Wrangell—St. Elias National Park—Alaska

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is a buffet for the senses! If you are adventurous, enjoy hiking, and don't mind roughing it—at least in some form—then, this trip is for you. It's especially nice if you'd like to see a national park that hasn't yet been commercialized or exploited. In our opinion, the best thing to do is to stop at the visitor's center first and get some maps. It's located at milepost 106.5 on the Richardson Highway. Then, after getting your maps, drive out towards the village of McCarthy. For lodging, either stay in rustic cabin, camp in the backcountry, or stay at one of the lodges either in McCarthy or the Kennecott Glacier Lodge in the old ghost town of Kennecott. Then, take a hike out to Root Glacier. Other ideas: flight-seeing, glacier hiking, fly-in hiking trips.

Quick Tips:

This area is a little tough to find much information about because it is so isolated—coupons/discounts are tough to find. Expect to pay a premium for lodging unless you plan to camp in the backcountry. We found "The Milepost" Guide absolutely indispensable for helping us to choose a place to stay. Also, visit www.nps.gov/wrst for more information. For local hiking and backcountry guides, check out St. Elias Alpine Guides at www.steliasguides.com.

Best Way To Get Around:

Transportation is an issue in Wrangell-St. Elias, particularly if you plan on going to McCarthy and/or Kennecott. If you are driving a rental car, most companies won't let you take it to McCarthy. Companies in Copper Center and Glenallen, AK, do offer a van shuttle there, however. The McCarthy Road consists of 50 miles of rough gravel. A word to the wise—fill up with gas before starting the McCarthy Road. There is a gas station in Chitina (limited hours of service), however, your best bet (if you're running low) on the way to McCarthy is in Kenny Lake, AK. To visit McCarthy and Kennecott, you'll have to drive to the end of the road. From there, walk over the footbridge about 1/2 a mile to McCarthy. From there, you can either walk or take a shuttle the 4.5 miles to Kennecott.

Driving along the McCarthy Road is in and of itself quite an adventure! You can expect to spend about 3 hours driving the length of the McCarthy Road. Along the way, you will see only a few signs of civilization. However, towards the end, you start seeing a few options for lodging—some of these include bed and breakfasts as well as cabins. We stayed in the Currant Ridge Cabins, and were very impressed. Our hosts were Andy and Cynthia Shidner. Cynthia is a local teacher in the area, and we found them to be very informative regarding the local area.

Their cabins are brand new, include a full kitchen (stocked with all the latest accessories), a bathroom/shower (a luxury for this isolated part of the country), and a wonderful view! The only downside are the mosquitoes. Even in a nice cabin, they are a nuisance. It wouldn't be a bad idea to bring mosquito netting as well as a lot of bug repellent. Also keep in mind that because the cabins are on the Shidner's homesite, you aren't completely secluded. While we were there, we had several people (other than cabin guests and the Shidner family) who were walking around the road in front of our cabin—even including what appeared to be a tour group.

The town or "village" of McCarthy is REALLY small, year round they have only 100 or so residents. Amazingly, they do have about three places to eat. Prior to hiking up to Kennecott, we visited the McCarthy Merchantile. You can have a sack lunch made there for $10; which includes a really good sandwich, made on homemade bread, a big homemade cookie, water or soda of your choice, chips, and fruit. We decided this was the way to go—you got one whale of a good lunch, and you don't have to bother trying to pack one while you're out camping. Some other recommended (to us) places to eat in McCarthy and Kennecott include "The Potato" and the Kennecott Glacier Lodge.

Kennicott, AK, is basically an old copper mining town. The way I understand it, when the Park Service took it over, they decided to keep it and to maintain it so that it would continue to look like the ghost town that you see it as today. The Kennicott mine operated from 1911 until 1938. At that time, the copper was depleted from the nearby mountains and the mine was closed. Kennicott is also interesting, in the sense that the Park Service only owns part of the buildings. That's right—some of the buildings are privately owned, and some people still live in some of the miner shacks. Each day, the National Park Service conducts a free tour of the town at 3:45pm. It's a good tour—it gives you an overall idea of what life there was like. If you want to actually go inside the mines or into the copper mill, however, you'll need to buy a ticket for one of the tours given by the St. Elias Alpine Tours. The town of Kennicott is really small, and as you enter it, you'll see both the park service information booth (at the old depot) and the St. Elias Guides office. If you want to go on an independent hike to Root Glacier or up to one of the mines, the rangers are very helpful and will give you a map.

Hiking to Root Glacier is a pretty easy hike. There are a couple places where you can lose the trail, as it goes through some silty glacial areas and then over some rough rocks. In some of these areas, it can be a little tricky to keep your footing. The views, however, are just spectacular. It takes you from the Kennicott townsite, along the lateral moraine of the Kennicott and Root Glaciers, up towards the top of the glacier. If a person were to just go to the toe of the glacier, I think it would make for a good mountain bike ride (for an experienced biker).

When you visit McCarthy, AK, it's like stepping back into time. As I mentioned in one of my other posts for this journal, when you start doing research for this area and figure out how you're going to get there, it's a little tough to figure out what you'll do once you're actually there. The trick is to first get to the end of the McCarthy Road. It's a rough one, and you want to drive it slowly and carefully because it's been built along an old railroad track. Because of that, you'll see spikes and pieces of old track along side the road. While we didn't experience any flat tires, we understand that it's a fairly common occurrence. Once you do get to the end of the road, you'll need to park your car. There are several parking lots along the way—they are privately owned, and some do charge anywhere from $5 to 10 to park there. You'll see a footbridge at the end of the road. You'll need to walk over this bridge and about a ½ mile into the village of McCarthy.

After you cross the bridge, you'll see signs by the creek alongside the road. These bridges warn you not to throw anything into or swim in the water as it's the McCarthy residents' drinking water supply. While we were sitting there, a truck pulled up with a water tank and filled up.

McCarthy, is in and of itself, a charming place. It grew up alongside the mining town of Kennecott, which is just up the road and which is one of the biggest attractions in the area. The story goes that the mining company was very strict on the employees who worked for Kennecott. As a result, if they wanted to drink or carouse with loose women, they'd have to travel down to McCarthy. Today, McCarthy is home to about 100 or so residents and a few places of business.

If flight-seeing is your thing, check out Wrangell Mountain Air or some of the air flight-seeing services you'll see in McCarthy. A charming little hotel, Ma Johnson's, is also located there in McCarthy, along with the McCarthy Lodge. There are a few eating establishments in town, including "The Potato" which specializes in homemade curly french fries with various toppings. In addition, the McCarthy Merchantile makes a great sack lunch for $10 if you need a lunch for hiking. If hiking is your thing and you feel like glacier hiking or touring some of the old mines, the St. Elias Alpine Guides, the concessionaires of the park, are very helpful. (The only way you can go into the mines is on a tour with the St. Elias guides.) Their office is right inside the town of Kennecott, towards the glacier.

McCarthy also has a very informative little museum in its old railroad depot that tells its history. After seeing the town, if you decide to go to Kennecott, you'll either need to walk the 4.5 miles to the old city, or else take a shuttle van. We took a shuttle van provided by Wrangell Air, and it was $10 round trip per person. McCarthy is a very dog-friendly community, and several people on our shuttle had their dogs with them.

McCarthy has a small mercantile; however, as you can imagine, in a place this isolated things are expensive and choices are slim. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to pack your own groceries as well as outdoor equipment with you.