Lake Clark National Park and Preserve is located north of Katmai National Park, 65 air miles northwest of Homer, and about 120 air miles southwest of Anchorage.

Like many areas in Alaska, Lake Clark is not on the road system and travel takes place primarily by small plane. Fixed-wing aircraft are allowed to land on all suitable lakes, rivers, beaches, gravel bars, and open ground in both the park and preserve unless the area is closed or otherwise restricted.

The type of plane used will depend on what you want to do and where they want to go. The first step is usually deciding where you want to go within the park and preserve and then finding a plane or air taxi that has the appropriate equipment to take you there.

For summer travel, choosing an itinerary that utilizes either a plane with wheels or a plane with floats for water landings is important. Plan a trip that is conducive to one or the other as switching between the two types of landing gear can be time intensive and expensive. For instance, it would be unrealistic to go to both Crescent Lake and Silver Salmon in the same trip, even though on the map they look in close proximity. At Silver Salmon you must land on a beach and at Crescent you would need floats. There is no place to switch planes or landing gear in between these two locations.