The Exit Glacier that it is. Only a 10 minute drive out of Seward, we hiked right up to the Kenai Fjords National Park’s Exit Glacier and experienced the dense blue ice first hand.
Exit Glacier, a finger of cracked, blue-white ice that drops out of 700-square-mile Harding Icefield, some of it outside the park, is relatively small, at only 14 square miles.
The Exit Glacier is especially notable for being a drive up glacier (similar to the Mendenhall Glacier of Juneau which we saw last month). A spur road of the Seward Highway leads to the only road accessible portion of the Kenai Fjords National Park. A system of hiking trails lead to the terminus of the glacier and up to the Harding Icefield itself. Although it is one of the Harding Icefield’s smaller glaciers, it is one of the most visited because of its easy accessibility and abundant hiking trails around and above the glacier.
Exit Glacier has retreated about a mile in the past 100 years, according to park scientists. Last year, it lost about 136 feet. You can compare the two pictures below. As evident by the glacier’s melting, the earth is warmer than it was 11000 years ago.
We had an enjoyable hike, it was much easier going back (downhill)!