Alaska's parks

National forests

Tongass and Chugach are both playgrounds and timber producers

Alaska.com

They're used extensively for all kinds of recreation, from fishing and hunting to mountain biking and snowmobile riding.

	Bicyclists Melissa DeVaughn and Mark Wedeking roll down the trail between Resurrection Pass and Devil's Pass on the Kenai Peninsula trail. In late August vegetation was just beginning to take a turn toward fall colors in this part of the Chugach National Forest. Anne Raup / Anchorage Daily News

• Chugach National Forest covers much of coastal Southcentral Alaska, including part of the Kenai Peninsula, the area around Prince William Sound and the Chugach Mountains south of Anchorage.

• Tongass National Forest covers the islands and mainland of Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage.

The forests, established in 1907, both serve a number of uses, such as logging, recreation and subsistence.

The Chugach covers 5.9 million acres, or 9,300 square miles (roughly equivalent to Vermont). The Tongass covers 16.6 million acres, or 26,500 square miles (West Virginia).

	Some people might look at much of the Chugach National Forest and ask, "where is the forest?" This national forest contains the Sargeant Icefield, one of the largest non-polar icefields in North America -- some of that ice makes its way down into scenic Portage Lake, an easy 45 minute drive south from Anchorage. Bob Hallinen / Anchorage Daily News

Two national monuments -- Admiralty Island and Misty Fjords -- are found in the Tongass. There are numerous other wilderness areas.

The forests offer lots of pleasure for residents of and visitors to Southcentral and Southeast Alaska: hiking, camping, fishing, birding, hunting, snowmobiling, skiing, canoeing and river running, mountaineering and glacier viewing.

Remote public-use cabins are available for a small fee, although flying, hiking or boating to them may be expensive or time consuming.