Snowcoach Now Providing Access to Exit Glacier at Kenai Fjords National Park and Preserve

Snowcoach service has been launched at Kenai Fjords National Park to help visitors reach Exit Glacier in the winter. NPS photo.

Visiting Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park during the winter is getting a little bit easier now that the National Park Service has authorized snowcoach travel to the popular destination.

With the advent of operations in the park, Adventure Sixty North, a commercial snowcoach operation, became the first such activity authorized in a unit of the National Park System in Alaska. The company will provide scenic tours and guided snowshoe walks, and passengers can be dropped off to enjoy winter activities on their own.

The park has authorized four round-trips per day and no commercial services Tuesday through Thursday after 1 p.m. Rates range from $20 per person for a one-way ride, up to $60 per person for drop off and later pick up. Additional information can be found at the company's website.

Since Kenai Fjords was established in 1980, winter access to the Exit Glacier area has been limited only to those able to dogsled, ski, snowshoe, or snowmachine the six-mile section of snow and ice covered road, which is closed to vehicle traffic during the winter. Visitors in the winter are often rewarded with a quiet, solitary experience and have the opportunity to stay overnight at a park maintained public use cabin.

Beginning last fall, Kenai Fjords National Park and the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (part of the U.S. Department of Transportation) held several meetings in the Seward area to consider the feasibility of providing an over-the-snow transportation service to the Exit Glacier area. This service had been identified by the park as a possibility in the 2004 Exit Glacier Area Plan.