page_title: Chugach State Park
section_title: Eklutna Lake
hierarchical_section_title: Chugach State Park / Eklutna Lake
caption_attribution_description: English: Lakeside Trail along Eklutna Lake in Chugach State Park, Alaska, November 2012
context_page_description: Chugach State Park covers 495,204 acres immediately east of the Anchorage Bowl in south-central Alaska. Though primarily in the Municipality of Anchorage, a small portion of the park north of the Eklutna Lake area in the vicinity of Pioneer Peak lies within the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Established by legislation signed into law on August 6, 1970, by Alaska Governor Keith Miller, this state park was created to provide recreational opportunities, protect the scenic value of the Chugach Mountains and other geographic features, and ensure the safety of the water supply for Anchorage. The park, managed by Alaska State Parks, is the third-largest state park in the United States, and consists of geographically disparate areas each with different attractions and facilities. Only Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California and Wood-Tikchik State Park in western Alaska are larger. Hunting and fishing are permitted in the Chugach under regulations established by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for game management unit 14c. Target practice is not allowed within the park boundaries.
context_section_description: The Lakeside Trail travels 12.7 miles (20.4 kilometers) along the shores of Eklutna Lake until it reaches the mile-long Eklutna Glacier Trail that leads in short order to the moraines at the foot of the colossal blue ice of Eklutna Glacier. In the summer, travelers go on foot, by mountain bike, ATV or on horseback, past the lake by way of largely flat trail to the glacier. A traverse with three huts maintained by the Mountaineering Club of Alaska begins at the end of the trail and heads over the tops of the Eklutna, Whiteout, Eagle and Raven glaciers, and ends 31 miles (50 kilometers) away at Crow Pass near Girdwood on the opposite side of the park. In wintertime, trail users are able to travel the same route by snowmobile (snowmachine), snowshoes or cross-country skis as permitted by regulation and weather conditions. As most of the trail is an old roadbed, the trail is a popular winter destination for skijoring and dogsledding.  There are two remote campgrounds in the area in addition to a frontcountry campground open during the summer. Two public use cabins are available for rent on the Lakeside Trail. Non-motorized boats, and boats with an electric motor, are allowed on Eklutna Lake. The tallest point in the park, Bashful Peak, towers over the lake at a height of 8,005 feet (2,440 meters). Bush planes are able to land on the far (southern) side of Eklutna Lake at the unpaved Bold Airstrip. North of Eklutna, the southern summit of Pioneer Peak can be reached from Knik River Road via the Pioneer Ridge Trail beginning outside the park boundaries in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
  Visitors to Eklutna Lake have the opportunity to experience a variety of plant life at different elevations. Dense forests, characteristically of white spruce (Picea glauca), paper birch (Betula papyrifera) and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), dominate the lower elevations. Ferns, mushrooms, and wildflowers such as dwarf dogwood (Cornus canadensis), fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium), and the parasitic northern groundcone (Boschniakia rossica) of the broomrape family cover the forest floor. At higher elevations wildflowers such as mountain avens (Dryas octopetala) and the Alaska state flower, the alpine forget-me-not (Myosotis alpestris), grow in profusion. The alpine milkvetch (Astragalus alpinus), bog wintergreen (Pyrola asarifolia) and wild geranium (Geranium erianthum) predominate on lower slopes, while further up the nootka lupine (Lupinus nootkatensis), coastal paintbrush (Castilleja unalaschcensis), prickly saxifrage (Saxifraga tricuspidata), the poisonous yellow anemone (Anemone richardsonii) and eventually the mosses of the tundra will reward hikers. Berry picking is popular in late summer and early fall. Highbush cranberries (Viburnum edule), lingonberries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), northern redcurrants (Ribes triste) and bog blueberries (Vaccinium uliginosum) grow along the lower trails. Dwarf blueberries (Vaccinium caepitosum), alpine bearberries (Arctostaphylos alpina) and crowberries (Empetrum nigrum) are found higher up. Correctly identifying berries before consuming them is important as some species are poisonous.
caption: The Lakeside Trail along Eklutna Lake in winter
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "COOLPIX AW100", "Image Orientation": "0", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa 3.0", "Image DateTime": "2012:11:20 17:27:33", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "260", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[0, 0, 2, 2]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[61, 21, 4623/500]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[148, 59, 21501/500]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "1446/5", "Image GPSInfo": "11534", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "11774", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4485", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "22/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "125", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:11:20 17:27:33", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:11:20 17:27:33", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "39/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "15", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4608", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3456", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "11504", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "83", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Portrait", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain down", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "3", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "d077425128bb7c19fbb59c397fce9116"}