Kenai Wilderness

Designated by Congress in 1980, Kenai Wilderness now contains 1,354,247 acres of gorgeous terrain inside the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Contained in the wilderness are the western slopes of the Kenai Mountains (topping out at 6,612') and their attendant ancient glaciers, nine glacier-fed river systems and the birch-spruce lowland forest extending inland from the shores of Cook Inlet.

As this property is almost accessible by road from Anchorage, the Kenai Wilderness sees a lot of impact from human visitors. There are more than 200 miles of established hiking trails in the wilderness, in addition to an extensive system of canoe trails. Motorized boats are allowed on the larger lakes but not on the rivers or smaller streams that make up the canoe trail system.

Camping is allowed everywhere but the usual "leave no trace" rules prevail. Unless you get into the far outback, you probably won't come across many brown bears. If you do camp overnight, you'll probably hear the local wolves howling away the night... and what you will find everywhere are huge black clouds of flying/biting insects.