The Kenai Fjords are coastal mountain fjords whose placid seascapes reflect scenic icebound landscapes, and whose salt spray mixes with mountain mist. Located on the southeastern Kenai Peninsula, the national park is a pristine and rugged land supporting many unaltered natural environments and ecosystems.

The seaward ends of the Kenai Mountains are slipping into the sea, being dragged under by the collision of two tectonic plates of the earth's crust. What were once alpine valleys filled with glacier ice are now deepwater mountain-flanked fjords. The forces that caused this land to submerge are still present. In 1964, the Alaskan Good Friday earthquake dropped the shoreline another 6 feet in just one day. As the land sinks into the ocean, glacier carved cirques are turned into half-moon bays and mountain peaks are reduced to wave beaten islands and stacks.

The fjords are long, steep-sided, glacier-carved valleys that are now filled with ocean waters. A mountain platform, one mile high, rises above this dramatic coastline. The mountains are mantled by the 300-square-mile Harding Icefield, which sits 35 miles long and 20 miles wide. Only isolated mountain peaks interrupt its nearly flat, snowclad surface. Exit Glacier, spilling off the icefield, is accessible by road.

Use the menu below to quickly access information on this park:

General Information

Visitation

The park is open year-round, but visitation is highest May through September.

Location

The park lies south and west of Seward, Alaska, 130 road miles south of Anchorage on the Seward Highway.

Address

Kenai Fjords National Park
1212 4th Avenue
P.O. Box 1727
Seward, Alaska 99664-1727

Telephone

(907) 224-2132 (Recorded Park Information)
(907) 224-3175 or fax (907) 224-2144
(907) 224-2124 TDY

Operating Hours & Seasons

The visitor center in Seward offers exhibits, slide programs, maps, publications, and information. It is open year-round, Monday through Friday, and Saturdays and Sundays from Memorial Day through Labor Day, with extended hours. There is a ranger station at Exit Glacier, which offers exhibits and information about the glacier and the Harding Icefield, interpretive programs, and talks. Rangers provide information daily during the summer months.

Directions

The park lies 130 road miles south of Anchorage, via the Seward Highway. The park's headquarters and visitor center is located at Seward's small boat harbor.

Golden Eagle Passport

The Golden Eagle Passport is an entrance pass to any National Park, monument, historical site, recreation area, and national wildlife refuge that charges entrance fees. It is a great convenience for those who plan on visiting several different areas that charge special fees. It is valid for one year from the purchase date. A Golden Eagle Passport may be purchased for $50 at any National Park Service entrance fee area or by mail. To order by mail, send check or money order (no cash, please) to:

National Park Service
1100 Ohio Drive, SW
Room 138
Washington, DC 20242
Attention: Golden Eagle Passport

Where entry is by private vehicle, the Golden Eagle Passport will admit the passholder as well as any passengers. Where entry by private vehicle is not possible, the pass will admit the passholder, spouse, children and parents.

The Golden Eagle Passport will not reduce use fees, such as those for camping, swimming, parking, boat launching, or cave tours. It covers entrance fees only.

Golden Age Passport

The Golden Age Passport is a lifetime entrance pass for those United States residents 62 years or older. These may be purchased at any National Park Service entrance fee area for a one-time processing fee of $10. The Golden Age Passport cannot be purchased via mail or telephone. Proof of age and citizenship or permanent residence must be shown at the time of purchase.

The Golden Age Passport will admit the passholder and any passengers in a private vehicle. When entrance is not via private vehicle, the pass will admit the passholder as well as children, spouse, and parents.

The Golden Age Pass grants a 50 percent discount to the holder on any federal use fees charged for things such as camping, swimming, parking, boat launching, or tours. It does not, however, reduce the price of special recreation permit fees or fees for concessions.

