Homer Parks & Trails

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 1.5 miles, 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 1.5 miles, the trail proceeds  ...more

Prob­a­bly the sec­ond most trav­eled trail in the park, this trail offers a great 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 a place called First Lake. On a hot sum­mer day, a soak in this lake can’t be beat.

This trail’s pur­pose is to pro­vide access to the Tut­ka Bay Lagoon Hatch­ery. Be sure to bring a kayak and the fam­i­ly to play in the lagoon for the day!

Access: Tut­ka Bay There are two trail­heads for Grace Ridge. One is at the north­ern end of Tut­ka Bay at Kayak Beach. The sec­ond is locat­ed in the south­ern end of the bay about two thirds of the way down on the north shore. Some folks nev­er hike the entire length of the trail, but rather hike from Kayak beach to the sum­mit of Grace ridge, and back to the beach. This is a wor­thy hike, but if you can hike from north to south com­plete­ly along…  ...more

Ele­va­tion Gain: 873 feet Dif­fi­cul­ty: Mod­er­ate Length: 2.8 miles Time: 1 1÷2−2 hours Going north from the Humpy Creek Trail­head, the trail will skirt along the edge of the high tide line through the grass. Fol­low orange trail ?T?s? along the beach until the trail enters into the woods. BEWARE: The trail sec­tion along the beach may be impass­able at times when the tide exceeds 17 or 18 feet. As the trail climbs into the woods it is stren­u­ous at…  ...more

The trail­head is in Hal­ibut Cove In con­junc­tion with the Grew­ingk Glac­i­er Lake Trail, this is the most heav­i­ly trav­eled trail in the park. Usu­al­ly, peo­ple hike the Grew­ingk Glac­i­er Lake Trail, hang out at the lake and hike the Sad­dle Trail back to Hal­ibut Cove for their water taxi pickup.

There are two dif­fer­ent trails to reach the alpine area of Sadie Knob; from either the north or south trail­heads. Each has camp­sites you can use as a base camp for hik­ing. You can hike from trail­head to trail­head and nev­er go into the alpine if you choose. These are very well grad­ed trails and offer leisure­ly hike if one wants to ​‘smell the ros­es’ and do some bird watch­ing or flower iden­ti­fi­ca­tion. The junc­tion at the spur trail that takes…  ...more

Hike 2 miles along the Chi­na Poot Lake Trail. The Moose Val­ley trail is one of the more unique trails in the park. It is one of the best hikes in the park because it can be com­bined with oth­er trails to make a very big loop. The hike is full of flow­ers, decid­u­ous trees, stands of cot­ton­woods and alpine lakes.

This pop­u­lar trail begins at Kayak Beach Camp­site, acces­si­ble by water taxi, between Tut­ka Bay and Sadie Cove. Head up through spruce and alders, and stop at the alpine knob at 1,745 feet for great pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of Eldred Pas­sage, Sadie Peak, and Cook Inlet vol­ca­noes. Watch for moun­tain goats, black bears, and gold­en and bald eagles.

Although this can be a busy spot, it is a lot 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 of June.

The Coali­tion Loop is a mod­er­ate­ly dif­fi­cult trail in Kachemak Bay State Park. It’s five and a half miles long with short steep climbs up to 400 feet, and it takes rough­ly three hours to hike the loop. Boat access to the trail is at the Chi­na Poot Bay trail­head dur­ing high tide. You can also join this trail at mile .2 and mile 1.8 of the Chi­na Poot Lake Trail. The trail itself con­nects Hal­ibut Cove Lagoon with Chi­na Poot Bay. It climbs…  ...more

This easy trail winds along the banks of three lakes. There is a camp­ing area on the side of the trail. The trail climbs a sad­dle 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.

Access: Get to the trail from Humpy Creek or the Grew­ingk Glac­i­er Trail. Descrip­tion of this trail is from access via Humpy Creek North Trail. Trail begins at 650 via the Humpy Creek North Trail. The trail gains ele­va­tion quick­ly for close to 2 miles and will even­tu­al­ly leave the dead and down for­est into alder fields. At this point you start to get great views north and south of Kachemak Bay. You will see the Homer Spit in all its glo­ry. At…  ...more

This trail winds along Hal­ibut Cove and pass­es though to Hal­ibut Creek delta, a wet bog­gy sec­tion. The riv­er can be ford­ed at low tide but may be dif­fi­cult to cross at oth­er times. The trail con­tin­ues on to lead you to Chi­na Poot Lake Trail, should you choose to go on.

