We spent two days exploring Kenai Fjords National Park from our base in Seward, Alaska. We stayed in Seward several days, which we hoped would allow us to pick the best weather days for our activities, but we experienced lots of rain, clouds, and wind all of the days we were there. We made the best of it and ended up having awesome glacier and wildlife viewings during our days in the park despite the so-so weather.

The park visitor center is in downtown Seward and currently undergoing renovations. We enjoyed watching their film and learning more about this national park, more than half of which is covered by ice. Unlike the majority of the national parks in the lower 48, this park is primarily experienced by boat or by airplane with one hiking area around Exit Glacier that you can access by car. Given our limited time and the weather, we chose to spend an afternoon hiking and a full day taking a boat tour of the glacial fjords.

Kenai Fjords Exit Glacier Area

The rain cleared the afternoon we arrived in Seward so we decided to head to Exit Glacier Nature Center to explore the hiking trails around the area’s namesake glacier.

The nature center is small but has information about the trails and hiking conditions, restrooms, a few information displays, and a gift shop.

There are three main trails accessed via one trailhead behind the nature center. One is the Harding Icefield trail, which climbs 3,000 feet / 914 meters in elevation over 4.1 miles / 6.6 km for an 8.2 mile / 13 km roundtrip hike to a viewpoint of the icefield. It sounds like an incredible hike and I’d love to do it someday, but it typically takes experienced hikers about 6-8 hours to complete it and we simply didn’t have the time or weather during our visit to tackle it. Next time!

We did complete all of the other loop trails and overlooks around the glacier, staying to the right on our journey out to the farthest lookout point at Glacier Overlook. While most people prioritize visiting (and sometimes exclusively visit) this overlook because it offers the closest views of the glacier, we actually preferred the viewing angle at our second stop.

After completing the Glacier Overlook loop trail, we caught the trail spur out to Outwash Plain. There are flash flood warning signs at the nature center and around this area and its best to check on conditions before heading out across the wash.

Happily there were no concerns the day of our visit so we crossed the wash to Exit Creek for great views of the lower section of the retreating glacier. This ended up being our favorite viewpoint.

Brian captured some great shots of the lower section of the glacier with its deep blues and icy/rocky debris.

There are signs noting how far along the wash you can approach the glacier, and we could see quite well despite being fairly far away.

We returned to the trail and headed toward the nature center along the wash side of the Glacier View Loop trail to complete the final section of the loop. This took us to the Glacier View overlook, which was the least impressive of the three but did include signs showing how far out the glacier extended during different dates in the past. This glacier has had some significant retreats in recent years.

Kenai Fjords Boat Tour

While it was nice to get in a little hiking at Exit Glacier, we didn’t feel like that stop alone was enough to give us a real feel for a national park known for and named for its fjords!

For that experience, we decided to take a day-long national park boat tour and set off at 8 a.m.

Departing from Seward, this cruise glides past seals, whales and puffins as we explore coastal rainforests, a tidewater glacier and remote Alaskan islands. Experienced and engaging captains narrate the trip, so you walk away knowing a whole lot more about Kenai Fjords National Park and its wonders.

Pursuit Alaska Collection

The captain let us know that the wind was supposed to pick up in the afternoon and they might have to bring us back early for safety reasons so we were all onboard and ready to get going to make the most of our tour.

We ended up lucking out on the wildlife sightings. As we had hoped, our ship took us us close to several islands and coastline caves where we were able to watch Steller sea lions and a variety of sea birds. Brian also pointed out an otter with its baby, which was a highlight for me!

After stops at Aialik Cape and Aialik Glacier, which is the largest glacier in Kenai Fjord Nartional Park’s Aialik Bay, we headed to the smaller Holgate Glacier where we were able to get close and take in some of the glacier calving.

I was happy to learn that despite all of its calving and the icy debris in the water, this glacier is actually advancing!

While our time boating through the fjords was great, the wind picked up on our way back and put my meclizine to work! I braved the wind and weather (and successfully kept down my lunch) out on deck, which I had almost exclusively to myself on the bumpy ride back to Seward.

We had a great time exploring a couple areas of Kenai Fjords National Park, as well as Seward and the greater Kenai Peninsula. What a beautiful area of Alaska and another incredible national park visit!