In particular, Sitka alder is capable of fixing nitrogen, supporting itself and enriching the soil. As the surface elevation of the ice field decreases due to climate change, the receding ice exposes bare rock and essentially increases the size of the nunataks, providing new habitat for alpine vegetation. A similar succession pattern is seen at the park's nunataks, exposed rock outcroppings in the Harding Icefield. Known for: An active, and yet slumbering volcano. Image of road, park, green - 139148369 Wildlife thrives in icy waters and lush forests around this vast expanse of ice. Willows and alders are followed by black cottonwoods, then Sitka spruce. Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. Pat and Josh scrambled above camp to a series of ledges separating bedrock slabs. The park protects the icefield, a narrow fringe of forested land between the mountains and the sea, and the deeply indented coastline. I would reach out to Hig for more information, he is closely monitoring the glacier. The first study, entitled Alaska - Its Resources and Development was centered on the development of tourism, despite a dissent from co-author Bob Marshall, who advocated strict preservation. The kites were SO MUCH FUN! Photo about Halim park Jeju island South Korea Jejudo the main road view on the stairs from the volcano caves. Josh ended up threading a bolt into the drilled hole, with a plastic casing on the bolt that worked as a temporary gasket. Headlands were the most affected areas. [41], Kenai Fjords National Park is dominated by a glaciated landscape. There are two primary glacierized areas in KEFJ (the Harding Icefield and the Grewingk-Yalik Glacier Complex) and three primary glacierized areas in KATM (the Mt. [61] Marine birds include tufted and horned puffin,[62] common and thick-billed murre,[63] and marbled murrelets. The park is bordered on the west by Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and on the south by Kachemak Bay State Park. [8] A lodge was developed by the Port Graham community on Aialik Bay. After our trip, I saw a post from Hig about the rapid retreat of Grewingk: There has been rapid retreat of Grewingk Glacier this winter – almost half a kilometer. Harding Icefield Trail. 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. Spring exits on the Grewingk are only going to get harder. For those clients that want to go directly to amazing views and serenity we can modify and land direction on the top. Josh’s truck started up, then died. KEFJ -the Harding Icefield and the Grewingk-Yalik Glacier Complex, and three primary areas of glaciation in KATM - the Mt. Katmai and Lake Clark . Wildlife thrives in icy waters and lush forests around this vast expanse of ice. The park is named for the numerous fjords carved by glaciers moving down the mountains from the ice field. Publisher for the University of Washington Member of the Association of University Presses At the edge of the Kenai Peninsula lies a land where the ice age lingers. ... Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, a spectacular forty square mile, 100 to 700 foot deep ash flow deposited by Novarupta Volcano in 1912. We had excellent travel conditions, but still managed to complain about not having enough wind to use our kites. I appreciated already being a confident skier before introducing the kite. We set up camp on a flat slab of ice at the water’s edge. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Josh and Mike went to a gas station to fill jugs, and when Josh poured gas in the tank it ran right through to the ground. Thinking I’ll go the pack raft route given recent conditions. [27] Cruise tours originating from Seward provide access to the park via Resurrection Bay. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the Plant Hardiness zone at Exit Glacier Visitor Center at 463 ft (141 m) elevation is 4b with an average annual extreme minimum temperature of -20.3 °F (-29.1 °C). The mystery was resolved when Caroline and Pat noticed that 2 pounds of cheese didn’t make it into the box. I also experimented with focussing on my skis, and trusting the kite, which resulted in accidentally getting airborne twice. [22] In 1982, a general management plan for the park was finalized, designating Exit Glacier as "front-country," the fjords as "back-country," and the icefield as wilderness. So for future reference I would suggest counting on such an exit, or hauling a packraft over the icefield. With no fewer than 38 glaciers, it's one of the biggest icefields in the U.S. Exit Glacier is a popular destination at the end of the park's only road. After leaving the Harding Icefield, we continued south on smaller glaciers. A beach site near MacArthur Pass was discovered during cleanup