Knife Creek Glaciers and the Mount Katmai Caldera

The Knife Creek Glaciers plunge down from the summits of Mount Katmai and Trident Volcano.

NPS Photo / M. Fitz

Quick Facts

Location:

Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes

Significance:

Volcano

Designation:

Wilderness

MANAGED BY:

Katmai National Park

The lower slopes of the Knife Creek Glaciers are covered with as much as 6 feet (2 meters) of ash and pumice. Hikers can walk right up to the foot of and even on the glaciers, with caution.

Three thousand feet above the glaciers lays the caldera of Mount Katmai. The summit of Mount Katmai collapsed during the 1912 Novarupta eruption leaving a caldera more than 2000 feet (600 m) deep. All routes to the caldera require crossing glaciers with crevasses.