With their scenic beauty and iconic geologic features , the United States ’ regalia of national park piddle for peachy places to visit . However , not all are as democratic as the ease – and Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in Alaska is the least visited of them all .
According to data from theNational Park Service(NPS ) , Gates of the Arctic received just 11,045 unpaid visits in 2023 . That ’s an increase of 16.8 percent compared to the old year , but it still chum up in equivalence to the 2023 figures for the most visited park , Great Smoky Mountains , which received 13,297,647 recreational visits .
It ’s not just Gates of the Arctic either ; Alaska has some of the least visited interior park of all , with Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve , Katmai National Park and Preserve ( habitation to the iconicFat Bear Week ) , Kobuk Valley National Park , and Lake Clark National Park and Preserve all pee the bottom 10 .
These mountains aren’t to be messed with.Image credit: NPS/Sean Tevebaugh viaFlickr(Public Domain)
So why are so few people visit these parks ? The account is perhaps surprisingly simple .
“ Alaska ’s national parks are some of the least visited for a sound reason — they are hard to get to , ” Peter Christian , chief of public and legislative affairs in the National Park Service ’s Alaska Region , toldCNN travelling .
As for Gates of the Arctic specifically , Christian toldUSA TODAY:“It ’s as uncivilized and remote a place as you may feel in North America . ”
Christian is n’t wrong ; while people have subsist in the area for at least 12,000 years , Gates of the Artic is3,428,701 hectares(8,472,505 acres ) of jolly much unadulterated wilderness . You ca n’t get to the park or preserve in the same manner as some of the more pop national parks – there areno roadstead or trailsinto it , so you have to hike up or fly in .
Even after harness the journey in , you ’re on your own . There are n’t any visitant facilities and so , accord to theNPS , those fare to the parkland “ must rely on the cognition , skills , and equipment they bring with them . ”
All that being say , if you ’re well - prepared to jaw , you ’ll likely be in for a treat . The Mungo Park and keep are home to the scenicBrooks Rangemountains , shaped by architectonic and wintry activity , as well as Brobdingnagian swathe ofboreal woodland , travel along by meadows and tundra .
Among these ecosystems can be found a superfluity ofwildlife , ranging from the strange feather - footed ptarmigan and Dall ’s sheep to big and iconic beasties like catamount , Ursus arctos horribilis bears , and Alces alces – all live against the odds during the freezing cold and scarce condition of the winter .
