The BEST three days at Kenai Fjords National Park! (Exit Glacier, Harding Icefield, + BOAT tour!)

That is the most insane thing I've ever seen in my entire life. Over the last week we've been exploring the Kenai Peninsula here in Alaska and have been loving every second of it. We've done some amazing hikes, visited Hope and Homer and backpacked in Kachemak Bay State Park. And over the next few days we'll be exploring our 47th National Park, Kenai Fjords National Park, near Seward, Alaska. Since dogs aren't allowed on trails in the park and we have a couple longer activities planned we actually had to drive back up to Anchorage from Homer that way we could board Kona for a few days because they had more dog boarding options up there. Definitely not ideal, but that's just kind of the reality of traveling with a dog sometimes. But we're on the road and we're heading back down to the Kenai Peninsula and have a little over a two-hour drive to Seward. We have made it to the Seward area, but before we head into the park we're going to grab some coffee from Barrio Coffee. This spot is located in Miller's Landing, which is just south of Seward, right on the water, and check out these insane views. So they have a variety of Mexican-inspired drinks. I got the Filthy Horchata, and then we also got the Barrio Queen, which has Mexican chocolate, cinnamon, and chili in it. They're both really good. They're both nice and sweet. But the real star here is this view. This is nuts. We went to a place called Fog Duckers in Campbell River on Vancouver Island and said it was the best coffee shop view we'd ever had. But I think this takes the cake. These mountains over here are just stunning. Alright, we are properly caffeinated. Now it's on to the National Park. Kenai Fjords National Park was established in 1980, and it gets its name after the many fjords that have been created by glaciers in the park. It's a totally free national park to visit, and it's home to the Harding Ice Field, the largest ice field entirely in the United States, plus tons of marine wildlife, gorgeous mountains, and dozens of glaciers. We're hoping to experience all that over the next few days, and first up we are headed to the Exit Glacier area of the park, which is the only area of the park that is accessible by road. There are a couple trails in this area, and today we're hiking to Exit Glacier along the 2.2 mile Exit Glacier Overlook Trail. Exit Glacier is one of the glaciers that stems from the Harding Ice Field, which we'll be hiking in a couple days, and it got its name from a 1968 expedition when the first group of mountaineers officially crossed the Harding Ice Field and exited the ice at Exit Glacier. Along the trail and on the drive-in you'll see these signs with years on them, which show you the year that the Exit Glacier terminated at that point, which really gives you a sense of how fast it is receding. And to put it into an even crazier perspective, in just one year from 2013 to 2014 it receded 187 feet. We took a detour off the Overlook Trail and came onto this outwash area that washes down from the Exit Glacier, and as soon as we come around this corner we should have a great head-on view of the Exit Glacier. But beyond that, there is a glacier over there! There's one over there! There's glaciers everywhere! Two, one, look! Wow! It's like a glacial cave! Wow, that is so cool. Just layers in the... Whoa! This is a pretty crazy view from right here, and it's pretty wild to think about. 100 years ago, I wouldn't have been able to sit right here. None of this, all this was covered. And then the next time we come, maybe we'll be sitting way up there looking at it. It's just... That was an incredible short and easy hike. We definitely recommend going to the outwash area if you can. That was our favorite part. One thing that's just so impressive about it here in Alaska is how accessible glaciers are. I cannot think of many other places in the world where you can just be driving down the road and see a glacier, or do a short hike like this and see a glacier. Alaska is exceeding all of our wildest dreams. We're off-roading again! Tonight we're staying at a beautiful spot along the river off Exit Glacier Road, but just outside the boundary of Kenai Fjords National Park. Over the years, we've gotten many questions about how we find free campsites to stay at, and we've recently posted two new blog posts, one all about how we find free camping, and the other about how to plan a camping trip, sharing all of our tips from almost three years on the road that we hope you find helpful. And one of the tools we use to find campsites, both free and paid, is The Dyrt. The Dyrt is the number one camping app, which is helpful on its own, but what we especially like is their pro service, which has extra features that are even more helpful, like offline maps so we can find campsites even without cell service, discounts up to 40% at partner campgrounds, booking fees waived for campgrounds booked directly on The Dyrt, and quite possibly our favorite feature, BLM and National Forest Map overlays, so we can see if an area is legal to camp in. We have mentioned this a few times in previous videos, but a big rule for national parks is that you're not allowed to sleep overnight in parking lots or outside of designated camping areas. But what is so great about The Dyrt Pro is that, as you can see on the map, there is national forest land right outside of the park, which means you can legally camp around here and still be super close to the park. If you'd like to try their pro service for free for one whole month, you can use our code APLUSK, and we'll also put a link to it in the description below. We'll also link to the two blog posts we mentioned to hopefully help you plan your