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Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Wrangell-St. Elias is home to 9 of the 16 highest peaks in North America. It is also home to glaciers, bears, moose and elk and the defunct Kennecott mine.   

Kennecott, Alaska

2006

About The Park

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is another one of Alaska’s magnificent parks. At 13.2 million acres it is the largest national park in the United States - six times the size of Yellowstone.  It is 99% backcountry wilderness accessible only to the truly motivated. It is named after the two mountain ranges that cut through the heart of the park. The Wrangell Mountains and the St. Elias Mountains. Together they hold 9 out of the 16 highest peaks in North America and 150 glaciers.  The park abuts Canada's Kluane National Park and together with Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park in British Columbia, and Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, it forms one of the largest roadless mountain areas in the world. I’ve flown over it on the way to Anchorage and beneath me was a magnificent landscape of glaciers and ice fields thousands of feet deep.

The western boundary of the park lies along the Richardson Highway. The park headquarters are just south of the intersection with the Glenn Highway. You can stop there and behind the park headquarters you can gaze out on the Alaska wilderness that is the edge of the park but you haven’t, by any means, experienced Wrangell-St. Elias.

 

Wrangell-St. Elias has all of those things that I love about a national park. It’s remote and difficult to get to which keeps away the crowds. The scenery is magnificent – snow-capped mountains, glaciers, historic sites and braided rivers.

There are two options to get to the Park. You can take a bush plane to the McCarthy airport or you can drive the infamous McCarthy Road. Being someone predisposed to back country driving, taking the 60 mile McCarthy road was right up my alley. The road is a graded road that sits on an old railroad bed. Aside from the usual hazards of graded roads - washboards, ruts and occasional rocks that roll down hillsides, there’s the remote possibility of hitting an old railroad spike which could puncture your tire.  That didn’t happen but a van driver taking me from Kennecott to McCarthy, just a few miles away, spotted one on the road bed, stopped his van and picked up the railroad spike from the road and gave it to us to examine.

The McCarthy road really is a treat. You get to see some really beautiful scenery as you cross over braided rivers with old wooden railroad trestles off to the side. It also travels over the spectacular 525 foot long Kuskulana Bridge, built in 1910, that is 238 feet above the Kuskulana River.

Since the road isn’t always in the park you do run into occasional houses along the way with bush planes in their backyard. In the wintertime that is likely to be the only way in and out assuming you’ve been able to clear your backyard runway of snow.  People who live out here hunker down and ride out the winter. Travel on unpaved roads in snow and ice can have disastrous consequences

When you reach the end of the McCarthy road you are on the banks of the Kennecott River. You have to park your car in a lot, unload what you want to take and load it onto a small wagon that you pull over the footbridge. On the other side there’s a phone box that you can call and a van will take you to the Kennecott Lodge or the town of McCarthy if you happen to be staying there.

The towns of Kennecott and McCarthy each have a charm all their own.

The town of Kennecott is dominated by a huge structure, the 14-story mill building for the Kennecott mine, which is built into the side of the mountain and into which you can take guided tours of this old copper mine. It is a National Historic Landmark. There are also some other mine-related buildings to see.  If you look carefully on the ground in the mine area you can still see some small pieces of green copper ore.

McCarthy has no paved streets and only about two dozen winter residents. It was featured in the Discovery Channel show Edge of Alaska.  It is quaint, rugged and home to people who, while maybe not off the grid, might be characterized as being on the edge of the grid.

In addition to the Edge of Alaska series about McCarthy there was a shooting in 1983 by a man attempting to disrupt the Alaska pipeline.  He murdered 6 of the 22 citizens and is serving 634 years in prison.

On the other side of the Park is another graded road into the park, the Nabesna Road, that ends at the town of Nabesna. I didn’t drive it and my understanding is that Kennecott and McCarthy have far more to offer.

Wildlife

There’s a rich variety of typical Alaskan wildlife: black and brown bears, moose, mountain goat, Dall sheep, caribou, beavers, porcupine, foxes and even transplanted bison.

Lodging

Kennecott Glacier Lodge

The Kennecott Glacier Lodge is situated at the edge of the terminal moraine of the Kennecott glacier. It is the only lodging in the park.

The lodge has forest view and glacier view rooms that face the Kennecott Glacier. There is a walkway, on the glacier side leading to all of the rooms, with chairs along it where you can sit and gaze out on the terminal moraine. That is a view that you don’t often get in a hotel.

