Togiak National Wildlife Refuge

Togiak National Wildlife Refuge is in southwestern Alaska, north of the Alaska Peninsula and against the southern boundary of the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. Rising to the north of Bristol Bay and stretching across the Ahklun Mountains to the north, Togiak NWR is a land shaped by earthquakes, volcanoes and glacial ice. At 4,102,537 acres, Togiak is the fourth largest National Wildlife Refuge in the United States.

The refuge is home to seventeen marine mammal species (sea otters, seals, sea lions, walruses, whales) and 31 terrestrial mammal species (black bear, grizzly bear, brown bear, Dall sheep, moose, caribou, gray wolf, red fox, lynx, beaver, wolverine, marmot, porcupine, river otter, mink, muskrat...) There have also been 201 species of birds recorded on Togiak NWR.

While there are folks who live on Togiak National Wildlife Refuge, most visitors arrive via air charter services that fly out of either Dillingham or Bethel, both of which get commercial air service from Anchorage. You might think that makes it hard to get to Togiak but the refuge regularly records some 20,000 visitor days per year.

The map at the bottom of this page indicates land status, because some sections of Togiak NWR are owned by Native corporations, public corporations and private individuals. That map also indicates the location of the Togiak Wilderness Area.