Kenai Peninsula Trails | Best Hiking Trails Of The Kenai Peninsula (2024)

Distance: 9 miles

The pop­u­lar, paved Uni­ty Trail begins in Sol­dot­na and winds its way around 9miles to Kenai. It’s pop­u­lar with locals and trav­el­ers alike for all kinds of activ­i­ties: walk­ing, bik­ing, jog­ging, bird­ing, rollerblad­ing, andmore.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 10 miles

Well-main­tained and suit­able for sum­mer hik­ing and bik­ing, the 10-mile Devil’s Pass Trail fea­tures asteep route up aspec­tac­u­lar V‑shaped val­ley that inter­sects with the Res­ur­rec­tion Pass Trail and arental cab­in in the alpine realm. The coun­try is rugged, with great access to cross-coun­try tun­dra explo­ration and berry picking.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 2 milesElevation Gain: 3600 feet

This fam­i­ly-friend­ly, 2.5‑mile trail climbs 3,600feet to asum­mit halfway between the sea and the heavens

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 38 miles

This 38mile long USFS trail starts in Hope and climbs Res­ur­rec­tion Pass (elev. 2,600) towards the south before descend­ing to the oppo­site trail­head near Coop­er Land­ing. There are 8pub­lic use cab­ins along the trail, mak­ing this an advanced but com­fort­able day cab­in-to-cab­in hike. There are also 19 camp­sites avail­able for tent camping.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 6 miles

This is one of Home­r’s top hikes. It starts on top of Bay­crest Hill, cross­es Dia­mond Ridge Road, then fol­lows Cross­man Ridge to the Bridge Creek Reser­voir. Through­out, it rolls through forests, mead­ows and over streams. The area is excel­lent for bird­ing and catch­ing aglimpse at the occa­sion­almoose.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 23 miles

The wild­flow­ers are abun­dant and ver­dant under­growth can be check high some­times. Most of the trail lies below tree­line, so there are estab­lished camp clear­ings along the way that are nes­tled into the trees. One of the best camp­sites is 10miles in from the north­ern trail­head, set among trees on aspruce-cov­ered knoll look­ing over the trail and BenchLake.

Difficulty: Moderate

If you have the abil­i­ty to trans­port bicy­cles, this trail makes for agreat after­noon trip. The dirt path winds through the Portage Val­ley, pass­ing glacial lakes and end­ing at Portage Lake (this part of the trip is 5miles each way). Make sure to bring your cam­era: you’ll see hang­ing glac­i­ers and, very like­ly, some wildlife.

Distance: 3 miles

This 10-mile cir­cuit of dif­fer­ent loop trails is well-main­tained and makes for fun hik­ing and ski­ing. Look for access from the park­ing lot at the Kenai Nation­al Wildlife Refuge Vis­i­tor Cen­ter, where there are bath­rooms and out­door port-a-pot­ties. If you come here to ski, warm up inside the cen­ter, next to the soap­stone mason­ry heater.

Difficulty: Moderate

The 23-mile John­son Pass Trail offers hik­ers, back­pack­ers and bik­ers awell-marked route through alush pass in the Kenai Moun­tains — fea­tur­ing grad­ual climbs, two lakes with fish, spec­tac­u­lar peaks and some way cool gorges.

You can hike right up to Seward’s Exit Glac­i­er and feel the dense blue ice while lis­ten­ing to it crack­le. Walk the low­er trail to get agood pho­to in front of the glac­i­er face. Or, choose the more chal­leng­ing 7‑mile round-trip Hard­ing Ice­field Trail. There is ashort ranger-led walk dai­ly at 11am and 3pm, from Memo­r­i­al Day through LaborDay.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 11 miles

If you have some out­door expe­ri­ence and an adven­tur­ous spir­it, con­sid­er this 11-mile tra­verse up the Col­orado Creek val­ley and down the Sum­mit Creek. Begin­ning 2hours south of Anchor­age, this tra­verse doesn’t involve any rock scram­bling, riv­er cross­ings, or ardu­ous bush­whack­ing. But if you feel com­fort­able hik­ing in wide and track­less coun­try, you may reap the reward of hav­ing an entire val­ley to yourself.

