Grewingk Glacier Hike in Kachemak Bay State Park

The popular hike of summer 2021 was the trek to Grewingk Glacier in Kachemak Bay State Park. In just a few weeks we heard from three different groups doing this hike, and put it on our must-do list. 

Kachemak Bay State Park is across Kachemak Bay from the Homer Spit, the most common way to access it is by boat. It was Alaska’s first state park, and its only state wilderness area. We took a water taxi to Glacier Spit and it dropped us off in front of a lagoon. We looked around the lagoon and admired the driftwood and the flowers. 

We made our way to the trailhead, and started the 3.5 mile hike to the glacier lake. Because Grewingk Glacier used to be a tidewater glacier that has receded, there is now a glacial moraine that makes up the area that the trail goes over. We expected hiking on a glacial moraine to be a bit boring, but the trail was beautiful! 

As we neared the glacier, the trees were shorter, because the forest is newer. The trail to the glacier was pretty level, and would’ve been an easy hike, but we both had heavy packs. We planned to camp overnight at the glacier lake, and use a borrowed packraft to paddle around the icebergs. The packraft was awesome, but the raft, seat, floor, paddles, and life vests took up a whole pack.

When we made it to the glacier, we noticed a drop in the temperature. The lake at the terminus of the glacier was filled with icebergs and there was an icy breeze coming off the lake.

We walked around the lake past the day-use area, and set up camp next to a big rocky area. 

The packraft gave us a little trouble, considering we had no idea how to use it. We got it inflated, and did a short paddle around the icebergs. We took turns getting wet, sitting on the self-bailing floor. Yeah, that’s not how that works. At least we managed to harvest some ice for cocktails! 

The icebergs were so amazing to see up close. They all looked different. There were ridges and textures, and deep shades of blue. Some were dirty, and others were shiny. We didn’t get too close because there is more iceberg below than above.

We had a campfire using driftwood that had washed up near our campsite. I was wondering how there was driftwood in the lake, and Brian pointed out that trees fall down the steep slopes.

Eventually Brian realized that one of us was supposed to sit on the seat, and the other one was supposed to sit on the back of the boat. The next day we took a much drier, longer paddle out to the peninsula about halfway across the lake. Since it was a bit far and the water was freezing cold, we hugged the bank while we paddled over. We got a better view of the glacier and sat and had a snack and just enjoyed it. 

On the way back, we paddled near the small island on the lake where gulls were nesting. There were cute little grey babies and the gulls squocked at us not to get too close. The colors on the rock and the sounds of the birds was so amazing. The icebergs were my favorite part of the paddle, but the island of birds was Brian’s favorite. 

After we paddled we packed up camp and hiked out to meet our water taxi. The hike out on the Saddle Trail was a nice walk. The berries were coming out, and we saw bear scat on the trail. At the end, there was a pretty steep downhill as the trail dropped down to to water level in Halibut Cove. 

As we waited for our water taxi we turned our phones back on and got just enough cell service to get a few text messages saying “are you okay?” and “we heard about the earthquake!”. Eeeek. There was an 8.2 magnitude earthquake out near the Aleutian islands the previous night. The Kenai Peninsula was on a tsunami watch, and they even evacuated the Homer Spit. We didn’t feel anything. Fortunately, a tsunami didn’t materialize, and there wasn’t much damage due to the remoteness of the earthquake. There are earthquakes in Alaska pretty much everyday! We felt a couple during the summer, and they are pretty cool, assuming there isn’t any damage.

July 27th-28th, 2021