camping trips easier. This spot is so epic, probably the best free camping spot we've had here in Alaska. We have mountains all around us. We have this river right here, there's waterfalls off in the distance, and it's just huge out here. Even though we're here on a Saturday, it's really not that busy, and even if it was, there's tons of space to spread out. But I see some menacing clouds all around us, and I think I felt a raindrop, so we're going to head in for the rest of the night, but tomorrow we're going to explore more of the park, but this time by water. One of the best ways to explore Kenai Fjords National Park is to get out on the water, and today we're going on a tour with Major Marine. They have a few different tour options in the park, ranging from four hours to eight and a half hours, and we're going to be on their seven and a half hour tour, which costs $200 per person, where we will visit two active tidewater glaciers, and hopefully have lots of opportunities to see tons of wildlife. So when we checked in, they said that the Gulf of Alaska is experiencing higher than average swells today, so it's going to be really rocky. They were saying that everyone should probably take some motion sickness pills, because if everyone gets sick on the boat, they're going to have to turn the boat around. That would be so horrible if we couldn't do the whole cruise. So if I can figure out how to open one of these, we're going to chew up one of these. So we're not the reason the whole boat has to turn around, because I would feel really, really bad. No sickness for me. That's why I take a Dramamine. Man, you should work for their marketing department. This is one of the things I've been most excited about here in Alaska, and I think I'm most excited for the wildlife on this cruise. I'm crossing my fingers that we see some whales. We're not even an hour in, and we saw a whale. We're about to enter the Gulf of Alaska. This is going to get really rocky. We survived the crazy seas, and now it's time for lunch. Lunch consists of a sandwich, chips, and a granola bar. Glaciers are formed by snow that gets compressed into ice over time, and we're visiting two tidewater glaciers, which is a glacier that meets the ocean, and first up is the Holgate Glacier. This is incredible. Glacier right there. Glacier over there. Oh, my gosh. We can see it calving every now and then. That's when big pieces kind of break off. It's the wildest thing. It sounds like thunder, and then it's just a big splash on the water. Oh, my gosh! That is the most insane thing I've ever seen in my entire life. I cannot believe I got that on camera. After a few weeks, we're now heading to the Ayala Glacier. This one, the Holgate, is a half mile wide. The Ayala is a mile wide. No words can describe how gorgeous it is out here. The beautiful water, all these islands we've ever been. I have to keep rubbing my eyes to make sure I'm not dreaming. This is just so stunning. Sometimes when we visit these glaciers, we are asked, what's behind them, how long they are. It's kind of hard to conceptualize how these flow out from the hardy ice field, but we are at an angle right now where you can kind of look at Ayala Glacier and realize that it is a river of ice coming down that valley. It's about three miles long. The hardy ice field itself is 700 square miles of ice back behind these mountains, but Ayala Glacier itself is about three miles long. This is honestly one of the best days of my entire life. We watched as the seals floated around on icebergs, staring at us with their super cute faces, and they quickly became one of my new favorite animals. After visiting Ayala Glacier, we started to make our way back towards Seward, but the fun wasn't quite over yet. We still had plenty of wildlife, glaciers, and gorgeous views to keep us entertained along the way. For our final major stop on the cruise, we headed to Spire Cove, one of the most photographed spots in the park and has super impressive rock spires that jut out of the water. Ooh! And they give you brownies. Does it get any better? I don't think so. So the boat tour is over, and we actually got off the boat to go grab some cash to tip the crew. Make sure you tip the crew. They worked really, really hard on the boat, and they invited us to come back on the boat so they can take it to its slip for the night. So we're kind of getting a little behind-the-scenes major marine access. Yeah, so you can see that boat has fenders on the side so we don't scratch it, and then we just put down our fenders. It looks like a tight spot, though, compared to how big this boat is. It's pretty tight. I feel like I'm back on Pivot with Jen and Elliott docking, getting the full experience. This is awesome. We cannot express enough how amazing that tour was. So many people told us before we came out here that we got to do one of these tours, and we're going to be those people, too. So you got to do one. Starting with the captain and crew, they were just fun and informative to the incredible, insane scenery. It was just so much fun. There were so many moments where I could not believe that this was real life. We're standing here looking at a glacier calve with a hundred seals around us, mountains, another glacier off in the distance. It was just so unreal. But it has been a very, very long day, and we're getting hungry, so it's time to feast. Well, we had planned to go to this Texas BBQ spot called Firebrand BBQ, and they are closed. They're supposed to be open, but they're closed for some reason, so now we shall figure out a plan B. Dinner's ready! This is the saddest plate of dinner. Well, the two other places that looked good to us in town are closed today, because today is Sunday. So we just decided to make these pupusas that we bought