Sight · Kenai Fjords National Park
Meltwater braids across a young plain where the forest is taking hold.
Overview
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Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Kenai Fjords Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Kenai Fjords National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this place
Exit Glacier and the Nature Center“You're approaching the Exit Glacier Nature Center, the starting point for walks to the glacier views.”
Plays as you drive up to Exit Glacier Outwash Plain in the Parkwolf Kenai Fjords Tour Guide.
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“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Exit Glacier Outwash Plain is a broad gravel flat below Exit Glacier, where meltwater braids across the valley floor. It’s a modest stop for seeing what the glacier leaves behind: gravel bars, channels, and a patchwork of open ground and forest. Follow the signs from Glacier Overlook Trail. For a photo, let the braided streams lead toward the glacier in the distance.
Meltwater carries sediment from Exit Glacier and deposits it in recessional moraines across the plain. The pale streams splitting through dark gravel are the visible part of that process, spreading the glacier’s material across the valley floor.
The plain shifts from open shrubby gravel beds to denser patches of spruce and cottonwood. Across the wider Exit Glacier valley, plant succession starts with lichens and pioneer plants near the ice, then alder and willow, followed by black cottonwood and mountain hemlock. NPS photographs show a moose family crossing a channel and a brown bear on the plain; wildlife is a possible extra, not something to plan around.
Wildlife
31 sightingsOrcaMost seen around 11 AMSighting map
47 sightingsHumpback WhaleMost seen around noonSighting map
42 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
41 sightingsMooseMost seen around 9 PMSighting map
225 sightingsSea OtterMost seen around 11 AMSighting map
59 sightingsHorned PuffinMost seen around 10 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Kenai Fjords. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ChallengingHarding Icefield Trail7.8 mi · 7 hr · 0.2 mi awayA steep climb earns a horizon of ice broken by nunataks.
ChallengingMarmot Meadows via Harding Icefield Trail3 mi · 3.5 hr · 0.2 mi awayA steep three-mile climb to an Exit Glacier view from above.
ChallengingTop of the Cliffs via Harding Icefield Trail4.6 mi · 5 hr · 0.2 mi awayA steep climb to the first wide views of Harding Icefield.
EasyGlacier View Loop Trail1 mi · 45 min · 0.4 mi awayAn accessible loop for a wide view across Exit Glacier's outwash plain
ModerateGlacier Overlook Trail2.2 mi · 1.5 hr · 0.4 mi awayA rocky climb above the accessible lower loop to Exit Glacier.
Sight · 0.2 mi awayExit Glacier Stone KioskA covered stop for climate exhibits and a circular photo project.Sight · 0.2 mi awayGlacier ViewA wheelchair-accessible loop ends at Exit Glacier's broad panorama.
Sight · 0.4 mi awayExit Glacier OverlookA close glacier view, marked by where its toe stood in 2005.
Visitor center · 0.4 mi awayExit Glacier Nature CenterRanger help, glacier views, and trails from an easy loop to Harding.
Campground · 0.8 mi awayExit Glacier CampgroundTwelve walk-in sites keep you close to Exit Glacier's trails.
Lodging · 0.8 mi awayWillow Winter Public Use CabinA four-person winter cabin reached by a seven-mile approach.
Sight · 1 mi awayMarmot MeadowsA steep climb earns an elevated view of Exit Glacier.
Sight · 1.2 mi awayTop of the CliffsA hard-earned icefield view and a smart turnaround point.Parkwolf’s Kenai Fjords ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
