I don’t know how else to set the scene for our visit to Wrangell St. Elias National Park/McCarthy, Alaska except to start with some facts about this mind-blowing national park. Wrangell St. Elias is the largest national park in the United States. It is also one of the least visited national parks in the country. Covering 13.2 million acres, this park is 6 times the size of Yellowstone. 9/16 of North America’s tallest peaks sit inside it’s borders. This means it’s bigger than Switzerland and has taller mountains. It’s landscape includes one of the most active volcanos in North America as well as many glaciers including the world’s largest, Bering Glacier, which is 100 miles long. There are only two roads that lead into the interior of the park, both of which are very rural, meaning gravel, are one way, and have no services (minus the occasional outhouse). Nebesna Road is only about 40 miles and McCarthy Road ends it’s 60 mile length at McCarthy, Alaska. This is the road we took. Greeted with a sign that was anything but welcoming, we slowly made our way as deep into Wrangell St. Elias National Park one can get by car. The gravel road was rough with all the pot holes and our confidence wasn’t boosted when passing spots just waiting for some heavy rains to wash it out. About a 1/3 of the way in, we came to the Kuskulana bridge, and my husband was ready to turn around and go home, haha. This one way bridge sits about 240 feet above a sheer sided ravine and is 525 ft long. Built in 1910, it was originally a train trestle that has since been reinforced with steel - guard rails being added in 1988. I climbed in the driver’s seat while my husband sat in the back with his eyes on the ground as we passed safely over this scenic spot on our journey. Adding to the stunning scenes of our drive was the historic train trestle. The whole train track from Cordova to Kennecott, Alaska was built for the sole purpose of transporting copper out of Kennecott. As the mine operated year round, so did the train, where workers had to overcome obstacles such as -60 degree Fahrenheit weather, heavy snow, and avalanches. Sometimes the train would become derailed and it was more cost effective to just add more track to get it back on course instead of trying to lift it back onto the existing track. Another interesting fact we came across was the purpose of these platforms along some of the trestle. Workers would stand on these platforms and pour water on the support beams to stop fires from catching as the train chugged along above them on the track. McCarthy, Alaska was built up as a town about 5 miles down from Kennecott Copper Mine. McCarthy was the rough and tumble town that offered miners “services” that weren’t allowed in the Kennecott mining town. Still a very rural town, with only 20 year round residents, visitors aren’t allowed to drive cars into McCarthy. There’s a large parking lot at the end of the road where visitors park and walk across a footbridge over the river, and if you catch it in time, a shuttle will drive you up the mile walk into downtown McCarthy. Along this path, you can see the old hand trams that used to by the only way to cross the river. You’ll also be able to see gorgeous views of the Chugach Mountain Range to the South and the other view I couldn’t get over was the view of 4 glaciers converging into one giant ice wall to the north. A stunning view that we’ll revisit later in our trip. We caught the shuttle just in time when we first were entering McCarthy. It was a short drive to downtown and then we caught a free shuttle up to Kennecott. Once up at the old mining town, we got to explore some of the old buildings while we waited to check in for our tour. You can roam the old post office and commissary, some of the old cabins, and even the community hall where they held dances, church services, showed movies, and other entertainment. St. Elias Alpine Guides is the only tour company with exclusive access to Kennecott Copper Mill. We started by up the short path to the 14th floor of the abandoned copper mill and my husband started questioning my trip planning judgment for a second time :) Not only were we high over the valley, we had to sign a waiver and don some hardhats before entering the seemingly dilapidated building. In fact, at the end of our tour, our guide stated that there used to be more buildings included in the tour but they had recently collapsed. Nonetheless, the tour was extremely interesting as we walked through the processes used to break down copper that was coming in from the mine above. As we went down through each floor, a new step in the process was explained and stories shared of the miners experiences. When the mine was abandoned in 1938, the head honchos wanted to work until the very last second. They announced the last train was departing from town only 2 hours ahead of time, giving residents no time to gather items. Everything was abandoned and it was definitely noticeable when we got to the bottom floors and saw shoes and gloves and tools just left to deteriorate. At it’s height, Kennecott Copper Mill produced 25% of the world’s copper and it is still considered the richest area of copper in the world. It was such a cool place to explore and you can even stay in the hotel in town! You would schlep your luggage over the footbridge and get picked up from the Kennecott Lodge Shuttle to take you into town. Given more time, and maybe without our little littles in tow, it would be so interesting to also have gone to the Kennecott cemetery, where it is said to have listed causes of death - some being a little gruesome - on the headstones. After our tour, we caught a shuttle back into McCarthy and grabbed dinner at the Roadside Potato. We have been to it’s sister restaurant on our trips to Valdez and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to eat there again. We got some ice cream at the local commissary and made our way back to our campsite. Though we missed the last shuttle out, it wasn’t a bad walk back over the footbridge. The next morning, we walked back up to the footbridge, but instead of going across, we made our way to the edge towards the glacier lake. Those glacier views never get old and we had a great time just taking in the views and playing at the edge of the lake. We visited Memorial Day weekend and the lake seemed to be frozen over, but upon further inspection we had stumbled upon some candle ice! Candle ice is another name of rotten ice that is breaking down during spring melt into perpendicular geometric pillars that is so fascinating to play with. The best way to see it in action is to check out our Instagram Reel. But to describe in words, I will say that it’s very unstable and we were easily able to push through it. I wished I had had my kayak to skim across the top of it. It made a wind-chime sound as we scooped it up and pushed it around. It was very clear glacier lake ice as the water on top had frozen with the sediment falling to the bottom. We all thought it was so cool! We had planned to stay three nights at our campground near McCarthy but to ease my husband’s mind about the drive back, we ended up leaving after two nights. It just felt better to get the McCarthy Road under our belt and then to finish our drive back to Fairbanks the next day. The drive was about 7 1/2 hours in total. Our weekend was honestly incredible, learning about the history of the area. Would I recommend everyone visits McCarthy? Not necessarily. While I really enjoyed the trip, you have to have a pretty big sense of adventure to make the trek. Another way - an easier way - to visit Wrangell St. Elias National Park is to just stop at the visitor’s center near Glennallen. The visitor’s center sits at the edge of the park with gorgeous views, interesting facts, and a little 20 minute video that goes into impressive detail about the park. There are trails and viewpoints around the visitors center to get a little more perspective of this impressive section of Alaska. If you want even more of an adventure than we took, another way to explore the park is by bush plane. There is an air service out of McCarthy and many public cabins around the park with their own runway so visitors can fly out and enjoy the vast wilderness away from civilization. Or staying closer to town, there are river rafting tours and glacier hiking tours of differing lengths and skill levels. Is Wrangell St. Elias National Park on your bucket list? We’d love to know if you’d add anything or if you have any questions! If you’re interested in a one-on-one chat to help plan a custom trip to Alaska, check out our options here! Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live!
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AuthorWe're just a military family enjoying where we live, one PCS at a time. Follow us as we explore our current home, South Carolina, and beyond. The world is our backyard. Archives
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