Remote and known for the steep 14% grade gravel access road, the park offers campsites with minimal amenities and is open to fishing, hiking, boating, sea kayaking, and sightseeing.

In a proclamation made by the governor on June 22, 1976, the northern and newly created southern segments were renamed 'Chilkat State Park.

The Chilkat River is considered the most productive coho spawning and rearing area in southeast Alaska,[6][7] which also provides a habitat for wild sockeye, Chinook and chum salmon.

Due to the shallow waters surrounding many of the channel islands, a kayaker can get into places boaters can't in order to spy on the many wildlife species that make their home in the area.

For an easy hike, one can take the Seduction Point Trail that stays close to the coastline and weaves its way through forest and beach for about seven miles.

[2][9] Chilkat State Park and—more generally, the Haines area—are situated at the convergence of North America's interior and the waters of the Inside Passage.

[11] The glacier was named after George Davidson,[12] a geographer whose published report influenced the United States' purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.