Difficulty: ModerateElevation Gain: 1056 feet

Begin­ning 103miles south of Anchor­age on the Seward High­way, the 3.5‑mile-long Ptarmi­gan Lake Trail makes for afine fam­i­ly out­ing. The lake itself is along and nar­row body of water squeezed between ridges and moun­tains that tow­er as high as 6,000feet. It even offers asmall beach upon which to relax and enjoy the view while cool­ing yourfeet.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 4 miles

Many peo­ple know of the gru­el­ing Mount Marathon race­course in Seward, some 130miles south of Anchor­age. How­ev­er, most peo­ple don’t know that there’s also ahik­ing path to the top at Race Point — and it’s far less demand­ing. This 2.25-mile route, which entails hik­ing three dif­fer­ent trails, takes you up the moun­tain and lets you to explore aglacial val­ley along theway.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 38 miles

This 38mile long USFS trail climbs Res­ur­rec­tion Pass (elev. 2,600) and descends to the north to anoth­er trail­head­trail­head near Hope on Tur­na­gain Arm. There are 8pub­lic use cab­ins along the trail, mak­ing this an advanced but com­fort­able day cab­in-to-cab­in hike. There are also 19 camp­sites avail­able along thetrail.

Distance: 3 miles

This wide, mul­ti-use trail is pop­u­lar with locals and afun hike for every­one. The ADA-com­pli­ant trail winds through bore­al for­est, and it’s the only head­quar­ters trail open to dogs and bicy­cles. You can even get your pup cer­ti­fied as aB.A.R.K. Ranger, meant to strength­en the rela­tion­ship with your dog on fed­er­al pub­liclands.

Difficulty: Difficult

This trail is also called the Prim­rose trail at the north end. It begins in abeau­ti­ful rain­for­est and even­tu­al­ly takes you up to amul­ti­ple of beau­ti­ful lakes in high mead­ows. Anglers can fish for rain­bow trout in thelake.

Difficulty: EasyDistance: 3 miles

This trail, hands down, is one of the most pop­u­lar hikes in the Kachemak Bay State Park. It is one of the eas­i­est hikes in the park as the trail is well main­tained, and you can’t beat the view of the glac­i­er at the lake. For the first 1.5miles, the trail mean­ders through mixed cot­ton­wood and Sit­ka spruce. These cot­ton­woods are some of the largest in the park so take time to appre­ci­ate their enor­mous size. After 1.5miles, the trail proceeds...more

No oth­er min­ing trail on the Kenai Penin­su­la climbs as high or takes in more exten­sive views as the 6‑mile-long Crown Mine Trail. Begin­ning some 2hours south of Anchor­age on the appro­pri­ate­ly named Mine Road just south of Trail Lake, this trail climbs to 3,900feet above sea lev­el to aunique spot — a glacial cirque lit­tered with min­ing paraphernalia.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 2 miles

One of the top trails on the Homer side of Kachemak Bay, Dia­mond Creek is a2‑mile trail that takes you through for­est, alders, and tall grass mead­ows before descend­ing to the beach, where you’ll find small Alaskan sealife.

Difficulty: EasyDistance: 6 miles

This trail is agood day hike for the whole fam­i­ly. It alter­nates between open mead­ows and forests and offers the option of tent camp­ing or stay­ing in Cres­cent Lake Cab­in. There are options for longer hikes and there is alot of wildlife to be seen such as moose, goats andbears.

Distance: 2 miles

This 2.2‑mile loop trail is an off-shoot of the Keen-Eye Trail that departs from the Kenai Nation­al Wildlife Refuge Vis­i­tor Cen­ter. It is less crowd­ed than the Keen-Eye Trail (which was built to accom­mo­date large groups), and while it’s not adif­fi­cult hike, it fea­tures some light hills and var­ied terrain.

This park is acan’t miss for dog own­ers and dog lovers! It’s one of the busiest parks in town, with peo­ple and their dogs there prac­ti­cal­ly ²⁴⁄₇. If you’re trav­el­ing with your dog, it’s agreat place to give Fido some exer­cise. You’ll also have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet the locals, learn what it’s like to live in Sol­dot­na, and get the inside scoop on the best things to see and do from peo­ple who livehere.

This is aday use site that offers 13 pic­nic sites with tables, afish view­ing plat­form, water, toi­lets, an infor­ma­tion board, and fire grates.

This wildlife sweet spot is worth avis­it. The Russ­ian Lakes Trail begins off the access road to the Russ­ian Riv­er Camp­ground in Coop­er Land­ing, at mile­post 52 of the Ster­ling High­way. Get off-the-beat­en path, hike two miles to the falls and enjoy the imme­di­ate reward of spec­tac­u­lar salmon viewing.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 4 miles

Your best bet for this trail is to go out on one low tide, spend the night — in either afor­est ser­vice cab­in or camp­site — and then return the fol­low­ing day or sev­er­al days lat­er on anoth­er low tide. Great for­est-to-beach hik­ingtrail.

Difficulty: EasyDistance: 1 mile

The Cen­ten­ni­al Camp­ground Loop Trail is agreat place for awalk right in town at any time of year. It’s well-traf­ficked, well-marked, wide, and easy for most peo­ple to use. The trail is busiest in sum­mer — espe­cial­ly the part near the camp­ground where anglers access the Kenai Riv­er — and alit­tle qui­eter dur­ing the oth­er seasons.

