Location in Alaska (NPS)
State: Alaska
Most known for:
Harding Icefield and glaciers, and costal fjords and islands.
A fjord is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep cliffs, created by a glacier.
Basic Info:
The park covers an area of ~670K acres on the Kenai Penisnsual, about 88% as big as Yosemite National Park, and is the closest national park in Alaska to Anchorage. Much of the park interior is covered by Harding Icefield, which is one of the largest in the U.S., and is the source of 38+ glaciers. The park is accessible by boat, airplane, and hiking. It can also be reached by road, only via the Exit Glacier Nature Center.
The park was initially designated by President Jimmy Carter on December 1, 1978.
The park is inhabited by a variety of terrestrial and marine mammals, including brown and black bears, moose, sea otters, harbor seals, humpback and killer whales.
Plan your visit:
Kenai Fjords National Park is located just outside the town of Seward in south-central Alaska, 126 miles south of Anchorage. Even though the park is often inaccessible during the winter months, Seward is accessible year-round via the Seward Highway, a National Scenic Byway. Follow the Seward Highway (AK-1) south from Anchorage. It will become AK-9 around mile 35 (87 miles from Anchorage) with AK-1 heading to Homer and Kenai. Continue on AK-9 to Seward.
Resources:
NPS website: https://www.nps.gov/kefj/planyourvisit/basicinfo.htm
Wikipedia
Park Map (NPS)
Kenai Fjords National Park
Itinerary
Date: May 29-30, 2022
Exit Glacier
Our RV arrived at Exit Glacier in the early morning and saw two moose in the Exit Glacier Nature Center parking lot. Park ranger said they were there every day. This area is the only part of the park accessible by road during the summer. Exit Glacier Nature Center is also the park’s visitor center. Although Exit Glacier is one of the smallest Harding Icefield’s glaciers, it is one of the most visited due to its accessibility and abundant hiking trails around and above the glacier.
The 8.2-mile round trip Harding Icefield Trail is a spectacular day hike leaving from the Exit Glacier Nature Center. Starting on the valley floor, the trail winds through cottonwood and alder forests, passes though heather filled meadows and ultimately climbs well above tree line to a breath-taking view of the Icefield. The top of the trail is a window to past ice ages - a horizon of ice and snow that stretches as far as the eye can see, broken only by an occasional nunatak, or lonely peak.
Unfortunately we were not that lucky that morning due to poor preparation and limit of time. Although it was end of May, majority of the trail is still covered by snow, and some sections are pretty steep, so added difficult to either climb up or walk back. The trail has several stopping points, as illustrated on the trail map below. They are: Nature Center -> Glacier Overlook Loop Trail -> Bridget -> Marmot Meadows -> Bottom of the Cliffs (where we stopped) -> Top of the Cliffs Overlook -> End of Trail. You can customize based on your schedule and physical condition.
Glacier Overlook Loop Trail (1st stop), 0.6 mile from the Nature Center parking lot, is a must-see and easy trail. It provides a good front view to the glacier with a short, flat hike cross a woods. Also be aware that that glacier has retreated a lot from what you see on some photos on internet. That’s what has been happening to many glaciers in Alaska, unfortunately.
2. Tonsina Creek Trail, Seward
In early afternoon, we arrived Seward and hiked Tonsina Creek Trail (3.4 miles out & ba) before it got really dark. The trail head was a short drive south from town, and trail ends on a beach with nice views of creek, waterfall, mountains, etc. Most part of the trail was not very exciting through as the hike was through the woods without view of the ocean on the side. If we can choose again, I may go with a trail that climbs up the mountain a bit with a view of the city and harbor.
3. Seward
Seward is a port city in southern Alaska, set on an inlet on the Kenai Peninsula. It’s a gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park.
We camped at Seward Marathon waterfront RV park. It is on the beach and offers a dazzling views of Resurrection Bay and Mt. Alice. We saw otters from RV window numerous times. We took advantage of still having daylight even in late hours to prepare dinner and rest. We spotted sea otters swimming alone the shore a few times from our RV window. I took some photos of the harbor at midnight and it looked like a golden sunset/blue hour.
4. Kenai Fjords Cruise Tour
The second moring, took Northwestern Kenai Fjords 7-hour Tour at 9:00 am to tour the Kenai Fjords National Park, lunch included. The route we picked is one of the three options: Seward -> Resurrection Bay -> Northwestern Fjord.
Link to the tour:
https://www.alaskacollection.com/anchorage-southcentral/kenai-fjords-national-park/
Absolutely awesome tour with sites of glacier, mountains, floating ice, sea lions, sea otters, puffins, bald eagle, porpoise, harbor seals, humpback whales, orca whales, cormorants, etc. Captial was knowledge and articulate, and crew was very friendly. Amazing experience, highly recommend.
Bring winter jacket, hat and gloves to keep you warm even in the middle of the summer as the cruise ride was windy and chilly.
Video link: https://youtu.be/lKOCVhWpw1Q
Section I. Departure
The sky changes fast. Sometime you can see the sunny sky on top of the mist, and sometime it turn moody and dark. Either was beautiful to see cliffs on both sides, waterfalls, etc. We saw sea otters and bald eagles here and there, but not much ocean creatures given the speed of the cruise and location.
Section II. Resurrection Bay
Resurrection Bay was fun as the cruise would circle around so that we can check sea lions, porpoise, harbor seals, humpback whales, and orca whales. The rocks and islands here were very interesting too. Afterwards, we started seeing peaks covered with snow and ice. These are all rims of massive Harding Icefields.
Section III. Glacier
With floating ice on the surface of ocean became more and more dense, we finally came to the the Northwestern Fjord with view of the front of the glacier. There were tons of harbor seals occupying different floating ice enjoying the sunlight, some with babies. The cruise parked in front of the glacier for some time so we could enjoy the view of this masterpiece of nature. People hailed when they caught the site of a piece of ice falling off the glacier wall.
Section IV. Return
The return trip was nothing boring at all, as the cruise took a slight deviation from the route we came from, so we had different views. One stop was at in a cove facing a wall of cliff with many thin waterfalls flowing down by melting snows. In the middle point, we passed a habitat with all kids of birds including puffins, cormorants, etc. Some are resting on the rock, and some were flying in flocks.