The rooms are very nice and comfortable and, in the South Wing, sufficiently large. In the main lodge bathrooms are shared. In the South Wing you have your own bathroom. TV is not available and wireless internet is limited. Verizon cell phones will ‘most likely work’ but other providers will not.  

Dining at the Kennecott Lodge was family style. That’s a nice way to get to know other guests and sometimes find like-minded people to hike with or share other adventures that can bring down the cost of them.

Ma Johnson

Formerly a boarding house,  it is located on McCarthy’s main steet and has been modernized somewhat for the current era’s hotel guest’s expectations and includes breakfast. The rooms will have a sink but the bath is shared across the hall.   

Lancaster’s Hotel

This seems to be associated with the Ma Johnson Hotel and, from the website, seems to be located close by. The accomodations appear to be similar to the Ma Johnson.

Both of these are going to be on the more rustic side when compared to the Kennecott Lodge but you have to remember that you are in a very remote national park area where choices and amenities are limited. Temper your expectations accordingly and enjoy the charm.

Hiking

Root Glacier

We took a guided hike out onto the Root Glacier with St. Elias Alpine Guides. They supplied us with crampons and we made sure to dress warm since we’d be hiking out on a 20-mile long block of ice. Not that we were going to hike 20 miles but I believe that’s about the length of the glacier. It is about a mile-and-a-half from Kennecott to get to a point where we could get onto the glacier. At this point we put on the crampons and climbed up the side of the glacier. From there our guide showed us the sights on a glacier and also kept us out of trouble. This kind of hiking is not something that the inexperienced should attempt without a guide. Glaciers are dangerous and a fall into a crevasse, without the means and ability to climb out of the freezing cold water, assuming the fall wasn’t fatal, could lead to death in as little as 20 minutes. Our guide was carrying a rope should it have been needed. With the three miles hiked to get to and from the glacier we hiked about 5-6 miles overall.

The hike took us by blue ponds, waterfalls, crevasses and a steady flow of rivulets of water down the glacier and into these crevasses.  Our guide carried a mat that we sat on to eat our lunch out on the glacier.  They do both half-day and full day guided hikes and were not expensive.

Rafting

The next day we had a rafting trip planned with St. Elias Alpine Guides that would take us down the Nizina River. They outfitted us head to toe in rain gear because of the ice cold water. While the trip wasn’t extremely exciting in terms of rapids and fast water it made up for it in the beauty of the surroundings. With the water as cold as it was a whitewater rafting trip really wouldn’t be all that much fun. After a few hours down the river we eventually stopped on a gravel bar in the middle of the river where the rafts were broken down and everything piled up along the edge of the river. They gave us a piece of toilet paper and a stick to put in the ground to make a windsock for the plane that was going to pick us up. While we waited for the plane we walked around a bit and found black bear tracks in the mud.

Right on time we heard a plane in the distance and watched it circle around and land on the gravel bar. We loaded the rafting gear and broken down rafts and got in for the 15 minute flight back to the McCarthy airport. Along the way we could see a moose below us in the forest. The pilot wanted to swing over the glacier to give us a nice look before landing but my wife, who wasn’t very fond of small planes at that time, wasn’t interested. We landed at McCarthy and took the van back to the Kennecott lodge for dinner.

Flightseeing

St. Elias Alpine Guides

Fly-in day hikes are also available through St. Elias Alpine Guides starting at about $435 per person.  They also do just about every other kind of activity available in the area: alpine hiking, glacier hiking, ice cave hiking, ice climbing, rafting, skiing and will customize the activity that you want, or a combination of activities, based on your budget.

Wrangell Mountain Air

Wrangell Mountain Air does flight-seeing trips from 35 to 90 minutes taking you over mountains and glaciers.  This is a way to really get some idea of the extent of these magnificent rivers of ice.  

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Photo Gallery

Other Resources

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park on the National Parks Service website - NPS.gov

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park - Wikipedia

McCarthy, Alaska - Wikipedia

Other National Parks Within a Day’s Drive

Denali National Park is Alaska’s most loved park for its beauty and fantastic wildlife. It is about 360 miles and a 7-8 hour drive.

Kenai Fjords National Park at Seward, Alaska is 429 miles and about an 8 hour drive. Here the wildlife is mostly aquatic. Otters, Orcas and, if you are there at the right time, whales.

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Updated 02/11/23 7:04 PM

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