How to Get There

Overview

Kenai Fjords National Park is a national park that maintains the Harding Icefield, its outflowing glaciers, and coastal fjords and islands. The park covers an area of 669,984 acres (1,046.9 sq mi; 2,711.3 km2) on the Kenai Peninsula in south-central Alaska, west of the town of Seward.

The park contains the Harding Icefield, one of the largest ice fields in the United States, and is named for the numerous fjords carved by glaciers moving down the mountains from the ice field. The field is the source of at least 38 glaciers, the largest of which is Bear Glacier. The fjords are glacial valleys that have been submerged below sea level by a combination of rising sea levels and land subsidence. Exit Glacier is a popular destination at the end of the park's only road. The remainder of the park is accessible by boat, airplane, and hiking.

The park protects the icefield, a narrow fringe of forested land between the mountains and the sea, and the deeply indented coastline. The park is inhabited by a variety of terrestrial and marine mammals, including brown and black bears, moose, sea otters, harbor seals, humpback and killer whales.

Activities

Seward is a departure point and destination for large cruise ships. Cruise tours originating from Seward provide access to the park via Resurrection Bay. Various companies offer tours, many guided by National Park Rangers. The tours provide views of land and marine wildlife, particularly Steller sea lions, puffins, Dall's porpoises, American black bear, snowshoe hares, Mountain goats, and humpback and orca whales, as well as natural sights such as the fjords and tidewater glaciers. Bus tours from Seward visit Exit Glacier and boat tours visit other parts of the park.

Geography

The park lies on the southeastern side of the Kenai Peninsula, about 130 miles (210 km) south of Anchorage. The nearest large town is Seward, immediately to the east of the park on Resurrection Bay. The park includes the region's deeply indented glaciated coastline and its interior icefields. The most significant fjords include Aialik Bay, Harris Bay, McCarty Fjord and Nuka Bay. Much of the interior is covered by the Harding Icefield. The park's highest point is an unnamed peak of 6,450 feet (1,970 m) in the Kenai Mountains. The park is bordered on the west by Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and on the south by Kachemak Bay State Park.

The park can be reached from Seward, 130 mi (210 km) south of Anchorage at the southern terminus of the Seward Highway. It is only one of three national parks in Alaska that can be reached by road, via the Exit Glacier Nature Center. A network of trails from the Nature Center provide access to the glacier, and the 7.4-mile (11.9 km) Harding Icefield Trail.

Geology

The park's landscape has been shaped by plate tectonics, with the Pacific Plate subducting beneath the North American Plate. The process has lowered the elevation of the Kenai Mountains, gradually pulling glacial features down into the sea, which is at the same time rising. The floors of the fjords can be from 600 to 1,000 feet (180 to 300 m) below the present sea level. The motion of the North Pacific Plate has accreted a variety of terranes against the shoreline, so that the coastal region is a mixture of rocks that originated elsewhere, together with local igneous rock. Predominant rock types include shale and graywacke, with greenstone, tuff and chert.

Kenai Fjords is extensively glaciated, with 51% of the park covered by ice. The Harding Icefield receives 60 feet (18 m) of snowfall per year. More than thirty glaciers originate in the icefield, which first formed about 23,000 years ago. Icefield coverage has declined, with a 3% reduction in coverage over a 16-year study period. The park's largest glacier is Bear Glacier. The most accessible glacier, and the only portion of the park accessible by road, is Exit Glacier.

Wildlife and ecology

Kenai Fjords National Park is dominated by a glaciated landscape. The park's glaciers have retreated through the twentieth century, exposing new lands to colonization by plant and animal life. The park also features a significant marine environment.

Large terrestrial mammal species in the park include timber wolf, porcupine, Canadian lynx, brown bear, black bears, moose and mountain goat. Smaller mammals include coyote, beaver and river otter. Marine mammals include sea otter, harbor seal and Steller sea lion. Cetaceans seen in park waters include orca, fin whale, humpback whale, minke whales, Dall's porpoise and Pacific white-sided dolphin.

Birds that nest in this park include bald eagle, the Peale's subspecies of peregrine falcon, black-billed magpie, and Steller's jay. Marine birds include tufted and horned puffin, common and thick-billed murre, and marbled murrelets.

The plant communities at Kenai Fjords are shaped by glacial retreat. New lands exposed in former glacier beds are at first stony, lacking in soil. The first plants to appear in recently glaciated areas are lichens and mosses, with a few hardy plants such as dwarf fireweed and yellow dryas. These pioneers are followed by other plants as the moss and lichen break rock down into soil. In particular, Sitka alder is capable of fixing nitrogen, supporting itself and enriching the soil. Willows also appear at this stage. Willows and alders are followed by black cottonwoods, then Sitka spruce. The mature forest features Sitka spruce and mountain hemlocks, with an understory of devil's club, Alaska blueberry, elderberry, baneberry, watermelon berry and lady fern in the coniferous forest understory. A similar succession pattern is seen at the park's nunataks, exposed rock outcroppings in the Harding Icefield. Forested portions of the park are dominated by conifers, with deciduous forests confined to areas recently vacated by glaciers.

Harsh conditions at higher altitudes limit tree growth above the tree line, creating an alpine ecosystem. The tree line at Kenai Fjords is between 750 and 1,000 feet (230 and 300 m) above sea level. The alpine regions support shrubby grown to alders, devil's club, elderberry, lady fern, cow parsnip and other plants. Herbaceous plants can grow in areas with better soils, supporting grasses, Nootka lupine, fireweed and other perennial plants. Higher alpine regions support a dwarf shrub community less than 1 foot (30 cm) high, at a very slow rate of growth. Dwarf plants in this region include bog blueberry, partridgefoot, black crowberry and Aleutian mountainheath, all of which are vulnerable to damage from foot traffic.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Kenai Fjords National Park", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0