Port Alsworth visitor center gets new parking, trail on former tank farm site

A new parking area and about 500 feet of new pedestrian trail now sit on ground that once held the National Park Service fuel tank farm at the Port Alsworth Visitor Center.

Lake Clark National Park and Preserve announced Friday that the project rehabilitated roughly 15,000 square yards of landscape, including revegetation of the former tank farm. The new trail links the visitor center to the park's greater trail system. Crews also maintained four miles of existing trail.

The work comes as visitation through August 2026 runs 43 percent above the entire 2024 season, the last season the park was fully operational.

A Maintenance Action Team young adult crew from the Student Conservation Association completed the work over 10 weeks. The National Park Foundation funded it.

"The redesign directs park visitors' attention to our visitor center and access to the Lakeview Tinitun trail, which leads to the Tanalian Mountain and Tanalian Falls trails," said Superintendent Grant Hilderbrand.

A 2015 Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation trip report documented four fuel tanks at the site with no secondary containment, 3,085 feet from the Tanalian River.