50 Fun Facts About Kenai Fjords National Park

Kenai Fjords, the closest national park to Anchorage, lies roughly how far south of the city?

Its gateway town of Seward sits at the head of Resurrection Bay at the end of the highway; the park headquarters is there.

How large is the Harding Icefield that dominates the park's interior?

Counting its outflowing glaciers it tops 1,100 square miles, and it is the largest icefield contained entirely within the United States.

The park's icefield is named after which US president?

Local residents largely ignored the ice west of town until a 1922 trail opened up views, and the president's promised visit to Alaska earned him the name.

How much snow does the Harding Icefield receive in a typical year?

That is more than 30 feet; the park article puts it at 60 feet in places, and the icefield still lost 3 percent of its area in a 16-year study.

At least how many glaciers flow out of the icefield?

The largest is named for an animal; the most accessible sits at the end of the park's only road.

What is the largest glacier in the park?

President Obama viewed it from a boat on Resurrection Bay during his 2015 visit.

Exit Glacier is one of the icefield's smaller glaciers, yet one of the most visited; why?

A spur off the highway leads to a nature center; when snow closes the road in November it opens to skiers, dogsleds and fat bikes.

How did Exit Glacier get its name?

Ten people set out from Homer across the Harding Icefield; only four walked the whole way, and a newspaper reported they would descend the Exit Glacier.

How far did Exit Glacier retreat between 2013 and 2014 alone?

Park scientists track its accelerating recession, and it has become a symbol of climate change in Alaska.

Which president visited Exit Glacier in 2015 with Bear Grylls to talk about climate change?

He called the receding edge as good a signpost of climate change as anything, then toured a local ice cream shop and Resurrection Bay by boat.

How long is the Harding Icefield Trail that climbs from the Exit Glacier nature center to the ice?

It is one of only three Alaska national parks you can drive to at all.

Which president proclaimed Kenai Fjords a national monument on December 1, 1978?

He used the Antiquities Act while the Alaska lands bill stalled; a single ranger was posted to town as a liaison.

Under which 1980 law did Kenai Fjords go from monument to park?

The 1982 management plan called Exit Glacier front-country, the fjords back-country and the icefield wilderness.

Kenai Fjords was the only Alaska national park that originally did not allow what?

Native corporations kept inholdings and later established subsistence rights on them; the Park Service repurchased 30,295 acres in the 1990s.

Roughly what share of the park is covered by ice?

The icefield first formed about 23,000 years ago and spawns more than thirty glaciers.

The park's fjords lie below sea level because of what combination?

The Pacific Plate diving under North America drags the Kenai Mountains down into the sea.

How deep can the floors of the park's fjords lie below present sea level?

Glaciers over-deepened them; one fjord's glacier has retreated 4.5 miles from the sill where the bay once ended.

Which fjord, 33 miles south of the gateway town with a tidewater glacier at its head, is the park's most visited?

Its name comes from Russians recording the Native name Ayalyk; Holgate Glacier flows into one of its arms.

How big is Kenai Fjords National Park?

That is about 88 percent the size of Yosemite, small by Alaska standards, ranking 11th of the state's 13 parks in area.

Kenai Fjords is about what fraction of the size of Yosemite?

It is the fifth most-visited park in Alaska and the closest national park to Anchorage.

A 1993 survey found evidence that an earthquake around 1170 AD did what to the park's shoreline?

Sinking coasts and rising seas have drowned many early village sites, overturning the old idea that people only passed through.

Historic gold mining in the park centred on which bay?

Eleven mine sites have been documented, some active into the 1980s, and two qualify for the National Register.

On what date did the first oil from the Exxon Valdez reach the park's coast?

About 20 miles of headlands, 4 percent of the coast, were oiled; heavy spring runoff kept the oil out of the fjords.

How much did Exxon pay into a restoration fund in its 1991 settlement?

The oil had turned into a tarry emulsion that could not be skimmed and had to be dredged; cleanup ran through 1991.

Which marine mammal rehab centre in Seward, partly funded by Exxon Valdez money, works with Kenai Fjords park?

It opened in May 1998 and is Alaska's only permanent marine mammal rehab facility; the settlement covered $37.5 million of its $55 million cost.

