Hiking in Kodiak

One of the area’s more pop­u­lar hikes (or dri­ves, as there’s a road to the top), Pil­lar Moun­tain offers a mod­er­ate, 2.5‑mile climb to an alpine sum­mit over­look­ing town. Your heart, lungs, and legs may burn, but you’ll have great views and see excel­lent wild­flow­ers, as most of the trail is above tree­line. You’ll rec­og­nize the peak, since it dom­i­nates the sky over Kodi­ak. And if you get wind­ed on this hike, con­sid­er the run­ners who race up here…  ...more

Mayflower Beach is a black sand and stone beach with views across the bay to forest­ed hills and moun­tains. Lis­ten to the waves crash against the shore and smell the fresh ocean smell. Beach­comb­ing, pic­nick­ing, & hik­ing are all great things to do in this area.

Old Wom­ens Moun­tain hike pro­vides great views of Chini­ak Bay, the Coast Guard base and Kodi­ak city and har­bor. The sur­round­ing moun­tain scenery is breath­tak­ing. About ¹⁄₂ mile south of the air­port road, take a right turn on the paved road up to ​“Avi­a­tion Hill.” Turn left at the entrance to the sub­di­vi­sion and park at the end of the road behind the Coast Guard Loran build­ing. You will find the trail­head at the far end of the park­ing lot. An…  ...more

Hike these scenic ridges and lush meadows

Only lim­it­ed access is allowed to this mil­i­tary reser­va­tion. Access the trails through the pedes­tri­an gates in the fence at the end of Wood­land Dri­ve. Walk along an old road to the cape. There are nice short hikes along the sea cliffs and a north­east­er­ly beach. This area is espe­cial­ly rec­om­mend­ed on stormy nd rainy days when east­er­ly gales will unveil the ocean’s fury. The wild­flower mead­ows are beau­ti­ful rest­ing spots on calm sun­ny days in…  ...more

This is the high­est moun­tain close to town. If you tack­le this hike, you’re in for a climb, but a large por­tion of the trail is in the alpine, with beau­ti­ful flow­ers and tun­dra. You’ll be climb­ing 2,400 feet in ele­va­tion in just two miles. Watch for upland birds includ­ing Wil­low and Rock Ptarmi­gan, and Amer­i­can Pipits.

This is Kodiak’s most pop­u­lar moun­tain, and for good rea­son: It’s a chal­lenge, the views are stun­ning, and it feels like a true moun­tain climb — there’s a 2,073-foot ele­va­tion gain in just a few miles. A well-trod trail leads up the ridge, which you can access from the end of the air­port run­way. Fol­low an old grav­el road to the north­east ridge, where a trail breaks on your left. The first part runs through the brush, but you’ll break into open…  ...more

This is a well-used and busy ATV road that leads up the Amer­i­can Riv­er and over a pass to Saltery Cov­er. It is only open to trail bikes, ATVs and hik­ers. While it is pos­si­ble to hike the road, be aware that you will need to ford some streams.

For a gen­tle stroll on a sur­faced path, Kodi­ak’s Bik­ing & Walk­ing Path begins at the cor­ner of Ben­ny Ben­son and Rezenof Road, and par­al­lels Rezanof north­ward 2 miles to the entrance to Fort Aber­crom­bie State His­tor­i­cal Park. This is a rel­a­tive­ly flat path used by jog­gers dog walk­ers, bik­ers and walk­ers, that trav­els past Mill Bay Beach, a French pas­try and cof­fee shop and the trail had to the Island Lake Trail. For a longer walk, add…  ...more

One of the best spots to check out WWII relics, there’s a short trail from the park­ing area on the side of the road.

The trail par­al­lels Island Lake Creek, which tum­bles steeply through the woods over falls and boul­ders. This is a good place to see dip­pers, as well as for­est birds such as win­ter wrens, var­ied thrush, chick­adees, nuthatch­es and creepers.

A six-mile round-trip hike that climbs to just over 2,000 feet, this climb will get you great views of Women’s Bay and the rolling moun­tains of the island. Look for ptarmi­gan up here…this is a hike the Audubon Soci­ety does annually.

Loved by locals and trav­el­ers alike, this 182-acre state park has numer­ous trails, beach­es, and rocky view­points. For his­to­ry buffs, the trails take you past bunkers and relics from WWII out­posts in the area. You’ll also find sum­mer nat­u­ral­ist pro­grams where you can learn about ecol­o­gy as well as ocean and for­est creatures.

Fol­low the trail that winds upward through tall grass cross­ing some wet places. After about 1.5 miles, you come to the lake, which is a beau­ti­ful place for a pic­nic or swim on a sun­ny day. Keep an eye out for upland birds, bear, deer, and goats.

Just over the bridge, this park offers easy beach walk­ing and great pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of Kodi­ak. Snap shots of the water­front, have a pic­nic, or enjoy qui­et beach­es. The park is forest­ed, with excel­lent spruce groves that are silent havens for birds and squir­rels. There’s excel­lent bird watch­ing at the end of the trail. Walk the mossy earth and head over to the peb­ble beach­es — it’s a great mid­day retreat close to town.

This trail can be hard to fol­low as it mean­ders through wet areas, thick veg­e­taion and up salmonber­ry slopes before it reach­es the rich sub­alpine mead­ows and even­tu­al­ly leads into a bowl-shaped glacial cirque at the base of the moun­tain. There is plen­ty of great bird habi­tat along the trail so watch for pip­its and ptarmi­gan up high and song­bird and snipe in the low­er elevations.

Whether you’re look­ing for a camp­site or fish­ing hole, glass­ing for birds, watch­ing for bears, or beach­comb­ing, this recre­ation site is a great spot to expe­ri­ence the won­ders of Kodi­ak Island with­out trav­el­ing too far.

Dur­ing sum­mer the mead­ows are full of wild­flow­ers and the views of Chini­ak Bay are spec­tac­u­lar. The south cape is a good place to look for Horned and Tuft­ed Puffins, Bal­ck-legged Kit­ti­wakes, Pelag­ic and Dou­ble-crest­ed Cor­morants, Black Oys­ter­catch­ers and var­i­ous ducks includ­ing Har­le­quins, scot­ers and Long-tailed Ducks.

One of the eas­i­est beach­es to access from town, this park has a nice over­look and excel­lent water­front with pic­nic sites. In late July through Sep­tem­ber, you can fish from the beach for sil­ver and pink salmon. Bird­ing is good year round, but it’s espe­cial­ly great dur­ing the winter.