Sweeping in from the Gulf of Alaska, the sea ebbs and flows into the magnificent fjord known as Kachemak Bay, on the southern end of the Kenai Peninsula. It rushes into smaller bays, coves, and lagoons; laps onto rocky beaches and into tide pools; and caresses the edges of a coastal rain forest.

From ocean to beach to forest to cottonwood meadows filled with wildflowers to clear, alpine lakes, the Kachemak Bay State Park and the Kachemak Bay State Wilderness Park rise in a crescendo to the tips of mountains capped with ancient ice fields and draped in robes of glaciers.

Kachemak Bay State Park, which has more biodiversity found within its boundaries than almost any park in the world, became a state park in 1970 to protect the area from logging. Today, it is the flagship for a remarkable fleet of state parks, rivalling the best parks on the planet.

The State Park has several developed trails. For an easy, flat walk through a mature spruce and cottonwood forest, take the 3,5-mile Grewingk Glacier Trail from your water-taxi drop-off at Rusty Lagoon outside Halibut Cove to Grewingk Lake at the foot of the glacier.