Chugach State Park is located in Southcentral Alaska and is one of the biggest state parks in the United States. It is made up of 495,000 acres of land. It contains extensive ocean shorelines, abundant lakes, massive glaciers, and ice fields. The park's westernmost boundary lies in the western foothills of the Chugach Mountain Range and is a mere seven miles to the West of downtown Anchorage.
This State Park was created as a playground for outdoor enthusiasts. There are so many beautiful areas to enjoy with family or on your own. There is a private shuttle that is offered that they prefer you to use during summer hours when the peak of business is present.
The forest is used mostly for tourism, recreation, mining, and commercial fishing. You can kayak, boat, hike, ski, bird watch, and angle fishing. Mining, including coal and hard rock operations, oil, and gas development are found in this forest. There isn't very much mining that is happening anymore.
Just before this area was called the Chugach National Forest it was a home for the Native Americans. They settled this land thousands of years ago around the mid-1700s and then settled by the Russian fur traders. The fur traders trapped sea otters in this National Forest. In 1867, the US purchased Alaska from Russia and now it is a part of the US.
