River on the eastern drainage of the Alaska Peninsula emerging from glaciers and alpine lakes in the mountains of the Aleutian Range is the prime habitat famous for its salmon and brown bears

How to Get There

Overview

The McNeil River is a river on the eastern drainage of the Alaska Peninsula near its base and conjunction with the Alaska mainland. The McNeil emerges from glaciers and alpine lakes in the mountains of the Aleutian Range. The river's destination is the Cook Inlet in Alaska's southwest. The McNeil is the prime habitat of numerous animals, but it is famous for its salmon and brown bears. This wealth of wildlife was one of the reasons for the Alaska State Legislature's decision to designate the McNeil River a wildlife sanctuary in 1967. In 1993, this protected area was enlarged to preserve an area that has the highest concentration of brown bears anywhere in the world. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, up to 144 brown bears have been sighted on the river in a single summer with 74 bears congregating in one place at a time. Its entire length of 35 miles (55 km) lies within the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary, created in 1967 by the State of Alaska to protect the numerous Alaska brown bears who frequented the area. It also lies entirely within the Kenai Peninsula Borough boundaries. The McNeil River State Game Sanctuary and Refuge is part of a 3.8-million-acre (1,500,000 ha) piece of land that is protected from hunting; the rest of this is Katmai National Park.

Geography

The McNeil River State Game Sanctuary and Refuge is located on the northeastern Alaskan Peninsula, next to the northeastern part of Katmai National Park and Preserve, about 250 miles (402 km) southwest of the city of Anchorage. The sanctuary and refuge protect about 388 square miles (248,000 acres, 100,362 hectares) of land. Of these, about 200 square miles (128,000 acres, 51,799 hectares), are in the sanctuary and 188 square miles (120,000 acres, 48,562 hectares), are in the refuge. The McNeil River runs through the middle part of the sanctuary north of Mikfik Creek and south of the Paint River drainage. The sanctuary is open to few activities other than wildlife viewing and camping and all hunting and fishing is prohibited there. Within the refuge, both fishing and sport hunting and trapping are allowed, but the hunting of brown bear is banned in both the sanctuary and refuge.

The northern edge of the refuge lies about 50 miles (80 km) south of the southern boundary of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. The refuge is bounded to the west by Katmai National Preserve and the southern and western parts of the sanctuary are bordered by the rest of Katmai National Park. Much of the land is treeless, rolling tundra, but there are several mountainous areas in the southern part of the sanctuary. The nearest road ends 100 miles (161 km) away and access is only by boat or floatplane.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "McNeil River", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0