Exit Glacier Audio Guide

Doug Capra first came to Alas­ka in 1971 as a teacher — his first job was out in the Aleut­ian Islands. Now liv­ing on the Kenai Penin­su­la, he con­tin­ues to teach you all about a place he loves.

Start your tour of this mam­moth glac­i­er here. You won’t find restrooms or water on the trail, so stop in here before head­ing out. Be ready to see wildlife along the trail, like bears and moose. And remem­ber, if you see a bear, don’t sur­prise it, just let it go on its way.

Sounds are an essen­tial part of this area’s beau­ti­ful land­scape. So be sure to turn off your audio devices to hear the sounds of the riv­er or ani­mals in the for­est. Listening’s also impor­tant in remain­ing alert in the event of danger.

As you dri­ve along the road, you’ll notice signs marked with a year. These indi­cate where the glac­i­er was at var­i­ous points in time. Learn how sci­en­tists accu­rate­ly fig­ure these points out.

There’s a lot going on under­neath your feet! Your mom prob­a­bly makes your meals at home, but in the for­est it’s dif­fer­ent. Find out how Cot­ton­wood and Alder Trees pro­duce nutri­ents for near­by plants. 

Lots of moose make their home here; look over the sides of the bridge for their scat. These moose feed off the Felt-Leaf Wil­low trees, but how do they reach the leaves on the high branches?

Do you like tak­ing the mov­ing side­walks at the air­port? Well, the big boul­der off to the right did­n’t get there by walk­ing. Hear how the glac­i­er can be used as geo­log­i­cal transportation.

Why is this water so murky? Appar­ent­ly glac­i­ers aren’t one big block of ice. 

The plants in this area are work­ing togeth­er to repair their envi­ron­ment. Look off to your left and you’ll see a mat of a plant known as yel­low dryas. The ground here is bare, but the pres­ence of this plant is a sign that new soil is being built up. 

There’s a lot going on all around you – there has been for a while. Under­stand the role of moun­tains, snow, and ice in the for­ma­tion of glac­i­ers through­out the seasons. 

Take a moment to look at the geol­o­gy of the glac­i­er: this area is made up of a blend of meta­mor­phic, sed­i­men­ta­ry, and igneous rocks. How did all three of these types of rock get here?

It’s a good reminder that this is bear coun­try. Hear the sto­ry of how these claw marks got on the tree.

These ver­ti­cal rocks were orig­i­nal­ly in hor­i­zon­tal lay­ers. What twist­ed them 90 degrees?

If you stick your tongue to a frozen pole in the win­ter, would­n’t it get stuck? Some­thing sim­i­lar hap­pened here. 

Fjords are anoth­er glacial cre­ation. Learn how they are made and what their char­ac­ter­is­tics make them dif­fer­ent from a sim­ple valley.

Check out Doug’s pho­tos of the glac­i­er from just a few years ago. You may notice that it has moved a few feet.

Do you know what direc­tion the glac­i­er was mov­ing at spe­cif­ic times in his­to­ry? Sci­en­tist find that out by tak­ing a close look at the rocks around you. 

Here’s your oppor­tu­ni­ty to think of a bil­lion years in terms of a decade. This could be help­ful in under­stand­ing the his­to­ry of the earth on a grand scale.

As you were dri­ving, you most like­ly noticed signs with years post­ed along the road. These dis­play indi­ca­tions of the Lit­tle Ice Age. Was Exit Glac­i­er advanc­ing or retreat­ing dur­ing this short peri­od of time?

This glac­i­er is too big for drops of food col­or­ing. So where does it’s col­or come from?

You won’t always be able to make it to the toe of the glac­i­er, but it’s a cool expe­ri­ence when you can. Check out today’s glac­i­er and com­pare it with pho­tos from the past at the Nature Center.