Lake Clark National Park & Preserve

Lake Clark National Park and Preserve is a land of stunning beauty. Volcanoes steam, salmon run, bears forage, and craggy mountains reflect in shimmering turquoise lakes. Here, too, local people and culture still depend on the land and water. Venture into the park to become part of the wilderness.

Weather & conditions

Lake Clark has two distinct climate areas: the coast and the interior. The coast is wetter and experiences milder temperatures. The interior gets half to one fourth as much precipitation, but temperatures are hotter in summer and colder in winter. Frost and snow can occur any time parkwide, but are most common from September to early June. Lakes here typically begins freezing in November and melting in April. Ice conditions dictate whether planes need floats or skis to land on lakes.

What this latitude gives you

From 60.6° north, anything above declination +29.4° is circumpolar here: it never sets, so it is available on every clear night of the year. Anything below declination -29.4° never clears the horizon at all.

At this latitude the sun does not drop 18 degrees below the horizon around the June solstice, so there is no astronomical darkness at midsummer at all. Plan deep-sky work for the months either side of it.

We do not hold a measured Bortle class for this site, so treat the sky as unknown until you have taken a reading of your own.