Kenai Fjords National Park

Ice and Eskimo

Ice stretches across the Alaska horizon as far as the eye can see, interrupted by an occasional jagged nunatak, Eskimo for "lonely peak. The Harding Icefield’s expanse covers more than half of 607,805-acre Kenai Fjords National Park and conceals a mountain range under ice several thousand feet thick. Named for President Warren G. Harding, who visited Seward in 1923, the Icefield is a relic from the last ice age. It gives us a glimpse back to when ice covered much of North America. But Kenai Fjords is no static window to the past…as the ice recedes, it uncovers glacially carved valleys that fill with sea water to form the stunning fjords (pronounced f’yords). Visitors witness nature’s raw power sculpting this landscape. House-sized ice masses crash from tidewater glaciers into an Alaska sea, stirring up plankton to attract throngs of hungry seabirds. Along the coast Earth’s crustal plates collide head on: the denser Pacific Plate slips under the North American Plate. This subduction drags the Kenai Mountains into the sea and deepens the fjords. It causes frequent earthquakes, too. In 1964 the Good Friday Earthquake dropped the shoreline six feet in 3.5 minutes.

Puffins, Otters and Sea Lions in the US National Parks

Plants and animals adapt to incredibly dynamic conditions to survive the fjords. In this strange and wonderful place birds swim better than they fly. Ice-worms exist on frozen glacier surfaces. Mammals are better adapted to life in frigid salt water than on land. Puffins, kittiwakes, otters, sea lions, orca, salmon, and sea stars: the diversity of life in these seemingly inhospitable fjords is beyond our wildest imagining. Throughout the year storms drop hundreds of inches of snow on higher elevations. Snowflakes compact into dense glacial ice and feed 32 glaciers that flow from the Icefield. Rivers of ice, they creep downhill like giant bulldozers, carving out bowl-shaped cirques and broad U-shaped valleys. At Exit Glacier – the only part of the park reached by road – you can get close enough to peer into deep blue glacial crevasses. Keep a safe distance though! Although retreating, Exit Glacier is active. Large blocks of ice calve from its face without warning. The short stroll to Exit Glacier is like a trip back through time. Here the story unfolds of how plant life reclaims barren rocky land exposed by the glacier’s retreat. The Sitka spruce-and-hemlock forest you first encounter gives few clues that less than 200 years ago ice covered the area. Closer to the glacier you see earlier stages of growth – cottonwoods, alders, and willows – preparing the way for the ‘climax’ forest. Finally, in the area most recently exposed, you will find pioneer plants – mosses, lichens, and bright pink fireweed – struggling to gain toeholds in the aftermath of nature’s great bulldozer. These colonizers start the progression from glacial till to the temperate rain forests that cloak the edges of the Kenai Fjords.

Alaska Bald Eagles

Wedged between the sea and the Icefield, wildlife flourishes in this narrow slice of temperate rain forest. Mountain goats pick their way along precipitous slopes. Moose browse hedges of willow and alder. Bears forage for grasses and berries. Wolverines, marmots, and songbirds also make homes here. Some species span both worlds: bald eagles fish in the fjords and nest in the tops of spruce or hemlock trees.

Eskimo, Fur Traders and Gold Seekers

Native eskimo hunted and fished in the fjords for years. Russian fur traders and gold seekers passed through. Most evidence of these humans fell victim to this harsh environment, but the park includes a few Native Alaskan archeological sites and gold mining sites. The National Park Service manages Kenai Fjords to preserve its natural and cultural resources, ensuring that people can enjoy this dynamic place while leaving it unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. Established as a national monument in 1978, Kenai Fjords became a national park under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) in 1980. But the story of Kenai Fjords is far from finished. The Earth’s crustal movements keep tugging the mountains into the sea, and changes in temperature and precipitation cause glacial advance and retreat. If you return, the park won’t look quite the same – in Kenai Fjords the only constant is change. Here mountains and the sea struggle for balance, glaciers advance and retreat, wildlife adapts, and nature is always a work in progress.