Note: To get to the sum­mit you most get to the Sum­mit Junc­tion, and con­tin­ue the final .3 miles from there. The trail begins .5 miles beyond Chi­na Poot Lake. The ele­va­tion gain tells it all — 1632 feet in just over a mile! This trail does­n’t mess around. It is dif­fi­cult but can be fun. Right from the trail junc­tion, the trail will climb straight up, with no tra­vers­ing or switch­backs. The trail climbs over exposed tree roots, sev­er­al slick…  ...more

Going north from the Humpy Creek Trail­head, the trail will skirt along the edge of the high tide line through the grass. Fol­low the orange trail mark­ers along the beach until the trail enters into the woods. BEWARE: The trail sec­tion along the beach may be impass­able at times when the tide exceeds 17 or 18 feet. As the trail climbs into the woods it is stren­u­ous at times, but you are reward­ed with views back down into Humpy Creek drainage…  ...more

This trail is short and steep through thick for­est that leads to incred­i­ble sce­nary. The trail­head can be reached via the high­est point of the Lagoon Trail, two miles from the ranger sta­tion. Rock cairns mark the trail to an open alpine ridge, where the trail gen­tly climbs to a sum­mit that has some of the finest views any­where of Kachemak country.

For a longer day hike, add this pop­u­lar route to the Glac­i­er Lake Trail loop. You’ll pick up the trail head­ing south down the Sad­dle Trail, then climb a steep ridge above tree-line to alpine tun­dra, with great views of Kachemak Bay, Grew­ingk Glac­i­er, and the glacial val­ley. In August, you’ll find ripe blue­ber­ries. Retrace your steps and con­tin­ue down the Sad­dle Trail to the Hal­ibut Cove pick­up. It is 5 miles out and back, plus Glac­i­er Lake…  ...more

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 a pan­cake for most of its length. The first mile of trail is along a broad 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 a few shops.

One of the top trails on the Homer side of Kachemak Bay, Dia­mond Creek is a 2‑mile trail that takes you through for­est, alders, and tall grass mead­ows before descend­ing to the beach, where you’ll find small Alaskan sealife.

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 a glimpse at the occa­sion­al moose.

This 0.4‑mile-long trail, which begins with­in earshot of down­town Homer, plays host to a vari­ety 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 4 hours from Anchorage.

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 a great chance to see lots of eagles and ravens.

This trail will take you 7.5 miles to Cari­bou Lake and is good for bik­ing, hik­ing, ATV’s, and win­ter skiing.

This is an unmarked dirt road that isn’t well main­tained but is good for bik­ing and hiking.

The Ray Clapp Trail is a nice short hike in Homer. It is locat­ed approx­i­mate­ly 1 mile out East End Road in the Stream Hill Park Sub­di­vi­sion. You can park your car or bicy­cle at the trail head which is marked with a lit­tle foot­bridge. It winds through the edge of an estate and is filled with love­ly mead­ows of wild­flow­ers along with beau­ti­ful birch and cot­ton­wood trees.

This trail switch­backs up .38 miles to an over­look that offers stun­ning views of Kachemak Bay.

Paved and flat, this three-mile long trail is great for in-town recreation.

Every­one wants to explore a tide­pool, don’t they? This is a must for the kids — even that lit­tle kid in those slight­ly more mature vis­i­tors. Here’s the per­fect spot. Bring a tow­el and let’s have an inter­tidal adventure.

Less than one mile through the woods, this is an easy, in-town hike.

This trail is a con­nec­tor between Pio­neer Ave and the Homer Bypass. It winds through the woods in town and a spur trail leads to the Homer Pub­lic Library.

This is an easy two-mile trail through mead­ows and forests that’s great for hik­ing in the sum­mer and ski­ing dur­ing the win­ter. In sum­mer, the high­light is fields of wild­flow­ers, espe­cial­ly from June through August: Lupine, Wild Gera­ni­um, False Helle­bore, Monk’s Hood, Choco­late Lily, Fire­weed, and much more.

This trail is an easy one-mile stroll to the east Bel­u­ga Slough view­ing platform.

The trail­head is locat­ed ³⁄₄ miles east of the Sky­line Dri­ve inter­sec­tion. The trail fol­lows Cross­man Ridge Rd before going down to cross bridge creek. From here it climbs up to Dia­mond Ridge Road where there’s anoth­er trail­head. You can also access the Home­st­ed Trail from the Rogers Loop Rd Trailhead.