Kayaking In Alaska: Destinations That Have Something To Offer For Everyone

Kayaking In Alaska:Destinations That Have Something To Offer For Everyone!

Kayaking in Alaska gives boaters an opportunity to enjoy relaxing wilderness scenery or to test their limits in the frozen wilderness. Alaska is home to the nation's largest national park. Both the park and the state have much to offer beginning and experienced kayakers. Tours and rental kayaks are available for kayak experiences throughout the state.

Le Conte Glacier Bay

Le Conte Glacier Bay is a fjord, or long, narrow inlet of sea, that is 12 miles long. It has been carved out of the mountain range by glaciers. Le Conte Glacier is the southernmost tidewater glacier in North America. It is an active glacier, fracturing and calving constantly, filling the bay with thousands of icebergs.

Kayak day trips through the bay give boaters a glimpse of lush forests, ancient, sheer rock walls, thundering waterfalls and icebergs in every imaginable shape and size. Kayaking Le Conte lets boaters see and experience the majestic and sometimes fierce side of Alaskan nature.

Big Creek on Frederick Sound

The Kupreanof Island coastline offers miles of beaches and coves waiting to be appreciated by sea kayakers kayaking Alaska. Marine mammals in the area include porpoises, stellar sea lions, pacific humpback whales, and harbor seals. River otters and bald eagles also call the island home.

Tebenkof Bay

Tebenkof Bay encompasses 65,000 acres of coves, bays and small islands, a dream destination kayaking in Alaska. The area is one of the most remote and wild parts of southeast Alaska. Tlingit once lived there. No humans reside there now. Sitka black-tailed deer, black bears, and wolves inhabit the area.

Stikine River

The Stikine River is the largest, freeflowing, navigable river in North America. The river flows more than 400 miles from head waters in British Columbia to the Alaskan Delta. Flat-water paddling the Stikine takes boaters through areas once used by natives and gold-seekers. Kayakers can visit a hot spring, view the towering Cottonwood trees of Ketili River and see salmon spawning.

Prince William Sound

Prince William Sound is said to offer some of the best kayaking in Alaska. 7,000 miles of ocean, river deltas, tidal flats and glaciers make up the Sound.

Shoup Glacier, unique because it can lay claim to not one but two tidal basins, boasts the fastest growing Kittiwake rookery in the Sound with over 20,000 birds and 6,000 nests.
Columbia Glacier, aka the world's speediest glacier, is currently the largest glacier in Prince William Sound and the second largest glacier in Alaska. The glacier is moving backwards as much as 4 feet per day during the summer months. Kayakers can take a boat to the glacier then set out via kayak to paddle among icebergs and through bays that motorized boats cannot access. Harbor seals, sea otters, sea lions, bears and whales are likely to be seen.

Such areas are what sea kayaking in Alaska are all about.

Sitka Sound

Experienced sea kayakers will find wilderness beaches, bioluminescent waters, and experience kayaking in ocean swells, rock gardens, sea cliffs and outer caves while paddling Sitka. Coastal tide pools and kelp forests abound. Eagles, otters, seals, porpoises and whales call the area home, as do many smaller animals. Less experienced kayakers will still find plenty of Alaskan beauty to tour.

Tongass National Forest

Tongass National Forest is America's northernmost rain forest and the largest national forest in America. Almost 17 million acres, or over 20,625 square miles, make up Tongass forest. Saltwater and fresh water kayaking opportunities abound in this part of the state. The Tongass is home to a wide variety of plant and animal life. Black and brown bears, caribou, sheep and goats call the forest home. So do moose, bald eagles, foxes, beavers and other small animals. Swans and hummingbirds are two of the birds boaters are likely to glimpse.

The destinations mentioned here are just a few of the many kayaking in Alaska opportunities for both beginning and experienced kayakers. Paddling among glaciers, kayaking in sea caves, and seeing Alaska's wildlife in their natural habitat are some of the reasons kayakers visit the state.

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