operations. Various companies offer tours, many guided by National Park Rangers. Goode, Marcus Baker Tsina Glacier, Valdez Storm systems today continue to feed 600-800 inches of snow each winter to the icefield. Fax: (206) 543-3932. [21] The first park improvements focused on improving access to Exit Glacier. Kenai Fjords National Monument was initially designated by President Jimmy Carter on December 1, 1978, using the Antiquities Act, pending final legislation to resolve the allotment of public lands in Alaska. The first season's work stopped in September. [9] Mining activity centered on Nuka Bay. [25] Most of the lands claimed were on the coastline. We planned to exit on the Grewingk Glacier, which would provide an easy summer trail to access Kachemak Bay and a boat ride to Homer. Photo about View of Exit Glacier, Harding Icefiel Kenai Fjords National Park, Seward, Alaska, United States. It is named for United States President Warren G. Harding. More than 38 glaciers and fjords flow out of the massive Harding Icefield; the area is a refuge for orcas, humpbacks, puffins, Dall’s porpoise, Steller sea lion colonies, harbor seals, and bald eagles. It was a great traverse! Google Earth, GaiaGPS, topo maps and more, Sat comm options, principles of self-rescue, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), https://www.stockalpine.com/posts/crevasse-rescue-haul-system, http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/grewingk-lake-landslide-tsunami-hazards/. The most accessible glacier, and the only portion of the park accessible by road, is Exit Glacier. [10], Several gold mines from historical times have been documented in the park. We started with turns down good corn snow, then glided for miles on the just-steep-enough glacier. We tried climbing out to Emerald Lake but realized at some point that it would involve a bushwhack from hell, and ended up getting a helicopter to fly us out of the toe of the glacier. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. Harding Icefield Trail, Kenai Fjords National Park. We were blessed — such days are not common in this area. Establishment as a national park followed the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Blackburn Haines Loop Alsek Traverse: Haines - Gl. The fjords are glacial valleys that have been submerged below sea level by a combination of rising sea levels and land subsidence. [11], Early studies of possible new Park Service units in Alaska took place in the 1930s and 1940s. Kenai Fjords National Park is an American national park established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. Harding Icefield, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. The wildlife is equally as impressive here, featuring beautiful falcons and black bears. [35], Kenai Fjords is extensively glaciated, with 51% of the park covered by ice. When the resupply arrived, Caroline and Pat found an unexpected 2 pounds of organic peas. The Halemaumau Crater is the center part of the Kilauea Caldera, an active volcano near Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii. On March the 24th 2018 took a little local flight. Mount Rainier, Washington’s own active volcano. It is only one of three national parks in Alaska that can be reached by road, via the Exit Glacier Nature Center. Sounds scary? An ice field (also spelled icefield) is a large area of interconnected glaciers, usually found in a mountainous region. [46][47] Smaller mammals include coyote, beaver and river otter. Email: uwapress@uw.edu . They carried tools into the Yukon Territory and built a canoe to float out. [37] The erosive power of the glaciers produces sediment as rock flour coloring the waters around the toes of glaciers, carrying minerals into the ecosystem that support phytoplankton, which in turn sustain larger animals. Harding Icefield is the star of this natural attraction, which features a number of tidewater glaciers (such as the half-mile-wide Exit Glacier), calming fjords, and small icebergs. Caroline and Pat flew to town so that Caroline could prepare for a book promotion event that evening. (minimum 2 passengers) 30 minute tour: $175 per person 1 hour tour: $275 per person The trail to Harding Icefield is a 6-8 hour trek through the Alaskan wilderness. MODIS, Sentinel 1&2, Landsat, Google Earth, ESRI, etc. Change ). [31], The park lies on the southeastern side of the Kenai Peninsula, about 130 miles (210 km) south of Anchorage. Although the proposal had support in Congress and from the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, it was overcome by difficulties with native land claims. If you visit in person in the future, you can trek from Exit Glacier to Harding Icefield and watch for some incredible wildlife like bald eagles