Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge

The refuge begins about twenty miles southeast of Tok and extends along the Alaska Highway toward the border. The Tetlin Visitor Center, with its overlook over the wetlands, is a worthwhile stop on the drive in or out: there are spotting scopes, exhibits on local ecology, and rangers who can point you at the day's best wildlife sightings.

You can hike short interpretive trails, camp at the refuge campgrounds at Deadman Lake or Lakeview, or just pull over at the marked viewpoints with a thermos. Moose, beaver, and the occasional black bear are routine, and on a clear evening the Wrangell–St. Elias peaks rise on the southern horizon.

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Tetlin spreads across nearly a million acres of wetlands, lakes, and boreal forest between Tok and the Canadian border. The refuge is on a major migratory flyway — over 200 bird species pass through, including trumpeter swans, sandhill cranes, and tundra swans, often in numbers large enough to be heard before they are seen.