The Kodiak Island Archipelago
is home to some of Alaska’s most iconic wildlife, and hiking offers a vantage point entirely different from traveling the coast by boat or viewing from a bush plane above.
Kodiak Raspberry Island Remote Lodge sits within prime habitat for the Kodiak brown bear. Powerful, intelligent, and equipped with remarkably keen senses, they are also notably wary of humans. Sightings are never guaranteed — nor expected — during our hikes. More often, we encounter fresh trails, tracks, and other signs that quietly remind us we share this landscape with them. Our guides are trained in bear awareness and habitat behavior, and safety is always a priority.
Roosevelt elk, introduced to nearby Afognak Island in 1929, have since established a healthy population on Raspberry and nearby Afognak Island.
Sitka black-tailed deer are more common, though often harder to detect once summer vegetation thickens.
Red fox — appearing in red, black, or cross phases — occasionally move through meadows or pause along the shoreline.
Red squirrels chatter from the spruce canopy and leave mounds of cones beneath their dens.
River Otter, not to be confused with our Sea Otter, are comfortable in the ocean as well as along the coast and inland.
Wildlife here is not staged. It is simply present. During our hiking trips, we move through this environment respectfully, aware that this landscape operates within a complex web of relationships that long predates us. Our passage is brief; the rhythms endure.
Ben R., Jackson Hole
Hiking in Kodiak, Alaska
Hiking on Raspberry Island ranges from shoreline walks and forest trails to steep alpine climbs, with routes shaped by terrain, weather, wildlife movement, and expansive views across the Kodiak Archipelago.
