Kenai Fjords National Park

The short answer

Kenai Fjords National Park lies just outside the town of Seward on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, 126 miles south of Anchorage. The Harding Icefield and its outflowing glaciers cover 700 square miles of the Kenai Mountains in ice, and along the coast the valleys the glaciers carved have filled with seawater to make fjords, rich in plankton, seabirds and marine mammals. Most of the park can be reached only from the water: boat tours run by local companies leave Seward’s small boat harbour daily in summer. Exit Glacier, at the end of an 8.6-mile road, is the only part of the park reachable by car. It became a national park in 1980.

Why it's worth knowing

How snow becomes a glacier. Fresh snow on the icefield is about 80 per cent air. As more falls on top, the weight squeezes it into névé, then into firn, which is 20 to 30 per cent air, and after several years into solid glacial ice. The ice then flows downhill, faster in summer than in winter, because meltwater running beneath it lets it slide; in a place like this, sliding on its bed can account for up to 90 per cent of a glacier’s movement. Where two glaciers meet, their side moraines join into a dark stripe down the middle: Bear Glacier, the largest in the park, wears two.

A rare kind of coast. Fjord estuaries are found in only six parts of the planet: Chile, Norway, New Zealand, Alaska, Greenland and Antarctica. In these fjords the meeting of meltwater and ocean feeds a great bloom of phytoplankton sometime between early April and early June, turning the water deep green and feeding everything up the chain, from seabirds to whales feeding together in the fjords. Of the roughly 50 tidewater glaciers in Alaska, several flow into these fjords, and harbor seals haul out on their floating ice, safer there than on rocks the tide comes and goes over.

Ice in retreat. Photographs taken in the park in 1909 and 1940 show how far the ice has gone. Northwestern Glacier has receded more than 8 kilometres, about 5 miles, since 1950, nearly retreating out of the water and opening a fjord of sweeping granite walls; Pedersen Glacier has pulled back about 3 miles. At Exit Glacier, ridges of rubble mark where the ice stood in past years. Not every glacier is simply shrinking, though: Holgate Glacier, after retreating and thinning, has advanced again in the past few years.

The field notes

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Seals and the Sugpiaq

Archaeological evidence shows that the Sugpiaq people have used the Kenai Fjords coast for more than a thousand years. Harbor seals are a highly valued subsistence resource in Sugpiaq culture, food and far more than food: hunting and sharing them nurtures relationships and keeps cultural practices alive. In one community in nearby Prince William Sound, up to 95 per cent of households rely on harbor seals. As the tidewater glaciers retreat and the floating ice that the seals rest on dwindles, the park’s researchers study the seals’ ice from the air.

Across the ice

The first known crossing of the Harding Icefield came in 1940, when two Alaskans, Eugene “Coho” Smith and Don Rising, went from Bear Glacier to Tustumena Lake. Two parties tried and failed in the mid-1960s. In 1968 a mountaineering party left Homer on horseback and made the first ascent of Truuli Peak, the highest point on the Kenai Peninsula. Some of them, Yule Kilcher among them, went on across the icefield and skied down Exit Glacier: eight days in all. More recent adventurers have crossed it solo in 14 hours, and on skis pulled by kites.

The railroad town

Seward was founded as the southern end of the Alaska Railroad because it had an ice-free port, and it became a major link for the miners and ore of the early 20th-century gold rushes. It is still the gateway: the railroad runs from Anchorage to Seward in summer, cruise ships begin and end their voyages there, and the park’s visitor center is on Fourth Avenue in town.

A relic from Kenai Fjords National Park

Getting there

How to get there. Seward is 126 miles south of Anchorage by the Seward Highway, a National Scenic Byway, open all year: from Anchorage it runs south as Alaska Route 1 and becomes Route 9 at about mile 35. Anchorage’s airport is the easiest way into Alaska; from there, buses, vans, rental cars and, from May to September, the Alaska Railroad all go to Seward. The only road into the park is Herman Leirer Road, known as Exit Glacier Road, which leaves the Seward Highway at mile 3.7 and runs 8.6 miles to the Exit Glacier Nature Center; shuttles and taxis run from Seward. From there the Harding Icefield Trail climbs steeply for about 4 miles to the edge of the icefield. The rest of the park, its coast and tidewater glaciers, is seen from boats.

When to go. Boat tours leave Seward daily in the summer months. From late October to mid-May the road to Exit Glacier is usually closed to cars by snow, though the area stays open to skiers, snowshoers and snowmachines.

What to arrange ahead. The park runs no boat tours itself and has no concessioners; several local companies in Seward do, with full-day trips to the tidewater glaciers and half-day trips in Resurrection Bay, and booking ahead is a good idea. Parking at Exit Glacier is limited, especially between 10:30 and 3:30.

Safety. The State Department’s travel advisories cover other countries, so none applies here. The park’s conditions page carries road, trail and bear notices.

Common questions

How do you get to Kenai Fjords National Park?

By road or rail to Seward, then by boat or the Exit Glacier road. Kenai Fjords National Park is just outside Seward, 126 miles south of Anchorage; boat tours leave the harbour daily in summer.

Can you drive to a glacier in Kenai Fjords?

Yes, to one. Exit Glacier, at the end of the 8.6-mile Exit Glacier Road, is the only part of Kenai Fjords National Park reachable by car; the road is usually closed to cars from late October to mid-May.

How big is the Harding Icefield?

Big enough to bury mountains. The Harding Icefield and its outflowing glaciers cover 700 square miles of the Kenai Mountains in Kenai Fjords National Park, feeding at least 38 glaciers.

How much snow falls on the Harding Icefield?

About 60 feet a year, on average. Moist air from the Gulf of Alaska drops that much snow on the Harding Icefield in Kenai Fjords National Park each winter, and over the years it is squeezed into glacier ice.

Has anyone crossed the Harding Icefield?

Yes, first in 1940. Eugene “Coho” Smith and Don Rising made the first known crossing of the Harding Icefield, now in Kenai Fjords National Park, going from Bear Glacier to Tustumena Lake.

Are the glaciers in Kenai Fjords retreating?

Many have, some dramatically. Northwestern Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park has receded more than 8 kilometres since 1950, though Holgate Glacier has advanced again in recent years.

What wildlife lives in Kenai Fjords?

Seals, whales, seabirds and bears, among many others. In Kenai Fjords National Park harbor seals rest on floating glacier ice, whales feed together in the fjords, and black bears are seen almost every day from the Harding Icefield Trail.