at Costco the other day. Super easy. You throw them on a pan. There's just bean and cheese inside. You just heat them up real quick, and then we have this creamy chipotle sauce we got at Target. So it's a very sad-looking dinner, but it's very, very good, and we saved money! So it's a win! Well, today didn't end as delicious as we had planned. I was pretty excited for that BBQ, a little bummed out, but that's okay. It was still a super epic day, and thankfully we have one more day here in the park, and we're going to hike to the Harding Ice Field. Should be pretty harding. For our final adventure here at Kenai Fjords National Park, we're hiking the Harding Ice Field Trail, which is about 9 miles round trip. It gains about 3,600 feet of elevation, so it's definitely quite a bit harder than the exit glacier hike we did the other day. We have made it past the first major landmark on the trail, an area called Marmot Meadows. It's the spot where you get your first glimpse of the exit glacier and a tiny peak we think of the ice field way up at the top on this trail. It has definitely been steep, and it is, the air is very damp and humid, and we are, we have a layer of dampness all over us. We have made it to the next landmark on this trail, the top of the cliffs. Oh, look, there's another mormon over there. Wow! Check that out. So much ice. That is crazy. What's really neat about this hike is, although it's very hard, you kind of go through a variety of different terrain. So we started in the forest and now it's more of that tundra terrain. You have mountains all around, and you get a much higher view of the exit glacier and then the beginning of the ice field. So there's just a lot of different things to look at, so it keeps it interesting while you're huffing and puffing. This is really cool. Just looking straight down on it, you can see so much of the blue, so much of the little crevasses in the ice there. What is happening? I can't tell if they're fighting or if they're kissing. I saw some National Geographic-type marmot action. We're doing this hike in late July, and as you can see, there are a few different snow patches that you have to cross, but they haven't been too bad at all. We've been able to do them just fine without our micro spikes on. Also, you've probably been able to notice the weather has been a bit iffy today. The weather forecast for today was 100% rain all day, so we had very little hope that this hike was going to have any scenery, but it actually hasn't been too bad so far. The fog comes in and out. We had heard that this area tends to not be as rainy as Seward, so if the weather forecast in Seward is really rainy, it may not be as bad here. And so far, that's proven to be true. We can still see tons. It is so gorgeous out here. Now we're kind of in this terrain that looks like a volcano or another planet or something. It's so rocky and gray. There's a neat little hut up here. It's an emergency shelter in case you get really inclement weather out here. You can come in here and hang out. There's absolutely nothing in here but a couple snow shovels, but this will be great. And, don't you forget, Michael Scott and Dwight are here as well, so we have good company. That's right. Oh my gosh, this weather took quite the turn. It was so windy. I'm hiding behind a hill right now. It's so windy. There's mist flying everywhere. We're completely soaked. My makeup was just running down my face. I had black everywhere. I'm crying because I'm getting pelted in the eyes with rain. While we have this windbreak behind this hill here, I'll tell you a little bit about the Harding Ice Field. It is the largest ice field that is entirely contained in the U.S. It covers 700 square miles and gets up to 4,000 feet deep, and it is the source of 38 glaciers here in the park, including Exit Glacier, which we just walked by, and then the two we saw from the boat yesterday. This might be the craziest thing in nature I've ever seen. This is unbelievable. It is just ice and white as far as the eye can see. This is unlike anything we've ever seen before. We had planned to eat lunch when we got to the end of the hike, but it's just way too windy and way too misty, so we're going to try to make it back to that little hut and eat lunch there out of the elements. This hut is so clutch. It's nice and dry in here. It's pretty warm in here. It was the perfect spot to have lunch. There were other groups in here, too, so we're all just kind of hanging out, having fun. I think it's time to go brave the elements and book it back down. If only it was that easy to hike down. The hike ended up taking us just under seven hours, and according to our all trails, we tracked a little bit closer to 10 miles, and even with that crazy weather at the end, which honestly made it more memorable and more exciting, this hike was so incredible. This whole park and the whole Seward area has just blown us away. It is so beautiful out here, and we really wish that we could spend more time in this area, but with the logistics of having to board Kona to come out here, we had to make it a quick visit this time, but we will be back someday, because as everyone has told us, you don't just come to Alaska once. We have to head back up to Anchorage tomorrow morning to pick up our sweet girl Kona. We've missed her so much, but we do have one more spot we want to visit that's just a few miles north of the Kenai Peninsula before we head more north and more east here in Alaska. We weren't filming the hike down, but apparently a bear just crossed the trail with a lot of people. We're making noise. We should be good. Howdy, howdy, bear! Hello, bear! We didn't see the bear. Uneventful. But cool that there was one. Yeehaw! There's that Texas boy riding his horse to school.