and whales. On March 15, 1972, four areas of the Kenai Peninsula were set aside under the ANCSA for federal protected areas. [10], Bear Glacier Lake in Kenai Fjords National Park, Harding Icefield-Kenai Fjords National Monument, Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, List of birds of Kenai Fjords National Park, List of national parks of the United States, "Listing of acreage as of December 31, 2011", Full list of all state parks, recreation areas and sites, historic parks and sites, and marine parks, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kenai_Fjords_National_Park&oldid=990313557, Bodies of water of Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 24 November 2020, at 00:28. - hiking: maintained trails are in the Exit Glacier area and the Harding Icefield Trail - ranger programs: Exit Glacier-1.5 hours of walking around the glacier, Pavilion talks-talks about Exit Glacier usually 20 minutes long, Harding Icefield Trail-7 to 8 hour hike, hikes to Marmot Meadows-hike in … I felt the same way about Denali. But Sarah and I looked more like Josh in his clothes, and Mike just looked like Mike. Aerial photographs show that the nunataks in the Harding Icefield have increased in area by an average of 30 percent since 1950. It is the fifth most-visited park in Alaska, but the 11th of 13 Alaska parks in area, and is the closest national park to Anchorage. The Kenai Fjords region was designated Study Area 11. The crack-free route was obvious, and bordered by cool cracks and a medial moraine. Nearly 40 glaciers flow from the Harding Icefield, Kenai Fjords' crowning feature. 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. http://www.groundtruthtrekking.org/grewingk-lake-landslide-tsunami-hazards/, Hey Luc, Or, you could hire a guide for the trip. Nearly 40 glaciers flow from the Harding Icefield, Kenai Fjords' crowning feature. The activity is immediately rewarding. Most glaciers in these parks terminate on land, though a few terminate in lakes. [16] The same day the National Park Service formed an Alaska Task Force to study proposed park lands. Pretty crazy. We were met at the beach by Caroline and Pat’s friends Eric and Beth, who brought us to Halibut Cove for the night. The right thing to do is have a ton of crevasse experience already. They built row boats for the Bellingham to Haines section of their trip to Kotzebue. You can also take a boat trip to explore it, which is what we would recommend. Here is calorieking‘s nutritional comparison of 2 pounts of peas (left) and cheese (right): We started our trip in Seward, walking and skiing 7 miles of gated road, a few miles on the summer trail, and then weaving through crevasses on the Exit Glacier. ( Log Out /  Eric and Beth brought us to Homer the next morning and we worked our way back to Anchorage from there. We were able to use the kites three times. Bus tours from Seward visit Exit Glacier and boat tours visit other parts of the park[29], The park maintains public-use cabins and shelters in coastal areas and at the edge of the Harding Icefield. ( Log Out /  [18] Alaskan opposition to ANILCA prompted President Jimmy Carter to proclaim Kenai Fjords National Monument under the provisions of the Antiquities Act on December 1, 1978, pending final passage of an Alaskan lands bill. Negotiations between the Park Service, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and the Chugach Alaska Corporation resulted in a decision by the Department of the Interior to make the Park Service the lead agency for the Kenai Fjords area. I hiked it twice, the first time in June when there was too much snow left to make it all the way to the ice field. Image of kenai, cold, serene - 161391253 Seattle, WA 98195 . Sounds like this has happened several times at Seward trail heads. We considered skiing back up the glacier so that we could take a known ridge exit, but it would make for a long day ( 20-miles?) The Kenai Fjords area was not considered to be of the first priority for park designation under the ANCSA. [6] It is the only Alaska national park that did not originally allow subsistence use by Native Americans, but native village corporations continue to have interests in inholdings within the park,[7] and have since established subsistence rights on those properties. This is a raw, ragged land that has not yet recovered from the great Pleistocene ice sheets that flowed over … This proposal allowed logging and mining in the area. [65][66], Harsh conditions at higher altitudes limit tree growth above the tree line, creating an alpine ecosystem. A unique aspect of this route is that you do most of the climbing in the first four hours, and then mostly cruise on flats. By early April, Park Service personnel established oil