Nature
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With their scenic beauty and iconic geological features, the United States’ array of national parks makes for great places to visit. However, not all are as popular as the rest – and Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in Alaska is the least visited of them all.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.According to data from the National Park Service (NPS), Gates of the Arctic received just 11,045 recreational visits in 2023. That’s an increase of 16.8 percent compared to the previous year, but it still pales in comparison 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 national parks of all, with Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Katmai National Park and Preserve (home to the iconic Fat Bear Week), Kobuk Valley National Park, and Lake Clark National Park and Preserve all making the bottom 10.
So why are so few people visiting these parks? The explanation is perhaps surprisingly simple.
“Alaska’s national parks are some of the least visited for a good reason — they are hard to get to,” Peter Christian, chief of public and legislative affairs in the National Park Service’s Alaska Region, told CNN Travel.
As for Gates of the Arctic specifically, Christian told USA TODAY:“It’s as wild and remote a place as you can find in North America.”
Christian isn’t wrong; while people have lived in the area for at least 12,000 years, Gates of the Artic is 3,428,701 hectares (8,472,505 acres) of pretty much unadulterated wilderness. You can’t access the park or preserve in the same way as some of the more popular national parks – there are no roads or trails into it, so you have to hike or fly in.
Even after tackling the journey in, you’re on your own. There aren’t any visitor facilities and so, according to the NPS, those coming to the park “must rely on the knowledge, skills, and equipment they bring with them.”
All that being said, if you’re well-prepared to visit, you’ll likely be in for a treat. The park and preserve are home to the scenic Brooks Range mountains, shaped by tectonic and glacial activity, as well as vast swathes of boreal forest, followed by meadows and tundra.
Among these ecosystems can be found a plethora of wildlife, ranging from the unusual feather-footed ptarmigans and Dall’s sheep to big and iconic beasties like lynx, grizzly bears, and moose – all surviving against the odds during the freezing cold and scarce conditions of the winter.