Golden Access Passport

The Golden Access Passport is a free entrance pass to any National Park, monument, historic site, recreation area, and national wildlife refuge for those who are blind or permanently disabled. The Golden Access passport may be obtained at any National Park Service entrance fee area. Proof of a medically determined disability and eligibility for receiving benefits under federal law is necessary at purchase.

The Golden Access Passport will admit the passholder and any passengers in a private vehicle. Where entrance is not by vehicle, the pass will admit the passholder, spouse, children and parents.

The Golden Access Passport also provides a 50 percent discount on any federal use fees charged for services and facilities. It does not cover special recreation permit fees or fees charged for concessions.

All passes described above are non-transferable.

Facilities & Opportunities

Visitor Center/Exhibits:

The 2 major sites are the main visitor center, located at Seward's small boat harbor, and the Exit Glacier Ranger Station.

Climate & Recommended Clothing

Overcast and cool days are frequent in this maritime climate of abundant moisture. May and June are very dry with approximately an inch of precipitation each month. Summer daytime temperatures range from 45 - 65F. The wet, stormy fall begins in September, with daytime highs in the 50s. Snowfall begins in early October (average monthly snowfall of 5 inches), and increases to 10 inches in November and 13 inches in December. Winter low temperatures range from 4 - 12F, with highs ranging from 20 - 27F. Wool or synthetic clothing and sturdy rain gear - pants, coat and hat - are essential.

Transportation

In addition to accessibility by road via the Seward Highway, bus and commuter flights link Seward and Anchorage. The Alaska Marine Highway (ferry) System connects Seward with Homer and Seldovia via Kodiak, providing service to Valdez and Cordova. The Alaska Railroad serves Seward from Anchorage during the summer months.

Also in summer, Exit Glacier can be reached by car on a gravel road (approximately 9 miles) and a short trail. The Harding Icefield can be reached by air or trail.

Accessibility

The park visitor center and the exhibit area are wheelchair accessible, as is the first .25 mile of the Exit Glacier Trail. Contact the park for details.

Reservations & Permits

Reservations for school groups or other educational groups should be made prior to the visit. Reasonable notice and application for Special Use Permits is required. For additional information concerning reservations or permits call (907) 224-3175.

Recommended Activities & Park Use

Authorized commercial guides provide camping, fishing, and kayaking services. Air charters fly over the coast for "flight-seeing" and access to the fjords. In summer, boat tours ply the coast, observing calving glaciers, sea birds, and marine mammals.

Boat charters offer overnight fjord trips and fishing trips to the fjords and Resurrection Bay. Saltwater fish include halibut, lingcod, and a variety of rockfish. Freshwater fish include Dolly Varden and silver, red, chum and pink and king salmon.

Interpretive talks, exhibits, and slide programs are scheduled at the visitor center and Exit Glacier Ranger Station.

Lodging and Camping Facilities:

Exit Glacier has 10 walk-in summer camping sites. Three backcountry cabins for summer visits along the park's coastline are located in the fjords of Holgate Arm, Aialik Bay, and North Arm. The cabins are accessible by boat, kayak or small plane. In winter, a public use cabin is available at Exit Glacier. Cabin stays are limited. Visitors must obtain reservations and permits in advance.

Seward provides full tourist services, including campgrounds.

Trails, Roads:

Exit Glacier is the only portion of the park accessible by trail. A gravel road at mile 3.7 of the Seward Highway leads 9 miles to the Exit Glacier Ranger Station. An easy 1/2-mile walk will take you to the glacier's terminus. The first 1/4-mile of this trail is completely accessible. A steeper trail continues across moraines and bedrock. Visitors may return to the Ranger Station via a nature trail.

The 3-mile Harding Icefield trail, which follows the glacier's flank to an overlook of the icefield, is for day use only. Overnight backpacking is prohibited. Check bulletin boards for current trail conditions

The glacier is active and calving - falling ice is dangerous. The area beyond the warning signs is strictly off limits. Please stay off the ice!

