Visitor Information -- The most central place for information on the national forest is the Alaska Public Lands Information Center in Anchorage. You can download a 16-page guide to the forest at www.alaskageographic.org (click on "Trip Planning"). For general forest inquiries, you can also contact the forest headquarters, 3301 C St., Ste. 300, Anchorage, AK 99503 (tel. 907/743-9500; www.fs.usda.gov/chugach). The national forest also has three ranger district offices, where you can get up-to-date local information and personal advice: Glacier Ranger District, 145 Forest Station Rd., near the Seward Highway off Alyeska Road, in Girdwood (tel. 907/783-3242); Seward Ranger District, 334 4th Ave. (at Jefferson St.), in Seward (tel. 907/224-3374); and Cordova Ranger District, 612 2nd St. (at Browning St.), in Cordova (tel. 907/424-7661). You can't reserve campground sites and remote cabins through these local offices -- for that, you must use the national system -- but you can call them with questions.

Getting Around

Getting There & Getting Around -- There are many ways to the Chugach National Forest. For Prince William Sound, use Whittier, Valdez, or Cordova as gateways; for the Copper River Delta, go through Cordova. Trails and campgrounds on the Kenai Peninsula generally meet the Seward or Sterling highways, or spur roads from the highways. The individual town listings later in this guide provide details on how to get there and into that part of the national forest.

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