Lake Clark National Park
Denali gets all the publicity when it comes to Alaska National Parks – and it is deserved. Coming in a very close second for us though is Lake Clark. We didn’t have a lot of expectations when we boarded the flight to Port Alsworth, but Lake Clark was absolutely stunning and we barely even scatched the surface on things to do here. You get everything here – glacier capped mountains, volcanoes steaming, beautiful turquoise lakes, and bears and salmon everywhere.
When to Go
The best mode of transportation in Lake Clark is by float plane and you can only do that if Lake Clark isn’t frozen – which it is from November to April each year. The best time to visit is in the July to August timeframe which has average temperatures around 55 degrees which is about as warm as it is going to get here. Even then – the weather could literally do anything. Our flight from Anchorage was delayed a couple hours due to a storm which also made our flight over very rough. So be patient and plan extra time around your trip to Lake Clark to build in a weather buffer.
How to Get Here
There are no roads or trails into the park – so you are going to be flying in. One thing to note – there are no commercial flights in from the major airlines either. So that leaves you taking smaller private aircraft and there are several operators who will fly you in from Anchorage. We chose to go with The Farm Lodge which is a family run business and has been for many decades. The Alsworth family homesteaded in Lake Clark in the 1940s and to this day – the family is still running The Farm Lodge and Lake Clark Air (which is what you will fly into the park on). Your flight into Lake Clark is one of the highlights as you go through majestic mountain ranges before having the turquoise waters of Lake Clark come into view. We had an extremely rough ride in due to storms in the area and actually Amanda hit her head on the roof of the plane during some turbulence (she was fine). If you choose the Farm Lodge – you will land on a runway right next to the lodge and the plane will taxi right up to it.
Trip Length
You can spend as much time here as you want – but each additional day obviously comes with a cost. We did a 2 day/1 night trip which was jammed packed with activities, and it cost about $3,600 in 2019. The lodging is a small piece of that overall cost as most is driven by taking float planes around to various locations since you can’t just walk on a trail to get to your destination. The more nights you add – the more activities you are going to do – and there is plenty to keep you busy if you have the means.
Where to Stay
As mentioned above, we stayed at the Farm Lodge which provided our transportation into the park, our lodging, and our activities during our stay. There are some other options, but realistically – the Farm Lodge is the only place that is going to be able to handle everything for you and we would highly recommend staying there. It isn’t going to be cheap – but not much in Alaska is. Your meals are covered during your stay as well which is nice. You will get a box lunch each day and an amazing dinner with all of the other guests. We had such a good experience here. They hire high school/college age kids for the season that either work as housekeeping/restaurant staff or plane crew (land and water). They treat all of their staff and guests like family.
What to Do
This park takes some advance planning. You are not going to be able to just show up at The Farm Lodge or anywhere else for that matter and play it by ear on what you are doing to do each day. The Farm Lodge will work with you when you are planning your trip to determine how you want to spend your time each day.
When we landed, we were supposed to immediately board a float plane and take off to Twin Lakes for some guided hiking. However, the weather wasn’t cooperating which is always a possibility in this park. We ate lunch and decided to wait it out a little longer. After an hour or two – it was decided, we were going to try and make the flight to Twin Lakes happen. We boarded the float planes and started to head towards Twin Lakes. The scenery is just amazing in this area. You fly over the turquoise waters of Lake Clark and have all kinds of snowcapped mountains in your view. The pilot mentioned they often see mountain goats around though we didn’t see any on this day. As we approached Twin Lakes, it became obvious we were not going to be landing there today. The winds had picked up and we could see whitecaps and waves up and down the lake. As safety is the main concern, the pilot called it off and had all the other planes turn around as well and head back to the lodge to try again another day. This is important to note for anyone more adventurous that decides to get dropped off in the wilderness for some backpacking/overnight stays. There were people camping at the lake that were scheduled to be picked up and because of the weather they had to stay another night. A good reminder to always be prepared. This was obviously concerning to us because we only had one more day left in the park. Unfortunately, these are the types of hiccups that you can encounter in Alaska. The key is to be flexible and make the most of whatever comes your way.
We landed back at the lodge and decided to hike to Tanalian Falls and Kontrashibuna Lake which are reachable from Port Alsworth. We were scheduled to do this the following day, but in order to free up time for another attempt at Twin Lakes, it made sense to do this on Day 1 instead. It took a couple hours as we took a wrong turn and headed down the wrong trail at first and had to turn around and find the right trail (everything is just harder in the remote wilderness). It was well worth the time. The lake was nice, but the highlight was certainly Tanalian Falls which were extremely powerful and beautiful. After a little time at the falls, we made our way back to the lodge and got ready for dinner.
When we woke up the next day, the weather seemed to be much calmer, at least at the lodge. We walked over to the visitor center to check out their exhibits and watch the park video. Unlike most NPS visitor centers that have large screens for viewing the park movie, we watched this one on the ranger’s laptop. Next, we headed back to the lodge to await word on our Twin Lakes trip. Luckily, the weather reports in that area were also good so we gave it another shot. This time, we were able to land the float planes on Twin Lakes and we met another ranger who actually gets to live in a cabin on the lake for the entire summer. This could be very lonely and isolated, but also amazing. We had a hike to Teetering Rock ahead of us, but first we were introduced to Dick Proenneke’s Historic Cabin. Incredibly, Dick lived in this cabin year-round for 30 years (1969-1999). That might not sound like much but wait until you visit to see where he lived. He had to live off the land and survive the unbelievably harsh winters. There is actually a book about it that you can enjoy: One Man’s Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey. Once we were done with the cabin, we headed up the trail to Teetering Rock. While the rock is cool, the main attraction on this hike is the view of Twin Lakes and the surrounding mountains along the way. When we were finished, we ate our sack lunch by the shore and waited for the float planes to return to take us back to the lodge.
Upon our return, we had one final activity to try and fit in before our flight back to Anchorage, a boat tour of Lake Clark. It was amazing to get out on the water with the views of the surrounding mountains. You make one stop to get out and stretch your legs. Our guide pulled up on a beach which was right next to a small creek feeding into the lake. As soon as we got onto the beach, we immediately noticed we had not been the only visitors that day. There were huge bear tracks all along the beach and it didn’t take long to figure out why. When we walked to the other side of the beach towards the forest, there was a pond which the small creek was feeding in and out of and it was full to the brim of salmon. This is likely a favorite meal spot for many bears although we didn’t actually see any during our short time at this location. We got back in the boat and made our way back to the lodge as it was time for us to head back to Anchorage. The flight back is a tour within itself. Views of the glaciers and mountains in the valley are all around you.
There is no doubt we will head back to the Farm Lodge at some point in the future. There are so many other things we wanted to do and just didn’t have the time in our first trip.