It started with moose. To protect these splendid beasts and their habitat, the federal government designated a large tract of land as the Kenai National Moose Range. Today the refuge sprawls across nearly two million acres, encompassing more than half of the Kenai Peninsula.

In habitats ranging from ice fields to alpine tundra to low-elevation lakes to rivers to spruce-birch forest, this refuge shelters not just moose but wolves, brown and black bears, Dall sheep, sandhill cranes, lynx, caribou, bald eagles, wolverines, trumpeter swans, and beavers, among species.

The park boasts some 4,000 lakes, and countless wetlands, rivers and creeks. No wonder moose love it and anglers flock here.