Watch 40 glaciers crawl into the sea and calve at Alaska’s stunning Kenai Fjords

Where the ice never stopped reaching the ocean

Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula holds a place where more than half the land is buried under ice and the glaciers haven’t gotten the memo that the Ice Age ended.

Kenai Fjords National Park stretches across roughly 670,000 acres, and at its heart sits the Harding Icefield, 700 square miles of frozen terrain, the largest icefield entirely inside U.S. borders. Nearly 40 glaciers pour out of it.

Some of them still crawl all the way to the sea.

The Sugpiaq people have fished this coast for thousands of years

Long before the park had a name, the Sugpiaq, also called the Alutiiq, built their lives along this coastline. Salmon, seal, seabirds, and berries shaped their calendar.

Their descendants still live in fishing communities nearby, including Nanwalek and Port Graham.

President Jimmy Carter declared the area a national monument in 1978, and Congress locked it in as a national park two years later under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. In 2024, more people visited than in any year before.

Walk right up to Exit Glacier from your car

Exit Glacier sits about 15 minutes from downtown Seward, the only glacier in the park you can reach by road. The one-mile Glacier View Loop Trail is wheelchair accessible and puts you face to face with the ice.

Trailside markers show where the glacier’s edge stood in past decades, each one further back than the last.

Push another half mile uphill on the Glacier Overlook Trail and you get close enough to see the blue in the ice face. Rangers lead walks here through summer.

The Harding Icefield Trail climbs more than 3,000 feet

This roughly 8-mile round-trip hike earns everything it gives you.

You start in the valley and climb through rainforest, then wildflower meadows, then alpine tundra, and then you’re standing at the edge of an ocean of white.

Mountain peaks called nunataks poke through the ice like islands, the only things breaking the frozen horizon. Mountain goats and hoary marmots work the upper sections.

Snow can stick to the trail into early July, and storms roll in fast at elevation, so check the forecast before you go.

Tidewater glaciers collapse into the fjords with a thunderous crack

Aialik, Holgate, and Northwestern Glacier all flow to the ocean, and when a chunk breaks free from the ice face, you feel it before you process what happened.

The sound hits first, a deep crack like a rifle shot, and then a wall of ice the size of a building drops into the water. Waves spread out across the fjord.

Icebergs bob in every direction.

The blue color in the ice comes from centuries of compressed snow that absorbs red light and throws the blue back at you.

Humpback whales feed here from April through November

The water in Kenai Fjords doesn’t just look cold, it works.

Glacial meltwater stirs nutrients up from the bottom, feeding the plankton that starts the whole food chain. Humpbacks move in around April and stay through November before heading to Hawaii and Mexico.

Orcas run the fjords in three separate populations, ones that eat salmon, ones that hunt marine mammals, and offshore groups that keep to themselves.

Dall’s porpoises, black and white like small orcas, are some of the fastest animals in the water. Gray, fin, and minke whales pass through as well.

Sea otters float on their backs cracking open shellfish

Watch long enough and you’ll see a sea otter pull a clam from the kelp, flip onto its back, and use its stomach as a cutting board.

They have the densest fur of any mammal, no blubber at all, just layers of air-trapping hair keeping them warm in water that would drop a person in minutes.

Harbor seals park themselves on ice chunks near the tidewater glaciers in Aialik Bay. At the mouths of the fjords, Steller sea lions pile onto rocky islands, and the males can top 2,000 pounds.

Puffins nest on cliff faces above the open water

Close to 200 bird species use this park and the surrounding waters. Every spring, tufted and horned puffins arrive to breed on rocky islands and cliff ledges.

The Chiswell Islands, part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, pack some of the densest puffin concentrations in the region.

Common murres, kittiwakes, cormorants, and pigeon guillemots stack into loud, crowded colonies on sheer coastal rock. Around Seward’s harbor and all along the shoreline, bald eagles are a regular fixture.

Boat tours go deep into the fjords for a full day

Tours leave from Seward and range from a few hours in Resurrection Bay to full-day runs deep into the national park.

Full-day cruises head to Aialik Bay or Northwestern Fjord and stop at one or more tidewater glaciers along the way. Captains stay on the radio with other boats to track wildlife as it moves.

Resurrection Bay’s protected water gives way to the more exposed Gulf of Alaska coastline as you push further out. The Chiswell Islands and sea stacks between glacier stops add to the geography.

Kayakers paddle past icebergs and waterfalls in the fjords

Guided kayak trips put you in Aialik Bay, Northwestern Lagoon, or Bear Glacier Lagoon, at water level with the ice.

You paddle past floating bergs and waterfalls dropping straight down cliff faces, with harbor seals resting on chunks nearby.

Northwestern Fjord is one of the youngest landscapes in the park, bedrock exposed by glacial retreat over the past century, raw and new.

No prior kayaking experience is needed for most guided trips, and the gear comes with the tour. The NPS also keeps three public-use cabins in the backcountry for overnight stays.

Black bears, mountain goats and moose all share this shoreline

Black bears work the forested valleys and beaches along the park’s edge, tracking salmon runs and berry patches through summer. Brown bears move through too, though you’re less likely to cross paths with them.

Mountain goats hold to the steep cliffs above the fjords, and from a tour boat, you can spot them as white dots against dark rock hundreds of feet up.

Moose browse willows in the valley bottoms near Exit Glacier, especially in winter. Wolverines, lynx, and marmots round out a land mammal list that runs into the dozens.

Seward sits at the head of the bay, two hours from Anchorage

Every road into the park goes through Seward. The town sits at the head of Resurrection Bay and holds the launch point for nearly every park activity.

The Kenai Fjords National Park Visitor Center near the small boat harbor has maps, exhibits, and rangers on hand.

You can drive the Seward Highway from Anchorage in about two and a half hours, or take the Alaska Railroad during summer. Cruise ships use Seward as a port stop too.

The Alaska SeaLife Center in town gives you close-up access to puffins, seals, and other marine animals through its research and rehabilitation program.

Plan your visit to Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska

The park runs year-round, but boat tours and most services operate from late May through early September. Exit Glacier Road closes to vehicles in late fall and reopens in spring.

If you want to camp, the Exit Glacier Campground has 12 walk-in, tent-only sites on a first-come basis.

Pack rain gear regardless of the forecast, since summer temperatures run from the mid-40s to the low 70s Fahrenheit and wet days are common. There’s no entrance fee to get in.

Visit Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska

To reach Exit Glacier, take Herman Leirer Road off the Seward Highway to the Exit Glacier area. The park’s main visitor center sits at 1212 4th Ave. in Seward, near the small boat harbor.

The park is open year-round, and admission is free. For boat tours and kayak rentals, book in advance, especially for July and August departures.

You can find current tour schedules and ranger program info through the official website or at the visitor center when you arrive in Seward.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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