Seward and Exit Glacier

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Seward is a lovely port city nestled within Resurrection Bay on the southeast side of the Kenai Peninsula. It’s the self-proclaimed mural capital of Alaska and has a beautiful marine SeaLife Center.

When we arrived, we drove out to the Silver Derby Campground but with large rocks on the narrow access road, we decided to return to the Waterfront Park campground in the center of town. This had its own drawbacks as the sites were crowded, many with large families.

But the very worst aspect only became apparent at curfew; there was no one enforcing it. Vehicles came and went at all hours, groups loudly discussing their fishing exploits and kids playing basketball in the late light.

We had paid for three nights. The second day was a rain-out so we spent it in the gorgeous fish scale tiled library. We had originally planned to hike Mount Marathon, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Marathon_Race, a naked trail up a local peak above the town, a slippery steep trail in dry conditions but not safe when wet.

Walking around the waterfront when the weather cleared in the afternoon, two local kids approached us. They were on a Scavenger Hunt and had to take a picture with a visitor. When we told them we were from New York, they asked increduously, “Is that a real place?”

After a second miserable night among all the noise, we were ready to write off Seward as a rather unpleasant place to camp. Then we found nirvana.

Driving up to the Exit Glacier hike, we impulsively drove into the Exit Glacier Tent Campground. Each of the 12 walk-in sites is free and offers first-come-first-served sites. Walking to the end of the gravel pathways, we found two beautiful spots next to a river. We sped back to town, packed up our tent quickly, left a note that our town site was prepaid but buyer beware and raced back to claim our piece of heaven.

After setting up our tent, we went to the end of the Exit Glacier Road to hike to the Harding Icefield. Because of our delayed start, we couldn’t go as far up the trail as we wanted but we enjoyed every bit the spectacular scenery of what we saw. The next two days’ forecast were clear and we saw several backpacking groups on ascent later in the day as we descended.

However, this was our last night in Seward. We spent it was under the stars next to the glacial runoff from the Exit Glacier. It was easily one of our most magical nights in Alaska. It definitely should be added to any camping/hiking list in Alaska to camp overnight on the Exit Glacier and enjoy the amazing sunrise atop the spectacular Harding Icefield.

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