Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve

Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve is situated on the Alaska Peninsula in southern Alaska. Established in 1980, this 602,779-acre area attracts few visitors because of its remote location and severe weather. The centerpiece of the monument is Aniakchak Crater, a 19,300-acre collapsed volcano that last erupted in 1931. Rising from the undulating ash and lava fields that form the volcanic landscape is a thousand-meter-high volcano within a volcano: Vent Mountain. Surprise Lake, within the crater's northern rim, is the source of the Aniakchak River, which flows east to the Pacific, emptying into Aniakchak Bay.