Wrangell-St. Elias National Park: a hidden gem in the wilds of Alaska

The sign read, “Travel Beyond This Point Not Recommended.” It gave my husband and I pause, but as we had already decided to drive the sixty-mile McCarthy Road leading to Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, we forged onward. We had heard stories about this infamous road and its difficult conditions, but we felt ready and up for an adventure.

Getting to McCarthy and Kennicott, the tiny gateway towns into the park, is all part of the experience. There are two ways: by air or by road. Daily scheduled flights and air taxi service are available from airstrips in Glennallen and Chitina. The flights offer spectacular scenery, and a good option for visitors short on time and willing to spend the money, or who are deterred by McCarthy Rd.’s reputation. Plus, renting a car from a company that permits its vehicles to be driven on the road can be challenging.

McCarthy Rd. is one of two roads that lead to this national park. It’s the route the majority of visitors, if they’re driving, opt to use because they can get to the heart of the park and to available services. The other is the little maintained 42-mile Nabesna Road, which takes you into the northern, more remote area.

Spanning a whopping 13.2 million acres, Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest national park in the U.S. Picture Yellowstone, Yosemite and Switzerland combined, with plenty of room to spare, and you have an idea of the size. It’s an alpine paradise where the Wrangell, Chugach and St. Elias Mountain Ranges merge to create a wild, alpine wonderland that includes nine of the sixteen highest peaks in the country. Mount St. Elias actually has the distinction of being  the second-highest peak in America and Mount Wrangell is an active volcano. It’s a veritable mecca for adventurers and nature lovers and boasts lush forests, sprawling glaciers and towering mountains, with dynamic rivers snaking throughout the landscape.

We were able to find one of the few car rental companies in Anchorage that allow their vehicles to be driven on McCarthy Rd. and were given a hefty SUV. To get an idea of distances, it’s about a five hour drive from Anchorage to Chitina, where the road begins. Then it’s another two hours to the terminus, so, you’ll be looking at a minimum of a seven-hour journey.

There are no services and no cell service on McCarthy Rd. If you get into any kind of car trouble, you’ll have to depend on yourself or the kindness of other drivers for assistance. Large RVs are not recommended and it’s a good idea to bring a spare tire. 

We had anticipated the road would be bad after reading some of the comments from other travelers. Plus, it didn’t help that the ranger we spoke with at the visitor center warned us about it. The park’s visitor center is actually about two hours away from McCarthy, near Copper Center. It’s worth a stop, as there’s a theater showing informative films about the region, and some interesting exhibits inside and out.

For us, McCarthy Rd. didn’t live up to the hype. Yes, it’s bumpy and littered with ruts and potholes in places and you have to pay attention to avoid them, plus there are narrow curves to navigate, but twenty miles of it is paved. And if you have a decent vehicle and take your time, you should have no issues. Just know your efforts will be rewarded with dramatic views of a river valley flanked by mountains, access to hiking trails, an historic railroad bridge above a picturesque gorge and remnants of past mining. 

Once you reach the end of the road, you’ll need to park your car, cross the pedestrian bridge and either walk or take a shuttle to where you’re going – McCarthy or Kennicott (Kennicott is also often spelled Kennecott). For reference, the two towns sit five miles apart and both offer visitors a taste of Alaska’s historic copper mining era and endless recreational opportunities.

Many people camp or stay at one of the lodging options in McCarthy. Or like us, they stay in Kennicott at the family-owned Kennicott Glacier Lodge. This property has all the creature comforts you need, including a full service restaurant, friendly staff and a great location with incredible views of the Chugach and Wrangell Mountains and the Kennicott Glacier. 

The Kennicott Glacier is a “badland” of ice that at first glance doesn’t appear like other glaciers you may have seen or envisioned. Rather than clean white and blue ice, it’s a rough, rocky, dirty brown moonscape. It’s not mine tailings, as I initially thought, but rather a layer of silt, sand, gravel and rock atop a mass of ice hundreds of feet thick. The debris on top is known as glacial till. It comes from further up the valley by smaller glaciers flowing down the mountains, merging to form the Kennicott Glacier. As the glacier melts, the debris accumulates on the ice.

