Stretching across 3,670 square miles and more than 100 miles long, Kodiak is Alaska's largest island and the second largest in the United States after the Big Island of Hawaii.
The pulse of Kodiak can be found along its waterfronts and in its boat harbors. The Alaska Marine Highway ferries pull in downtown, right next to the Kodiak Island Visitor Center (800-789-4782). Nearby is St. Paul Boat Harbor, the city’s largest. For the best view of vessels visitors follow the Harbor Walkway, a boardwalk above the docks that is home of the Kodiak Maritime Museum. More boats dock across the channel at St. Herman Harbor on Near Island and an afternoon on the docks can lead to friendly encounters with fishers and the chance to see catches unloaded or nets being repaired.
More than 100 miles of paved and gravel roads head from the city into the wilderness that surround Kodiak. Some of the roads are rough jeep tracks, manageable only by 4WD vehicles, but many can be driven to isolated stretches of beach, great fishing spots and outstanding coastal scenery and secluded campgrounds.
The island’s best-known park is the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. The 2,812-square-mile refuge encompasses two-thirds of Kodiak Island and includes a diverse habitat that ranges from rugged mountains and alpine meadows to wetlands, spruce forest and grassland. The refuge has outstanding fishing but the most popular activity is bear viewing. Everyone who comes to Kodiak wants a glimpse of the famed Kodiak brown bear. The refuge is home to 3,500 bears with males that normally weigh in at more than 800 pounds but have been known to exceed 1,500 pounds and stand more than 10 feet tall. The refuge is road less and bear viewing is either by a flightseeing tour or flying into a wilderness lodge. In Kodiak just about every air charter company offers a bear viewing flight that often includes water landing on a river or lake and watching bears feed on salmon nearby.
Kodiak is a renowned fishing destination who hooks almost as many anglers as fish with many returning year after year. Whether you fish from the road system, fly out to a remote lake or river, stay at one of many fishing lodges or opt for an ocean charter, Kodiak provides it all. You can angle for all five species of salmon, halibut, rockfish, cod and trout.
Only four miles from downtown lies Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park. The fort was built during World War II, and along with a campground features the Kodiak Military History Museum, located inside the Ready Ammo bunker. The historic ruins of the World War II coastal defense installation couples with the steep surf-pounded cliffs, deep spruce forests, wildflower-laden meadows and a lake containing trout offer the public a unique opportunity to learn of the events of World War II while enjoying the natural beauty of the park.
Once a struggling fishing port, World War II turned the island of Kodiak into a major staging area for the North Pacific operations. At one point Kodiak's population topped 25,000, with Ft. Abercrombie built as a defense post to protect the naval base constructed in 1939. Today the old naval base is the site of the country’s largest Coast Guard base. Kodiak’s famed cloudy weather spared it from a Japanese attack during the war but the city wasn’t so lucky during the Good Friday Earthquake of 1964, which leveled its downtown area and wiped out its fishing fleet. But Kodiak rebounded and today is among the top three fishing ports in the country and home to 650 boats, including the state's largest trawl, longline and crab vessels, and 12 shore-based processors.