Exit Glacier — Kenai Fjords

Exit Glacier is the only part of Kenai Fjords National Park accessible by road, located 9 miles northwest of Seward in Alaska via Exit Glacier Road. It descends from the Harding Icefield — one of the largest icefields in the United States — and is among the most-visited glaciers in Alaska due to its road accessibility and the dramatic evidence of recent glacial retreat it presents. The nature center at the road-end parking area serves as the trailhead hub. The Lower Loop (0.8 miles, mostly flat) winds through recovering alder forest on the glacial outwash plain, passing dated markers that record where the glacier's terminus stood in each decade from the 1800s to the present; these markers become progressively closer together as retreat has accelerated in recent decades, creating a visceral visual record of climate-driven ice loss. The Glacier View Trail (1 mile round trip) approaches the active ice face to within a few hundred feet, where wind-polished blue seracs and crevasses are visible up close. The Overlook Loop (3 miles round trip) climbs through krummholz forest to a higher lateral perspective. For the most demanding visit, the Harding Icefield Trail (8.2 miles round trip, 3,000 feet of gain) ascends above treeline to stand at the icefield's edge above the clouds — one of the most rewarding full-day hikes in Southcentral Alaska. The nature center is staffed by rangers in summer. Exit Glacier is free to enter, open year-round, and one of the most powerful demonstrations of measurable glacial retreat available to road-accessible visitors in North America.