Two Recreation Areas

A couple of miles north of town on Rezanof Drive, the Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park encompasses World War II ruins set on coastal cliffs amid huge trees. Paths lead to the beaches and good tide-pool walking, a swimming lake, and lots of other discoveries. The gun emplacements, bunkers, and other concrete buildings defended against the Japanese, who had seized islands in the outer Aleutians and were expected to come this way. A group of local World War II buffs have built a museum of war artifacts from the Alaska fighting in the ammunition bunker at Miller Point. Hours change annually, but will be posted on the Kadiak website (yes, kadiak) or call tel. 907/486-7015. The website is extensive. A wonderful 13-site campground sits atop the cliffs among the trees and ruins. Camping is $15. The Alaska Division of State Parks, Kodiak District Office, 1400 Abercrombie Dr., Kodiak, AK 99615 (tel. 907/486-6339; fax 907/486-3320), maintains an office here where you can pick up a walking-tour brochure or, during the summer, join the Saturday-night interpretive program or a guided tide-pool walk, scheduled to coincide with low tides. Or investigate the tide pools on your own, picking up an identification guide at the park's natural history bookstore.

The Buskin River State Recreation Site, 4 miles south of town off Rezanof Drive near the Fish & Wildlife Service visitor center, has 15 campsites, a hiking trail, and access to fishing. Camping is $15. Day-use fees are under consideration for both of these sites.

Brown Bear Viewing

To count on seeing Kodiak's famous bears you need to get out on a plane or boat and visit at the right time of year. The easiest way is a Kodiak-based floatplane; expect to pay $425 to $440 per person, with a two- or three-person minimum for a guided half-day trip. Landing on the water, you don rubber boots (provided) and walk up to half an hour to get to where bears congregate. In early July to early August, depending on salmon runs, flights land on Frazer Lake for viewing at Frazer fish pass. A .75-mile walk on a dirt lane leads to the viewing area. The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge (tel. 888/408-3514 or 907/487-2600; or visit their website) controls the viewing area. Flights also sometimes visit Ayakulik and Karluk rivers when fish are present. At any of these sites, binoculars and telephoto camera lenses are essential, as no responsible guide would crowd Kodiak brown bears so closely that such lenses become unnecessary (although the bears could choose to approach within 50 yards of you). Bears congregate only when salmon are running, so the timing of your visit is critical. From early July to mid-August you have a good chance of seeing bears fishing in streams on Kodiak, sometimes in numbers. Contact the refuge for more information on timing and bear activity.

When fish aren't running on Kodiak, such as in June or after mid-August, air services concentrate on flights to the east coast of the Alaska Peninsula, often in Katmai National Park, to watch bears digging clams from the tidal flats and eating grass and greens on the coastal meadows or catching fish in August. It's interesting and the flight is spectacular, but the viewing may be from a greater distance than on the streams and the bears will more likely be on their own.

Generally, the flight services charge their standard bear viewing seat rate regardless of how far they have to fly to find bears; if you charter, it may cost much more, but you will have freedom to determine where the plane goes for added sightseeing.

Several small flight services offer bear viewing, including Sea Hawk Air (tel. 800/770-4295 or 907/486-8282).

If a bear viewing day trip is the whole reason you're going to Kodiak, compare your options. You can use Homer as your base, or spend more money to go to Katmai National Park to see bears really close.

For additional money, you can see more of Kodiak's bears on a longer outing: A flight service can leave you at a lodge for an extended stay in bear habitat. Check the visitor center for a referral. Harry and Brigid Dodge host small groups at their rustic, solar-powered Aleut Island Lodge in Uyak Bay, taking an environmentally sensitive approach while spending the time to know the bears and their habitat. The business is called Kodiak Treks (tel. 907/487-2122). Rates are $300 per person per night, double, including food and activities such as kayaking and fishing, but not including the cost of getting there (about $275 per person round-trip from Kodiak).

Fishing

The 70 miles of road leading from Kodiak reach eight good-size rivers with productive fishing for salmon and Dolly Varden char. At times you can drive to places with fishing pressure as light as some fly-in locations on the mainland. Going beyond the road network puts you on some of the best and least used fishing opportunities in Alaska. The visitor center provides a list of where to fish and the names and addresses of guides for remote fishing. You can also seek advice and regulations from the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, 211 Mission Rd., Kodiak, AK 99615 (tel. 907/486-1880; click on "Sport Fisheries," then on the Southcentral region, then on "Kodiak/Aleutians"). To fish the remote areas, you'll need to charter a plane, going for a day or staying at a remote public-use cabin or wilderness lodge.

About 50 boats are available in the boat harbors for ocean fishing. An advantage of coming to Kodiak is that it puts you near rich halibut grounds -- you don't have to take a long boat ride for excellent fishing. Trolling for silvers is good in August. Check with the visitor center for a referral.

Hiking & Bird-Watching

There are good day hikes in Kodiak, some starting from downtown. The local Audubon Society publishes a Kodiak Hiking & Birding Guide that you can pick up at the visitor center. Audubon's guided hikes go to a different place every Saturday and Sunday of the summer, meeting at the visitor center parking lot at 9:30am for car pooling. Again, the center is the best source of information.

Sea Kayaking

The Kodiak Archipelago, with its many folded, rocky shorelines and abundant marine life, is a perfect place for sea kayaking. Kayaks were invented here and on the Aleutian Islands to the west. For beginners it is best to start with a day trip, and the waters around the town of Kodiak are lovely for such a paddle. Several operators can arrange an outing, although most concentrate on more ambitious trips. For a half-day expect to pay around $100 per person, for a full day $200. One day-trip guide with a strong environmental ethic is Andy Schroeder, whose business is called Orcas Unlimited Charters (tel. 907/539-1979). Schroeder specializes in day trips, but also takes clients on extended outings using a converted fishing boat as a base. Guests paddle by day and sleep and eat onboard. Others operate using the same mother-ship concept. Mythos Expeditions (tel. 907/486-5536) has for years housed kayakers on a former fishing vessel for multi-day bear- and whale-watching trips on the coasts of Kodiak and Afognak islands and the Alaska Peninsula's Katmai coast. They do day trips as well.

Shuyak Island State Park, 54 miles north of Kodiak, is famously appealing for sea kayaking expeditions. The park is a honeycomb of islands and narrow passages in virgin Sitka spruce coastal forest. The Division of State Parks distributes a free kayaking guide with route descriptions and maintains four public-use cabins, which rent for $75 a night in the summer season. These cabins can be quite hard to get in August. Mythos Expeditions leads trips to Shuyak Island State Park and rents kayaks there for self-guided paddlers.