Two sets of stairs to riv­er and 625feet of ele­vat­ed boardwalk.

This beau­ti­ful park set along the turquoise Kenai Riv­er hosts com­mu­ni­ty events, has aboard­walk, access to the riv­er, play­ground and more. There’s an ice loop for skat­ing (free ice skates are avail­able dur­ing win­ter fes­ti­vals) and ani­mal cutouts with white twin­kle lights onthem.

This 0.4‑mile-long trail, which begins with­in earshot of down­town Homer, plays host to avari­ety of birds and plants. Wheel­chairs may have some trou­ble in the first few feet of soft grav­el, but once they reach the plas­tic board­walk they should find the going much eas­i­er — and maybe worth the trou­ble it took to dri­ve 4hours from Anchorage.

In sum­mer, the trails are open to all kinds of foot-pow­ered recre­ation — walk­ing, run­ning, hik­ing, bik­ing, pho­to­shoots, wildlife watch­ing and berry-pick­ing. There’s even an 18-hole disc golf course. K‑9feet are wel­come, too. In win­ter, locals hit the trails for cross-coun­try ski­ing and fat-tire bik­ing. There are more than 25kilo­me­ters of groomed ski trails, per­fect for clas­sic and skate cross-coun­try skiing.

Distance: 4 miles

More agat­ed road than atrail, this hike large­ly remains alocal secret among the res­i­dents of Coop­er Land­ing, the fish­ing mec­ca locat­ed some 105miles south of Anchor­age on Ster­ling High­way. Many in this town con­sid­er it their per­son­al get­away, which makes it quite apop­u­lar secret. Afore­man for Chugach Elec­tric (the com­pa­ny that man­ages the dam on Coop­er Lake) said he often expe­ri­enced con­ges­tion while dri­ving to the dam, due to theheavy...more

Difficulty: EasyDistance: 21 miles

Pop­u­lar with hik­ers and back­pack­ers, this easy-to-fol­low trail con­nects the state’s most intense sock­eye salmon sports fish­ery with stun­ning moun­tain back­coun­try. It offers many of the Kenai Peninsula’s high­lights in one trip. The 21-mile route access­es Russ­ian Riv­er Falls, Low­er and Upper Russ­ian Lakes, Coop­er Lake, 3fed­er­al­ly man­aged recre­ation­al cab­ins, and numer­ous campsites

Difficulty: EasyDistance: 8 miles

This mean­der­ing, sin­gle-track path leads to some of the Kenai Mountain’s most remote and frag­ile high coun­try. On aroute once trekked by gold rush prospec­tors, this trail ascends from spruce for­est through the jun­gled zone of alders into arealm of sweep­ing tun­dra, with incred­i­ble views and pro­duc­tive berry pick­ing. Plus, the top of the nine-mile jour­ney ends in Res­ur­rec­tion Pass, about mid­way through the 39-mile Res­ur­rec­tion PassTrail.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 2 miles

Prob­a­bly the sec­ond most trav­eled trail in the park, this trail offers agreat day hike for those spend­ing time in the lagoon. You can start hik­ing the trail from the ranger sta­tion or the trail­head in Hal­ibut Cove Lagoon. The trail tra­vers­es up numer­ous switch­backs to aplace called First Lake. On ahot sum­mer day, asoak in this lake can’t bebeat.

Dur­ing the sum­mer months it’s agreat spot for canoe­ing, kayak­ing, pad­dle board­ing, even pad­dle­board yoga. The cold­er months are just as live­ly as the warmer ones. There’s askat­ing loop on the lake’s perime­ter, as well as sev­er­al skat­ing areas on the lake. The City offers free pub­lic skates Sat­ur­day after­noons, ice con­di­tions depen­dent, Decem­ber through February.

Difficulty: Easy

From the base of the Homer Spit, take this 4‑mile paved trail to the Nick Dudi­ak Fish­ing Lagoon. The trail is in excel­lent con­di­tion and is flat as apan­cake for most of its length. The first mile of trail is along abroad estu­ary that is great for bird­ing. Once you pass the one-mile mark you’ll be rid­ing past fish­ing boats that are out of the water being worked on as well as afew shops.

Difficulty: Moderate

Dif­fi­cul­ty: Mod­er­ate Dis­tance: 5 – 50miles Ele­va­tion Gain: Less than 500ft Type: Out-and-Back Fea­tures: Kid Friendly

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 3 miles

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 11 miles

This easy trail winds along the banks of three lakes. There is acamp­ing area on the side of the trail. The trail climbs asad­dle and drops down into the val­ley. It can be dan­ger­ous to cross the rivers, as they are glac­i­er-fed and you can­not see the bot­tom. The rivers are low­er dur­ing the begin­ning of the year, but they are also colder.

