Holgate Arm

Holgate Arm can be both stunning and challenging, and offers several campsites as well as a public-use cabin.

Plan Around Holgate Arm

A good stop is not just something to read about. Once it belongs on the day, move into a saved trip and build the route around it.

Add to trip View park guide

Use this detail page to confirm that the stop is worth it, then carry that decision into a trip draft while the park context is still fresh.

Holgate Arm Details

With appropriate planning and good weather, Holgate Arm can be a surreally beautiful destination, with the tidewater Holgate Glacier dazzling paddlers from the western end of the fjord. However, the Arm, located on the west side of Aialik Bay, can be a rough area for paddlers as it is not well protected. Ocean swells, tour boat wakes, glacial winds coming off Holgate Glacier, and glacial surges from calving ice can make for unforgiving seas. Glacial surges are waves that rapidly sweep up the shore without warning, and can carry off unsuspecting kayak parties; avoid landing on the small beaches near the glacier. Most of the beaches in the Arm are steep and wave-beaten, but the main camping beach at the southeast end of the Arm is fine for camping. The Holgate Public Use Cabin sits just north of the main camping beach. A food storage locker is located east of the cabin, and a creek flows behind it. There are also potential campsites on the eastern end of the Arm, with several small streams for water. There are no trees or food lockers here, so bring your own bear-resistant food containers. Another beach with more privacy is located west of the cabin.

Difficulty

Low

Distance

N/A

Estimated time

N/A

Region

N/A