Aniakchak National Monument
June 14-18, 2026
Day 1
This site was done as part of a hiking packaging along with Katmai National Park using a guide service. After being delayed for a couple days, we packed up the wet tents and flew through a gap in the crater rim called The Gates and into the Aniakchak crater landing on Surprise lake. The volcano blew out the main crater about 3700 years ago but there have been many smaller domes and explosions since then with the latest in 1931 leaving it an active volcano. Our footprints were the first this spring with the exception of the animals of the area. After setting up camp, we went for a hike to some of the nearby domes. After finding the hot springs, some of the group climbed Bolshoi dome while the rest of us went around it finding a new hole in the ground that may have been for gas or steam venting. During dinner, a gorgeous coyote wandered into camp to check out the new creatures in the neighborhood while two bald eagles were overhead.
Day 2
It was raining again today so I decided it was time for a camp day with one of the guides while the rest of the group went to check out the 1931 eruption site. I studied the 2001 USGS book on the volcano and learned all of the plants and birds that I saw the day before. These included rose root, arctic willow, Alaska willow, horsetail, clubmoss, moss heather, Lapland diapensia, valerian, cow parsnip, Alaska poppy, wooly lousewort, fireweed, nootka lupine and several avens. Our most common bird in camp was a pipit. I also saw snow buntings and a willow ptarmigan. In the evening, we got our first visit from Foxy. The fox visited our camp every day after this.
Day 3
The hike today was to investigate some cool things I had learned the day before in the USGS book. First stop was to The Gates as it showed the best promise of some rocks with fossils. We did a creek crossing in very cold water and saw a couple caribou. Holding our hiking poles up like antlers, we got one of the caribou to come closer to us. In the Gates, I found chunks of sedimentary rocks that had fallen from the walls of the crater and had clam and mussel fossils. We split forces with one group following the river out of the crater while the rest of us turned around and went in search of a maar (water filled crater). This took us past jagged lava, volcanic sand and a skull from a fox.
Day 4
The morning brought a perfect blue sky and sunshine. An arctic tern was happily fishing on the lake. Our group split from the start today with half heading out to climb vent mountain. I went in search of a spot that was supposed to have hot ground. It led us to being in a crater (new small crater), in a crater (half dome), in a crater (Aniakchak). Although the area was cool looking, no hot spot was found. We did see our buddies when they topped vent mountain and a caribou on the way back to camp. The weather was nice enough that I took a quick bath in the lake.
Day 5
Another perfectly blue sky and arctic terns fishing in the morning. We had investigated almost everything in the crater at this point. Today was a short hike to a vantage point overlooking the marshy area at the north end of Surprise lake where we split the group. I stayed to enjoy the view of nesting birds while the climbers went to the top of Vulcan dome. A larger herd of caribou were spotted when we had to head back to camp for an early pick up. The weather was predicted to get worse, so they picked us up a day early. It was back to the campground in King Salmon for another night where my sleep pad sprung a leak. I was very happy it went flat in a campground rather than on the volcanic rocks in the crater.
