Kenai Fjords National Park

Kenai Fjords National Park protects a 607,000-acre section of Alaska's Kenai Peninsula coastline, where the Harding Icefield — one of the largest icefields in the United States — feeds more than 40 glaciers that flow toward the Gulf of Alaska. The park is accessed primarily from Seward, a small port town two and a half hours south of Anchorage via the Seward Highway. Day cruises from Seward's small boat harbor are the most popular way to experience the park; boats travel through fjords carved by ancient glaciers, past tidewater glaciers calving house-sized chunks of ice directly into the sea. Wildlife on the water is exceptional: Steller sea lions haul out on rocky islands, harbor seals rest on ice floes, orca and humpback whales surface in the open fjords, and puffins, murres, and kittiwakes nest in coastal cliff colonies visible from the boat deck. Exit Glacier, reachable by road on the park's northern edge near Seward, provides a free and accessible land-based visit where interpretive markers along the trail document the glacier's dramatic retreat over the past two centuries. Hikers can follow the Harding Icefield Trail — a strenuous 8.2-mile round trip gaining 3,000 feet of elevation — to stand at the icefield's edge above the cloud layer. The Kenai Fjords visitor center in downtown Seward provides orientation films and daily ranger programs. Most boat tours offer either a half-day trip around the outer islands or a full-day excursion into Northwestern Fjord, where multiple tidewater glaciers are visible simultaneously. Mornings typically offer calmer seas than afternoons, when Gulf swell builds.