Kenai Fjords National Park

Incredible Iceberg Air Tour

I had been to Seward but never out into the nearby Kenai Fjords National Park. The area does have a different feel to it, with incredibly steep forested walls of the fjords leading into iceberg-choked inlets.

We decided to do a couple of aerial tours. Like in a lot of Alaska, I flew low at about 1-2,000 feet above the ground unless I needed to climb over glaciers or terrain. It’s a nice altitude because you can get a good look at the boats and whales if there are any (sadly, we didn’t see any whales).

We did two flights into Kenai Fjords National Park, starting by flying up Resurrection Bay, then up the Bear Glacier to the Harding Ice Field, then down Exit Glacier. Flying above the Harding Icefield was a little eery. So big and vast, and I was a little concerned about an illusion of being far above the ground when actually you are only feet above it. Luckily there was enough texture and detail in the snow I could stay safely above it.

Exit Glacier, true to its name, was our path off the icefield. Exit Glacier was so steep I powered down to idle and we just kinda of floated down the face of the glacier. I always inform passengers I’m at idle because we’re gliding at about 80 mph and the wind is still turning the propeller so it’s hard to tell that the power is off. It’s a cool feeling that I don’t want them to miss. (Of course, I could pull the nose up into a near stall and the propeller would stop. That’s probably a cool feeling too but I’ve never done that!)

It was also fun to search out and find the trail and upper lookout for the Harding Ice Field trail, knowing that we would be hiking that trail the next day.