The Bering Land Bridge is as much a part of America's cultural heritage as Yellowstone or Yosemite, if not more so. The distance across the Bering Strait from Siberia to Alaska's Seward Peninsula is approximately 55 miles, and for several periods during the Pleistocene Ice Ages the trip could be made entirely on land instead of water. During additional periods, the passage from Siberia to North America could also have been made by small watercraft moving along coastlines.

Bering Land Bridge National Preserve commemorates this prehistoric peopling of the Americas from Asia some 13,000 or more years ago. It also preserves important future clues in this great detective story regarding human presence in the Americas.

The land bridge itself is now overlain by the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea. During the glacial epoch this was part of a migration route for people, animals, and plants whenever ocean levels fell enough to expose the land bridge. Archeologists agree that it was across this Bering Land Bridge, also called Beringia, that humans first passed from Asia to populate the Americas.

The Preserve contains extensive lava flows and ash/steam explosion craters now turned to lakes called maars. It also offers dynamic coast and beach environments of barrier islands and low sand dunes. Tundra plant communities range from wet tundra on the coast to alpine tundra on mountains in and near the Preserve.

The Preserve was established in part to preserve significant volcanic features which are rare in the Arctic.

Maar lakes were formed when magma rose to meet ground water and permafrost ice, causing massive steam explosions. There are four maar lakes in the Preserve, which are the largest craters of their type on the planet. Their explosions have occured over a time span of more than 100,000 years. The most recent happened 17,500 years ago and buried the ice-age landscape with thick layers of volcanic ash. Recent research has discovered the preserved landscape, complete with plants, rodent nests, and soil formations. Devil Mountain Lake, an unusual double crater maar lake is the largest maar lake on the planet.

Camping, hiking, backpacking, exploration, nature observation, photography, and coastal boating are among the many possible activities. Winter offers opportunities for snowmobiling, dog sledding, and some crosscountry skiing.

You can explore remains of the gold rush era and evidence of ancient Eskimo life. The Preserve and surrounding areas including Native villages, offer opportunities to observe and learn about traditional subsistence lifestyles and historic reindeer herding.