Which sea lion is a highlight of park boat tours?

Sea otters, harbor seals, Dall's porpoises, humpbacks and orcas round out the marine mammal cast.

Which two puffin species nest in the park?

Common and thick-billed murres and marbled murrelets share the cliffs; Peale's peregrine falcons and bald eagles nest inland.

What are the first plants to colonise land freshly exposed by retreating glaciers in the park?

Dwarf fireweed and yellow dryas follow, then a nitrogen-fixing shrub, willows, cottonwoods and finally spruce and hemlock.

Which shrub, able to fix nitrogen, enriches raw glacial soil for the trees that follow?

Mature forest here is Sitka spruce and mountain hemlock over devil's club, blueberry and lady fern.

At roughly what elevation is the tree line in Kenai Fjords?

Above it, dwarf shrubs under a foot high grow painfully slowly and are easily wrecked by boots.

What colours the water at the foot of the park's glaciers and feeds its unusual estuary ecosystem?

The fine sediment ground by the ice carries minerals that feed phytoplankton and everything up the chain.

What is the elevation of the park's highest point, an unnamed peak in the Kenai Mountains?

Truuli Peak, 6,612 feet on the icefield's northwest edge, was first climbed during the 1968 crossing but lies outside the park.

Which protected areas border the park to the west and south?

The park itself protects the icefield, a narrow forested fringe and the indented coast.

Alexandr Baranov named Resurrection Bay because a storm there cleared on what day?

The bay stays ice-free all winter, and Fort McGilvray on Caines Head was built there in World War II against a feared Japanese invasion.

How deep is Resurrection Bay at its deepest, near Caines Head?

Thumb, Humpy, Bulldog, Pony and Derby coves indent its shores.

The park's gateway town is named for the Secretary of State who did what?

William H. Seward served under Andrew Johnson; the town is also the southern end of the Alaska Railroad.

The park's gateway town is Mile 0 of which historic trail to Interior Alaska?

The marker sits on the shoreline at the south end of town, where the Alaska Railroad also ends.

What did Alexander Baranov's company build at the site of the gateway town in 1793?

The vessel Phoenix was built there by an English shipwright in Russian service.

What damaged much of the gateway town in 1964?

The Good Friday quake was the most powerful ever recorded in North America; the town's wartime Fort Raymond and Walseth Air Force Base had closed years earlier.

Which Swiss immigrant and future Alaska state senator crossed the Harding Icefield in 1968 after failing in 1936?

He was overwhelmed on his first try after a week; his son Otto joined the successful 1968 party.

Which two Kenai Peninsula residents crossed the icefield around 1940 but told almost no one?

They hiked from the park's biggest glacier west to Tustumena Glacier; only Smith's wife knew.

The 1971 national recreation area proposal that preceded the park would have allowed what?

It had Forest Service and BLM support but foundered on Native land claims; the Nixon administration proposed a monument in 1973.

What was Exit Glacier called before the 1968 icefield crossing renamed it?

A newspaper reported the party would descend the 'Exit Glacier', and the label stuck.

Which 6,612-foot summit did the 1968 crossing party climb for the first time ever?

The ten-person expedition left Homer on April 17 and reached Seward eight days later.

Kenai Fjords is one of how many Alaska national parks that can be reached by road?

The road ends at the Exit Glacier area, and everything else in the park is reached by boat, plane or on foot.

Roughly how long ago did the Harding Icefield first form?

Its coverage shrank by 3% over a 16-year study period as the climate warmed.

About what share of the park's coastline was oiled after the Exxon Valdez spill?

Around 20 miles of shore were hit, mostly headlands; strong spring outflows kept the oil out of the fjords themselves.

The park's 1982 management plan designated the Harding Icefield as what?

Exit Glacier got the 'front-country' label and the fjords 'back-country'.

Under the Köppen system, what climate type does Kenai Fjords National Park have?

The Exit Glacier visitor centre sits in plant hardiness zone 4b, with extreme lows around −20 °F.

After the Exit Glacier road closes to cars each winter, which of these may still use it?

The closure usually comes with the snow in mid-November, opening the road to skiers, snow machines and fat-tire bikes.