Aialik Bay (Sea Kayak)

Have you pulled out a map and looked at all the National Parks near Anchorage? We have so much backyard wilderness, from Chugach State Park to Hatcher Pass, that we can forget how many national treasures are within a short drive or flight. Kenai Fjords National Park is one of those places, a national treasure just a couple hours from home.

Many attributes of Kenai Fjords National Park are exceptional: Its extensive, relatively low elevation ice cap that descends to tidewater in powerful glacial tongues; its profusion of marine wildlife; its waterfalls, so numerous that they are hard to count; its multitude of fjords branching off of fjords, which create a jagged coastline with exposed capes and protected bays. Like so many of Alaska’s National Parks, Kenai Fjords is easy to visit. It is just a couple hours south of Anchorage, and time or cash-strapped visitors can get a glimpse of it by hiking up the trail by Exit Glacier. Anyone who lives in Alaska, however, should take a little more and visit the ice cap’s confluence with the ocean, a place where ice and saltwater and rainforest converge.

Aialik Bay is the closest sheltered fjord to Seward. As such, it is the cheapest place for sea kayakers to take a boat taxi from town (as affordable as $310 round trip). Boat taxis offer flexible drop off locations, but if you have a few days it makes sense to start at Bear Cove, which has a large, sheltered landing beach and campsite. From Bear Cove, you can cross the bay and ascend Holgate Arm, to the Holgate Glacier that barely touches tidewater. Near the toe of Holgate, the effects of climate change are stark: Bare rock is exposed to the sunlight after being covered in ice for thousands of years. The bedrock and gravels beneath Holgate Glacier peek out, suggesting the glacier will soon retreat from tidewater. Despite the glacier’s retreat at sea level, it is still an overpowering sight, cascading down from the nearly flat icefield above. There is both a public use cabin, which must be reserved in advance, and a large campsite with secured food boxes several miles from the glacier on the north side of Holgate Arm.

The effects of climate change are even more apparent at the neighboring Pedersen Glacier. It has shrunk vertically and horizontally by thousands of feet, and is now is a fairly narrow tongue of ice trailing into a lagoon formed by its old terminal moraine. Medium size icebergs float in the lagoon, unlike in Holgate Arm, which generally has smaller bits of ice. There is a lovely, sheltered campsite at the mouth of Holgate Lagoon, in a stand of spruce near the beach. Like other popular campsites in Aialik, it has a metal food storage box. Unfortunately, it also has bear problems: Apparently the nearby lodge operated by the Port Graham Corporation has allowed bears to become accustomed to humans. On a recent trip, we had to abandon camp after a habituated, aggressive black bear stalked our camp.

The effects of climate change are even more apparent at the neighboring Pedersen Glacier. It has shrunk vertically and horizontally by thousands of feet, and is now is a fairly narrow tongue of ice trailing into a lagoon formed by its old terminal moraine. Medium size icebergs float in the lagoon, unlike in Holgate Arm, which generally has smaller bits of ice. There is a lovely, sheltered campsite at the mouth of Holgate Lagoon, in a stand of spruce near the beach. Like other popular campsites in Aialik, it has a metal food storage box. Unfortunately, it also has bear problems: Apparently the nearby lodge operated by the Port Graham Corporation has allowed bears to become accustomed to humans. On a recent trip, we had to abandon camp after a habituated, aggressive black bear stalked our camp.

There aren’t sheltered campsites near the head of the bay because trees have not colonized the recently-glaciated shorelines. In the vicinity of Aialik Glacier, which seems to have retreated less than Holgate or Pedersen, only low shrubs and grasses grow along the shoreline. A large beach to the south of the glacier is a convenient and relatively safe place to pull out and walk up for a better view of the glacier. Just ensure your kayaks are well out of the water, taking into account both waves from glacial calving as well as changing tides. Since it still reaches well into tidewater, Aialik has the most impressive calving. It is mesmerizing to watch a series of seracs collapse into the water, sending great waves up the shoreline. Don’t kayak among or near the large icebergs near the glacier, or anywhere near the unstable glacier’s face.

Seals haul out on icebergs that calved off of Aialik Glacier. Paddlers will see dozens of them resting on the ice out in the bay, but don’t paddle near them. They spook easily, and repeatedly jumping off the ice to avoid paddlers can increase mortality rates for young seals. Aialik Bay also has a remarkable concentration of humpback whales, generally fishing near shoreline. These whales feed after an extraordinary migration from warmer, tropical seas in which the females give birth. They are able to fast, even while nursing, until returning to their feeding grounds off Alaska’s coast.

Though the east side of the bay doesn’t have tidewater glaciers, it has superlative camping. Abra Cove is a sheltered inlet with beach camping and sweeping views of Aialik Glacier. What it lacks firewood and the shelter of spruce trees it makes up for with some of the best campsite scenery I’ve ever seen. In addition to the glacier, approximately two dozen waterfalls cascade into the cove near the campsite. One of them provides a fresh water source. Farther out the bay toward the ocean, paddlers can find sheltered, forested campsites, in addition to the Aialik Bay public use cabin. Planning ahead is essential if you want to use either the Aialik Bay or Holgate public use cabins, which get reserved far in advance. Personally, I’d prefer to go to Aialik when the weather is good--there is plenty of good camping.



A visit to Kenai Fjords’ Aialik Bay is a reminder how lucky we are to have not just the National Park system, but the most National Park land of any state in America. Only Alaskans can see whales feeding across from calving tidewater glaciers, amidst coastal rainforest, just two hours from home.