Back To Top

History

Kenai Fjords National Park derives its name from the long, steep-sided, glacier-carved valleys that are now filled with ocean waters. "Kenai" comes from the Russian mistranslation of the "mouth" of the river. Today the Kenaitze Indians still live along this river's mouth. The seaward ends of the Kenai Mountains are slipping into the sea, being dragged under by the collision of two tectonic plates of the earth's crust. What were once alpine valleys filled with glacier ice are now deepwater mountain-flanked fjords. The forces that caused this land to submerge are still present. In 1964, the Alaskan Good Friday earthquake dropped the shoreline another 6 feet in just one day. As the land sinks into the ocean, glacier-carved cirques are turned into half-moon bays and mountain peaks are reduced to wave beaten islands and stacks.

Though the land is subsiding, a mountain platform one-mile high still comprises the coast's backdrop. The 300-square-mile Harding Icefield, the parks dominant feature, mantles the mountains. The icefield was not discovered until early this century when a mapping team realized that several coastal glaciers belonged to the same massive system. Today's icefield measures 35 miles long by 20 miles wide. Only isolated mountain peaks interrupt its nearly flat, snowclad surface. These protruding nunataks this Eskimo word means "lonely peaks" - rise dramatically from the frozen clutches of the Ice Age.

The mountains intercept moisture-laden clouds, which replenish the icefield with 35 to 65 feet of snow annually. Time and the weight of overlying snow transform the snow into ice. The pull of gravity and the tremendous weight of the snow make the ice flow out in all directions. It is squeezed into glaciers that creep downward like giant bulldozers, carving and gouging the landscape. Along the coast, 8 glaciers reach the sea. These tidewater glaciers calve icebergs into the fjords. The thunderous boom of calving ice can sometimes be heard 20 miles away.

Humans have had little lasting impact on this environment, although a few Native American archeological sites and isolated gold extraction locations are found in the park. This region is as a living laboratory of change. Plants and wildlife subsist here amid dynamic interactions of water, ice, and a glacier carved landscape relentlessly pulled down by the movement of the earth's crust. The Harriman Expedition, a steamship borne venture visiting the fjords in 1899, predicted this area's future value as a scenic tourist attraction.

The Alaska National Interest Lands Act of 1980 created Kenai Fjords National Park. The act directs that the park "be managed for the following purposes, among others: To maintain unimpaired the scenic and environmental integrity of the Harding icefield, its outflowing glaciers, and coastal fjords and islands in their natural state; and to protect seals, sea lions, other marine mammals, and marine and other birds, and to maintain their hauling and breeding areas in their natural state, free of human activity which is disruptive to their natural processes...".

Although cultural resources are not specifically cited in the implementing language, they are part of the NPS management mandate. In addition, in order to properly manage and interpret the natural environment, animal populations and plant communities of this unit it is necessary to develop a diachronic perspective. Humans have been part of this ecosystem and interacting with it for at least 8000 years. A basic inventory and evaluation of the archeological resources of Kenai Fjords National Park (KEFJ) will provide essential information about human presence and activities of the centuries.

Land Ownership

Of a total of 671,000 acres in the national park, 529,000 acres are federally owned. The state of Alaska has about 19,000 acres. There are several native allotments and cemetery/historical (14h1) sites with the park. Local Native groups have under application 122,000 acres. The Port Graham and English Bay Village Corporations have applied for the majority of those acres, including 8 14h1 sites. In addition, there are 160 acres of unpatented mining claims within the park. Most of the land under application is located along the coastal parts of the park.

Archeological Resources

Very little is known about the prehistory of Kenai Fjords National Park, partly because very little archeological inventory has been done there until recently and partly because the terrain and heavy vegetation make site discovery difficult. In addition, recent geological history complicates the process of searching for intact coastal sites. For example, the archeological records of many inner fjord areas have probably been erased by glacial advances during the Little Ice Age (1100-1850 AD), and tectonic subduction of the Pacific Plate has resulted in ongoing coastal subsidence, exposing shoreline sites to erosion and raising sea level to cover them. There is evidence from Aialik Bay indicating that a major earthquake in about 1090 AD caused almost two meters of subsidence along the KEFJ coast. The 1964 earthquake also caused subsidence. However, the Exxon Valdez oilspill did impact the KEFJ coastline and some exploratory and assessment work was undertaken at that time. As a followup to that work, an archeological inventory, funded as part of the SAIP program, was undertaken for the coastal area. The data from this survey are now being analyzed.

