The Harding Icefield was an ice cap sitting atop the Kenai (Key’-nigh) Mountains, which formed Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula 80 miles due south of Anchorage on the Gulf of Alaska. This ice cap was the largest of the four remaining icefields lying solely in the United States, and covered 700 square miles, or 1,100 square miles if all the glacier areas were included. The icefield was 48 miles long, 30 miles wide, 4,000 feet thick, and produced over 40 glaciers, many of which were included in the boundary of the Kenai Fjords National Park. Despite the depth of the icefield, many Kenai mountain peaks called “nunataks” rose above the ice, the highest being Truuli Peak at 6,612 feet.
The Harding Icefield was inaccessible until 1922, other than early settlements along the icefield margins. With construction of the 12-mile Spruce Creek Trail out of Lowell Point, 2 miles south of Seward, trained adventurers could access the upper icefield for the first time. President Harding expressed an interest in visiting the icefield in 1922, did so in 1923, and became its namesake during his visit. Early explorers rose to the challenge of being the first to cross the icefields, but all attempts in 1936, 1940, 1960, and 1963 failed. The first confirmed crossing occurred in 1968 by four veteran hikers, whom were part of a 10-person mountaineering party. They crossed approximately 30 miles from Chernof Glacier to Resurrection Glacier and summited Truuli Peak along the way, the first ever to accomplish that feat. The hikers renamed the Resurrection Glacier “Exit,” newspapers reported they had descended on the Exit Glacier, and the name stuck.
The significance of these introductory facts was that the icefield was only accessible by air or hiking trails, with one exception. The Exit Glacier was the sole Harding Icefield Glacier reachable by road. We drove about 8 miles outside of Seward on Herman Leirer Road to the Kenai Fjords National Park Nature Center and Ranger Station. It was great that their parking lot accommodated vehicles towing RVs. While MFI toured the center, Hanna and I took the Overlook Trail. The first stop was a spot where we could walk out onto the glacier’s huge “outwash plain.” Signs were posted warning visitors that the plain was subject to flash flooding and other dangers, so we didn’t wander far.
The Exit Glacier has been retreating since the end of the Little Ice Age Maximum, which occurred toward the end of the 17th century. I took this picture of the physical timeline from an interpretive display to provide an overall visual of the relatively rapid retreat. Despite the icefield receiving between 50 to 65 feet of snow annually, the warming effects of climate change have taken its toll.
We stopped along the trail where previous overlooks were located in 2005 and 2010, respectively.
The Exit Glacier was estimated to be about 2 miles long and a mile wide where it crept off the icefield. Its size didn’t compare at all to the Matanuska or Columbia Glaciers, but what it lacked in size, was made up for by the statistics of its incredible retreat (example: 187 feet between 2013 and 2014 alone). In addition to the Overlook Trail, there were several other guided hikes, which departed the Nature Center and turned around at either the face of the glacier or atop the icefield. We watched one hiking group about to start, and everyone was fully outfitted with mountaineering gear. MFI pointed us toward the Nature Center’s highlights, which understandably focused on the Kenai Fjords National Park, the Harding Icefield, glaciers in general, and the Exit Glacier specifically.
We stopped along the Resurrection River after departing the Park, and I took these final pictures of the glacier from a distance of about 5 miles. They provided a total view of the glacier, with the icefield at the horizon.
After a fulfilling morning, we got back on AK 9 before midday and headed SidArthur toward our next stop in Soldotna.