Difficulty: EasyDistance: 1 mile

These pop­u­lar trails lead to two beau­ti­ful, pris­tine lakes. Even bet­ter, they’re both easy hikes, which makes them per­fect for peo­ple of all ages. Bring afish­ing pole and angle for stocked trout in Merid­i­an Lake or grayling in Grayling Lake.

Palmer Creek and the road that fol­lows it were named after George Palmer, who in 1894 first dis­cov­ered gold on its banks. The creek was the site of ear­ly plac­er min­ing and lat­er lode min­ing. Evi­dence of the his­toric Lucky Strike and Hir­shey mines, as well as the Swet­mann camp, can be found along trails that lead to Palmer Lakes. Sev­er­al hik­ing trails are acces­si­ble from the Palmer CreekRoad.

Although this can be abusy spot, it is alot less con­gest­ed than the Homer Spit. Things to do here include: tak­ing small day hikes, pad­dling in the lagoon, camp­ing, stay­ing at one of the three near­by pub­lic use cab­ins, and the most pop­u­lar, fish­ing for Kings dur­ing the month ofJune.

Seward Water­front Park extends from the small boat har­bor to the SeaL­ife Cen­ter and con­tains paid tent and RV camp­ing, play­grounds, askate park, pic­nic­ing areas, beach access, and atrail lined with his­tor­i­cal landmarks.

Difficulty: Moderate

The trail fol­lows the south end of Coop­er Lake and ends at Upper Russ­ian Lakes Cab­in, 13miles from the win­ter trail­head. There is lit­tle ele­va­tion gain or loss on this forest­edtrail.

Difficulty: Easy

If you’re abird watch­er, you’ll love this half-mile trail of Aspen and Spruce forest.

The Raven’s Way Loop is accessed from the Ster­ling High­way. You will see the Trail­head and large park­ing lot. The trail mean­ders through open spruce and muskeg ter­rain and there it is agreat chance to see lots of eagles and ravens.

Difficulty: Moderate

Difficulty: Easy

The trail is half amile long and takes you through amature birch for­est that is car­pet­ed with dev­il’s club and water­mel­on berry plants. It’s an easy walk­ing, ide­al for small chil­dren, and ends at asmall camp­ing area on aslight bluff that over­looks Bish­op’s Beach and Bish­opCreek.

Stop off here dur­ing the sum­mer for an eagle’s eye view of an annu­al Alaskan fish­ing fren­zy. We real­ly love our salmon, and it shows! Or, just count the bald eagles cir­cling high overhead.

Difficulty: EasyDistance: 3 miles

The Keen-Eye Nature Trail is .75miles long through awood­ed area with aside trail lead­ing down to Head­quar­ters Lake. The Cen­ten­ni­al Trail pro­vide an addi­tion­al 1.9mile loop through awood­ed area with fur­ther oppor­tu­ni­ty to view wildlife in thearea.

Difficulty: ModerateDistance: 4 miles

Fea­tures: Skiing

Known to locals as the Divide Ski Area, this trail was built by ded­i­cat­ed com­mu­ni­ty vol­un­teers from the Seward Nordic SkiClub.

Difficulty: DifficultDistance: 16 miles

If you want ataste of dim spruce for­est along awild riv­er bot­tom, try the first few miles of this most­ly lev­el route into the Res­ur­rec­tion Riv­er Val­ley. From the trail­head Mile 7of Exit Glac­i­er Road, the trail runs 4.5miles to Mar­tin Creek and is suit­able for moun­tain bik­ing or ski­ing after snow­fall. It fea­tures two prim­i­tive camp­sites and occa­sion­al access or views of to theriver.

Difficulty: EasyDistance: 2 miles

The Stormy Lake boat launch and day use area is locat­ed with­in the Cap­tain Cook State Recre­ation Area. Anglers can fish for rain­bow trout and Arc­tic Char in Stormy Lake. There’s apic­nic shel­ter, water, and toi­lets avail­able onsite.

If you have your own canoe or kayak, stop for apad­dle on Ski­lak Lake, locat­ed in the Kenai Nation­al Wildlife Refuge. For aquick hike with good views, go down Ski­lak Lake Road, past Hid­den Lake camp­ground, to Ski­lak Lake Look­out Trail. Get aglimpse of Ski­lak Glac­i­er and look out over the lake. You can be up and back in 1−1.5hours. Up for some­thing longer? Here are two good day hikes: Depend­ing on time, tack­le the Sky­line Trail. Right…...more