Chiniak Highway Guide

A pop­u­lar place for view­ing win­ter­ing Emper­or Geese.

From this bridge on Kodi­ak’s Chini­ak High­way it’s pos­si­ble to see spawn­ing salmon in August and Sep­tem­ber. There’s also poten­tial to see brown bears here dur­ing the late sum­mer as they feast on salmon, espe­cial­ly around dawn or dusk. The road on the south side of the bridge leads to Bell’s Flats.

Good fish­ing site. Kodi­ak Island Sports­men Asso­ci­a­tion Fir­ing Range. MP 11.6, Chini­ak Highway

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.

MP 12.8, Chini­ak Highway

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.

Hap­py beach is a black sand and stone beach. 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.

There’s a radio receiv­er & emer­gency phone avail­able to the right.

MP 17.7 , Chini­ak Highway

Stop off at the bridge and fish or raft on Amer­i­can Riv­er (there’s a good fish­ing spot to the left when you get to the bridge).

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.

This is the for­mer site of a Russ­ian brick­yard and is cur­rent­ly the site of an archae­o­log­i­cal exca­va­tion. You can also access the Iron Gate Beach.

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.

MP 24.4, Chini­ak Highway

Dur­ing August and Sep­tem­ber, the ditch on the left of the Chini­ak High­way at MP 29.0 becomes an active spawn­ing area for salmon.

Sheer cuts along riv­er bank reveal a heavy vol­canic ash lay­er from the erup­tion of 1912.

A 17 mile one-way jaunt from Chini­ak High­way, this road was com­plet­ed along­side the devel­op­ment of the Alas­ka Aero­space Cor­po­ra­tion launch site, which is at the end of the road. In addi­tion to access­ing the pri­vate site, the paved road offers recre­ation­al­ists and trav­el­ers access to great fish­ing beach­es and rivers, surf spots, state parks, and scenic views of alpine pass­es and ocean. There’s also a pri­vate ranch here, where semi-domesticated…  ...more

This is a great place to spot fish­ing boats as they come in and out of the dock.

An assort­ment of homes and cab­ins dots the road for the next two miles and com­pris­es the town of Chini­ak. Orig­i­nal­ly a native Alu­ti­iq out­post, the pop­u­la­tion here explod­ed dur­ing WWII, fol­low­ing con­struc­tion of a road from Olds Riv­er. The Army, Navy, and Air Force have based oper­a­tions here, with work­ers liv­ing in Quon­set huts and mil­i­tary hous­ing. But fol­low­ing the clo­sure of the hous­ing in 1954, the res­i­dents built the ​“town.” Elec­tri­fied in…  ...more

MP 41.6, Chini­ak Highway

This is a very scenic and easy hike with great bird­ing and flower view­ing. Dur­ing April and ear­ly May this is a prime loca­tion to view migrat­ing gray whales. Check out all of the rocky out­crops, beach­es and off­shore waters for birds. Look for bank swal­lows nest­ing in the sea cliffs and har­bor seals loung­ing on the rocks.

This old bunker is open for explo­ration. If you make it this far on your hike, be sure to walk around the bunker and step inside to get a rough idea of how how sol­diers lived dur­ing WWII.