containment boom lines across the mouths of salmon streams and conducted preliminary inventories of plants and animals that might be affected by the oil. This altered the original intent of the park to include subsistence claims, previously unrecognized. [10] A 1993 Park Service survey documented several village sites dated between 1200 AD and 1920. Some sites had been active into the 1980s. Available to license for commercial, advertising broadcast and editorial use on Robert Harding.com Caroline is currently promoting her new book, The Sun is a Compass. Caroline and Pat are probably my favorite adventurers. The 8.2-mile round trip Harding Icefield Trail in Alaska’s Kenai Fjords National Park is steep: you’ll gain roughly 1,000 feet per mile on the way up, working through healthy forests before eventually giving you an amazing view of the icefield. Hoodlums… to steal gas. Skiing down the Grewingk was Sarah’s favorite part of the trip. Visiting these glaciers in the Gulf of Alaska is hard in the winter, as weather can be extreme in the ocean. [26], Seward is a departure point and destination for large cruise ships from Celebrity Cruises, Holland America Line, Royal Caribbean International and others. A 2003 follow-up survey indicated that one site was occupied between 950 AD and 1800. The field is the source of at least 38 glaciers, the largest of which is Bear Glacier. And of course, on this Alaskan “major destination,” we didn’t see anyone else, just some snow buntings, a wolverine, and a handful of sheep. Sarah and I borrowed clothes from Josh Mumm and shoes from Mike Mumm. How many days did it take you including weather days? Willows also appear at this stage. We could not. My favorite Caroline and Pat story is from their trip to Mount Fairweather. [50][51] Cetaceans seen in park waters include orca,[52] fin whale,[53] humpback whale,[54] minke whales,[55] Dall's porpoise[56] and Pacific white-sided dolphin. Much of the interior is covered by the Harding Icefield. before a trip up there. The AMS glacier travel courses are a good way to learn as well. The Outlet Glacier ­ Alaska ​­  ​Exit Glacier is a glacier derived from the Harding Icefield in the Kenai Mountains of Alaska and one of Kenai Fjords National Park's major attractions. It was late and we really wanted to get this segment of the route finished, but there was no obvious way to reach the summer trail. Kenai Fjords National Park is an American national park established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. It is located in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in the southwest of the Harding Icefield between the Chernof and Truuli glaciers.. [57], Birds that nest in this park include bald eagle,[58] the Peale's subspecies of peregrine falcon,[59] black-billed magpie,[60] and Steller's jay. The Harding Icefield has never been high on my wish list, mostly because I think it gets a lot of traffic and I’d rather explore more remote areas. Hey Luc was this trip in April 2019? Josh reported from home the next day, “Dry as a bone. Apr 13, 2018 - Nearly 51 percent of the park is covered in ice, but there's still plenty to see and do within Kenai Fjords. Only problem is I’ll be tempted to leave it patched [rather than do a permanent repair.]”. [12] Another study, funded as part of the Alaska Highway in the 1940s drew similar conclusions to the first study's majority opinion. Within the park is the huge Harding Icefield, claiming 300 square miles in its entirety. [28] Seward is a destination for cruise ships. [42], Large terrestrial mammal species in the park include timber wolf, porcupine, Canadian lynx, brown bear,[43] black bears,[44] moose[45] and mountain goat. The gas tank had been drilled from below while parked at the trailhead. They are often found in the colder climates and higher altitudes of the world where there is sufficient precipitation for them to form. Harding Icefield is the largest icefield in the United States and is home to a multitude of wild plants and animals including sea otters, sea lions, and whales. [9] Archeological surveys have altered the early view that the area was subject to only transient occupation as evidence has accumulated of long-term use. Eventually we ran out of snow and worked our way left to hike down the ice. A third site showed occupancy from 1850 to 1890. Truuli Peak is a mountain summit located in the Kenai Mountains, in the U.S. state of Alaska.At 6,612 ft (2,015 m), Truuli Peak is the highest mountain in the Kenai Mountains on the Kenai Peninsula in southern Alaska.

Ryobi 40 Volt Battery Defective, Find Transpose In Numpy, Bexar County Zip Codes, Ham And Cheese Roll Ups No Bread, Packed Column Design, How To Report Multiple Regression Results In A Paper,