Seeing a tidewater glacier up close is a thrill. Located in the remote and remarkable corners of coastal Kenai Fjords, this is where blue waters meet giant walls of ice.
In Kenai Fjords National Park, over half of the landmass is covered by the enormous Harding Icefield, a thousand-foot block of ice that dates back to the last Ice Age. The Harding spills out in all directions in the form of glaciers. Some stretch northwest into rugged hills of the Kenai Peninsula. Others—five of them, to be exact—reach as far as the sea along the craggy coast of the Gulf of Alaska.
The Northwestern, Holgate and Aialik tidewater glaciers can all be seen with Kenai Fjords Tours.
Looking up from the deck of your boat, you’ll also see the enormous white gems that are the park’s alpine glaciers. They are formed on the many mountainsides and push slowly down, through the valleys.
Valley glaciers are nestled in valleys and don’t reach the sea. Often, they terminate in large, freshwater lagoons. The Bear valley glacier, seen on Kenai Fjords Tours, is the largest glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park.