A brief overview based on chronologies from surrounding areas will provide some perspective. Kodiak Island contains the earliest evidence of a coastal-marine adaptation in the area. These early finds have been grouped into the first phase of an archeological tradition known as Ocean Bay, which seems to have been focused on Kodiak and the nearby Alaska Peninsula. This Ocean Bay I culture has been dated to approximately 6500 BP. Ocean Bay II, dated to between 4500 and 3900 years age, differs primarily from the preceding culture in its emphasis on ground and polished slate over flaked stone. The assemblages from this phase also seem to represent a diversification in resources bases and subsistence strategies. Open water sea mammal hunting, riverine fishing, and inland caribou hunting are all indicated.

For the time period between 3000 and approximately 800 years ago, the most complete cultural history comes from Kachemak Bay on the west side of the Kenai Peninsula. It seems to have been related to the Ocean Bay materials but with an increase in the variety of both of the polished stone tools and bone implements for sea mammal hunting. It extended over time from Kachemak Bay to Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound (Kachemak Bay III) and down to Kodiak Island. Kachemak Bay I has been found only on Yukon Island and was dated to about 2800 BP (before present). Kachemak Bay II, radiocarbon dated to 1700 BP, has been recognized in Prince William Sound and as far inland on the Kenai Peninsula as Skilak and Kenai lakes.

As far as 3500 years ago, Norton influence affected Cook Inlet, the Kenai Peninsula, and Prince William Sound. The Norton tradition is clearly an Eskimo culture but seems to represent here an adaptation to an interior and riverine environment and an increased emphasis on fishing for subsistence. Then, about 1000 years go, another wave of Eskimo culture, in the form of the influential Thule tradition, can be discerned in the archeological record of the area. Thule reinforced already existing cultural patterns throughout the area and brought an increased emphasis on sea mammal hunting. Beginning about 1100 AD, when Thule is first recognized in the area, coastal southcentral Alaska gradually developed into the local cultures that were present at the time of contact. About 900 years ago, the Koniag phase appeared on Kodiak Island. This was a widely influential group, which was directly ancestral to modern Koniag Eskimos.

Historical Aspects

Captain Vitus Bering, in 1741, was the first known European to see the Kenai Peninsula. Captain James Cook made the European discovery of Cook Inlet in 1778. After Cook's visit the area became the scene of bitter competition among rival fur companies for the natural resources of Russian America. Alexander Baranof named Resurrection Bay in 1792, finding it a welcome refuge from pacific storms. In 1793 Baranof selected a site on the west side of Resurrection Bay for a ship building port. At least three major vessels were built at this port, named Voskresenski Harbor, before its abandonment around 1796. The location of this site was lost and it has not yet been rediscovered. The Russians controlled the area until the United States purchase. By that time, trading posts had been established at English Bay, Kenai, Tyonek and Iliamna. The first American settlement in the Seward area was in 1884, by William Lowell. The railroad connecting Seward to the Interior was conceived in 1898 and completed by 1915.

At present, there are three unpatented mining claims within the park. These historic sites have been mapped by the Cultural Resources Mining Inventory program of the NPS. Four other historic era sites (SEW-01 - 04), were found in the Resurrection River valley in 1983.

