Chugach Mountains

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View from the Glenn Highway to the Chugach Mountains

Anchorage at the foot of the Chugach Mountains

The Chugach Mountains are a 500 km long, extending in an east-west direction mountain range in southern Alaska to the Gulf of Alaska. They form the northernmost part of the North American Coast Mountains and built along a subduction zone.

The Chugach Mountains are the youngest mountains of Alaska. You have an area of ​​50,319 km ² and extending 242 km from north to south and 468 km in the east-west direction. The highest mountain is Mount Marcus Baker with 4016 m.

The protected areas Chugach State Park and Chugach National Forest are part of the Chugach Mountains. Richardson and Seward Highway crossing the mountains.

The name " Chugach " has its origin in the Eskimo people " Chugachmiut " and was first recorded in Russian as " Chugatz " and " Tchougatskoi ". 1898 named WR Abercrombie, a captain in the United States Army, the mountains, starting it as Chugatch Mountains.

Flora and Fauna

The timberline is located in the Chugach Mountains at 600 m. In vegetation zones of forest to alpine tundra grow among other things, hemlock, paper birch, Sitka and white spruce, the the Cook Inlet facing slopes also grape elderberry.

At higher altitudes, Dall sheep and mountain goats live in the tundra regions of Arctic ground squirrel, hoary marmots and Pikas. Also, there are black and brown bears, moose, red fox, Canadian lynx, North American porcupine, ptarmigan and golden eagles.

Mountains of the Chugach Mountains

• Mount Marcus Baker ( 4016 m)
• Mount Thor ( 3816 m)
• Mount Valhalla ( 3699 m)
• Mount Steller ( 3236 m)

• Mount Palmer ( 2115 m)
• Flattop Mountain (1070 m)
• Eagle Peak ( 2119 m)
• Polar Bear Peak (2016 m)