Wood-Tikchik State Park is a state park in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

north of Dillingham. Over (6,500 km²) in area—about the size of the state of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

—, comprising more than half of all state park land in Alaska and 15% of the total state park land in the country.Wood-Tikchik State Park, Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation, Alaska Department of Natural Resources
/ref>WT Park Unit

Alaska Department of Natural Resources The Alaska Department of Natural Resources is a department within the government of Alaska in the United States of America. The department has the mission of responsibly developing Alaska's resources by making them available for maximum use and ...

Despite being the largest state park in the nation, the park had no staff whatsoever for its first five years, and even now at times only a single ranger is in charge of patrolling the entire park, usually by aircraft.

History

Yup'ik The Yup'ik or Yupiaq (sg & pl) and Yupiit or Yupiat (pl), also Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Central Yup'ik, Alaskan Yup'ik ( own name ''Yup'ik'' sg ''Yupiik'' dual ''Yupiit'' pl; russian: Юпики центральной Аляски), are an I ...

people inhabited the area that is now the park for centuries before contact with Europeans. In 1818 a Russian expedition explored the area and its rivers and established a fur trading post in the area that remained active until the

Alaska Purchase The Alaska Purchase (russian: Продажа Аляски, Prodazha Alyaski, Sale of Alaska) was the United States' acquisition of Alaska from the Russian Empire. Alaska was formally transferred to the United States on October 18, 1867, through a ...

in 1867. The

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

at one point considered managing the area, but the

Alaska State Legislature The Alaska Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is a bicameral institution consisting of the 40-member Alaska House of Representatives (lower house) and the 20-member Alaska Senate (upper house). There are 40 Hous ...

voted in 1978 to make it a state park.

Access

Due to its remote location, the park is not accessible from the contiguous road system. The only road access is from Dillingham, which has an airport with regularly scheduled flights. Many visitors to the park arrive by charted floatplane and land on one of the many lakes, all of which are open to floatplane landings. Marine access to the Wood River lake system is via the Wood River itself. There are a few privately owned remote lodges within the park, by reservation only. The entire park is open to camping, but a few areas do require a permit. Leave No Trace camping is heavily emphasized by the park managers and fires are only permitted on beaches or gravel bars, or one of the few provided

fire pit A fire pit or a fire hole can vary from a pit dug in the ground to an elaborate gas burning structure of stone, brick, and metal. The defining feature of fire pits is that they are designed to contain fire and prevent it from spreading. Some rece ...

Conservation

The park is deliberately mostly undeveloped wilderness, with various conservation groups working to purchase publicly available parcels within the park, either to hold in trust or to sell back to the park system. This has created some friction with pro-development groups, including

Yupik Yupik may refer to: * Yupik peoples, a group of indigenous peoples of Alaska and the Russian Far East * Yupik languages, a group of Eskimo-Aleut languages Yupꞌik (with the apostrophe) may refer to: * Yup'ik people The Yup'ik or Yupiaq (sg ...

natives who would like to develop on land claims they have that predate the establishment of the park.Haeber, Jonathan
Alaska State Park Faces Development Dilemma
'' National Geographic'', 18 July 2003 The park is bounded on the west by Togiak National Wildlife Refuge and on the northwest by the

Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge The Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge is a United States National Wildlife Refuge covering about in southwestern Alaska. It is the second-largest National Wildlife Refuge in the country, only slightly smaller than the Arctic National Wildlife R ...

, providing an extremely large area of remote wilderness on public lands.

Fish and wildlife

The park is considered a critical habitat for a variety of wildlife, however a primary reason for the park’s existence is to preserve

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...

spawning areas. All five major salmon species breed in the park, with

sockeye The sockeye salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also called red salmon, kokanee salmon, blueback salmon, or simply sockeye, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it. This species is a P ...

considered the most important for

subsistence A subsistence economy is an economy directed to basic subsistence (the provision of food, clothing, shelter) rather than to the market. Henceforth, "subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself at a minimum level. Often, the subsistence econo ...

fisheries in the area.Fish and Wildlife of Wood-Tikchik State Park

Other wildlife in the park include whitefish, black and brown bears, moose, caribou,

wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...

marmot Marmots are large ground squirrels in the genus ''Marmota'', with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America. These herbivores are active during the summer, when they can often be found in groups, but are not seen during the winter, ...

s, porcupines, otters and foxes. Both sport and subsistence hunting of large game is allowed in the park with proper permits.

Lake and river systems

The name of the park refers to two different lake systems within the park. The southern lake system eventually forms the Wood River, which flows into Bristol Bay, and the more northern Tikchik lakes empty into the

Nuyakuk River The Nuyakuk River is a tributary of the Nushagak River in southwestern Alaska, United States. From its source at Tikchik Lake, an extension of Nuyakuk Lake in Wood-Tikchik State Park, it flows eastward into the larger river upstream of Koligan ...

, a tributary of the

Nushagak River The Nushagak River ( esu, Iilgayaq) is a river in southwest Alaska, United States. It begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest to Nushagak Bay, an inlet of Bristol Bay, east of Dillingham, Alaska. The Mulchatna River is a major tributa ...

which also flows into Bristol Bay. The Wood River system of lakes are all directly connected to one another by streams, forming a

water trail Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a s ...

of over .Park Brochure

The lakes of these two systems are large and deep, ranging from long and maximum depths of . A dozen of these lakes have over of surface area. There are rivers connecting the lake systems as long as , all within park boundaries.

Lake Aleknagik

Wood-Tikchik is one of only two state parks in

Southwest Alaska Southwest Alaska is a region of the U.S. state of Alaska. The area is not exactly defined by any governmental administrative region(s); nor does it always have a clear geographic boundary. Geography Southwest Alaska includes a huge, complex, and ...

. The other is Lake Aleknagik State Recreation Site at , a small park whose primary purpose is to serve as a jumping off point for the larger Wood-Tikchik park. It is referred to by locals as "first lake" as it provides access to the various lakes upstream. The site has a boat launch, gas and aviation fuel sales, and ranger headquarters for both state parks.Lake Aleknagik SRS

References

External links

Photo gallery of the parkMap of the parkWood River water trail
{{authority control Protected areas of Dillingham Census Area, Alaska State parks of Alaska