Ethnographic Aspects

At contact, the aboriginal inhabitants of the area that is now Kenai Fjords National Park were most probably Pacific Eskimos with Tanaina (Dena'ina) Athapaskan groups as near neighbors. Of the Eskimos, the Chugachigmiut (now Chugach) lived in and adjacent to Prince William sound; the Unagalakmiut occupied Kayak Island and the adjacent mainland; the Unixkugmiut resided on the south coast of the Kenai Peninsula. Little recorded history exists relating to the Ugalakmiut and the Unixkugmiut, but their culture was apparently quite similar to that of the more populous Chugach. The Chugach people represent the extreme extension of Alaskan Eskimo culture in a southeasterly direction. Archeological studies indicate that the Chugach existed with little cultural change in this region for at least 500 years prior to the European discovery of Alaska.

The Chugach considered the Unixkugmiut a separate people. Their territory seems to have extended from the vicinity of Puget Bay, at the western end of Prince William Sound, to Cook Inlet, including Kachemak Bay. The Unixkugmiut probably occupied most of Cook Inlet during the period of Kachemak Bay III culture. Later, they seem to have been replaced by the expanding Tanaina people over most of their territory. The National Park now lies within the boundaries of the Chugach Alaska Corporation.

After contact, epidemics, missionization and the introduction of commercial fishing and hunting caused major disruptions in Native life and culture (with the concomitant shifts in resource availability). The last Native settlement on the south coast, at Aialik Bay, was probably abandoned about 1880. It appears that the inhabitants migrated to Alexandrovski, on English Bay, which was originally a Russian Port established in 1785, and is now the village of English Bay. Natives also moved to Port Graham, where the Russians began mining coal in 1855 and where a commercial cannery was opened in 1909. The following is a list of abandoned village sites within or near KEFJ:

• Kuta-Krq located at or near the present town of Seward
• Kanilik or Two Bays located in the vicinity of Seward and Two Arm Bay, so called because it was a double village with settlements on two adjacent bays. Location presently unknown.
• Ayalik in Aialik Bay. The inhabitants moved to English Bay about 1880.
• SEL-188 is located on the north side of McArthur Pass, which leads between the Pye Islands and the mainland into Nuka Bay. This site has been partially mapped and tested by NPS in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989.
• Nuka Island Passage contains two possible sites on the mainland shore of the Passage and a similar channel on the western side of the bay. One is opposite the north end of Nuka Island and the second is opposite its southwestern point.
• Yaliqin was a village in Yalik Bay, a western arm of Nuka Bay. The inhabitants, Yalegmiut, were an independent group with their own chief.

Discussion

The ongoing multipark SAIP project that involves inventorying coastal resources in seven Alaska parks has revealed that archeological sites do exist in KEFJ in the coastal zone. Since these are resources that are vulnerable to oil spills and tectonic effects (earthquakes and tsunamis) as well as looting and pothunting, park management needs more information on the archeological sites in the Park. An overview and assessment is the first step in the process and then a long-term inventory and evaluation program is needed.

Back To Top

Reservation Information

Reservations for school groups or other educational groups should be made prior to the visit. Reasonable notice and application for Special Use Permits is required. For additional information concerning reservations or permits call (907) 224-3175.

User Fees at Exit Glacier

On May 22, 1998, Kenai Fjords National Park will begin collecting user fees in the Exit Glacier area. The park has been selected as one of 106 areas nationwide to participate in the Recreation Demo Program established by Congress in November 1996.

Noncommercial Fees

Single Vehicle	$ 5.00
Individual (hike/bike)	$ 3.00
Annual Vehicle Pass	$ 15.00

(Bearers of valid Golden Age or Golden Access Passports receive a 50% reduction in User Fees)

Commercial Fees (in effect beginning May 1999)

1-6 Passengers	$ 25.00
7-25 Passengers	$ 40.00
26 or More Passengers	$ 100.00

(All commercial tour operators MUST have a valid Incidental Business Permit for Kenai Fjords National Park)

Back To Top

Return to National Parks Directory

This content is provided courtesy of Maptech¨.

Perfect for the active explorer, the Maptech National Park Digital Guide is available for sale now.
Click here for more information and online ordering.