wildlife on the Alaskan coast.

📍 AK 🥾 3 trails
National Park

Kobuk Valley National Park

Roadless arctic park protecting the migrating Western Arctic caribou herd and the unexpected Great Kobuk Sand Dunes.

📍 AK 🥾 1 trail
National Park

Lake Clark National Park & Preserve

Volcanoes, salmon rivers, and turquoise glacial lakes with no road access — a true bush-Alaska experience.

📍 AK 🥾 2 trails
National Park

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve

Largest U.S. national park at 13.2 million acres — a meeting of four major mountain ranges, with active volcanoes and the historic Kennecott copper mine.

📍 AK 🥾 4 trails