Back to the lodge…The Kennicott Glacier Lodge is the only lodge in town and most of the activities in the area begin right across the street. Plus, its employees will pick you up at the bridge and drive you and your luggage the five plus miles up to the property.

The main lodge is a replica of the historical mining buildings from the copper mining boom town days. Its 23 rooms are smaller than typical hotel rooms and don’t have bathrooms in them. But there are numerous bathrooms and shower facilities located throughout the lodge. They are “private use” but shared with other guests staying there.

There is also the south wing, a separate building about seventy yards from the main lodge. It has twenty rooms, each with a private bathroom. The rooms are spacious with mesmerizing views.

Meals are extra and have a set price, depending on whether you want all three meals or breakfast only. We opted for all three, as the only other option in town is a food truck with erratic hours. Plus, with the package, they’ll give you a pack lunch when you’re hiking. And the food is delicious! 

Kennicott is a dream for photographers, with its white-trimmed, barn-red buildings that stand out against a dramatic backdrop of mountains and glaciers. It’s also a delight for history bugs.  Stepping into the town is like stepping back in time, as this place has the distinction of being the best-preserved example of early 20th-century copper mining technology in the country, located within a national park.

The Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark is a main attraction for visitors. It encompasses the Mill Town, including the ginormous Mill, where copper ore was processed, and seventy some buildings, such as the bunkhouses, train depot, general store, workers’ cottages, power plant, post office, etc., as well as the mines located in the mountains above the Mill.

Though you can stroll around the area on your own, and peek into some of the buildings that have historical exhibits, a guided tour enriches the experience, with the additional bonus of being able to go inside the famed Mill.

St. Elias Alpine Guides was granted special permission as the only concessionaire with the NPS to take travelers not only around this fascinating ghost town, but also inside the Mill. 

On a tour, you’ll learn that the story begins back in 1900 with the discovery of Bonanza Mine in the jagged mountains above Root Glacier. A pair of prospectors looked up on the ridge and saw what appeared to be green pastures, “a mountainside stained with the emerald hues of copper ore.” Developing this rich ore, however, required enormous effort, ingenuity and money. Financial backers, including the Havemeyer, Guggenheim and J.P. Morgan families, stepped in and formed the Alaska Syndicate, which soon gained a monopoly over the area’s mining operation.

When the Syndicate became profitable, it reorganized as the Kennecott Copper Corp., which still operates other mines around the world today. The Corporation supplied copper for numerous industries across the globe. And under mining engineer Stephen Birch as manager, the operation grew. As mining increased, so did camp needs. At its peak, there were more than 100 buildings and 600 employees, many of them immigrants who worked seven days a week while living in crowded bunkhouses.  

Gambling and drinking were not allowed in the company town, so the workers would head to nearby McCarthy to enjoy “wine, women and song” in its saloons, restaurants, hotels, pool halls, stores and “red light district.” 

By 1938, the supply of ore was limited and prices were dropping. Kennecott closed that year after producing 200-300 million dollars’ worth of copper and silver. The camp was suddenly abandoned and became a ghost town. Flash forward to 1980 when Wrangell-St. Elias became a National Park and Preserve, followed later by the establishment of the Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark in 1998. 

To get into the Mill, you’ll first hike uphill to reach the top of this 14-floor behemoth. This is where you’ll get the best views of town, by the way. Then you’ll don a hard hat and start the journey. Inside is a maze of chutes, ladders, steep stairs and mysterious machinery. You’ll descend floor-by-floor, stopping at each to check out the equipment and hear more about the Mill’s operations. The old machines are still intact and the technology used back then is mind-blowing.

Another popular activity for visitors is to hike to the Root Glacier, one of the most accessible glaciers in Alaska. We knew we not only wanted to see Root Glacier, but to walk on it. Though you can do this yourself, it’s optimal to join a half-day guided tour, where you’ll cover a total of about five miles over the course of five to six hours. For this tour, we went with Kennicott Wilderness Guides. Both this company and St. Elias Alpine Guides are highly-rated and offer various experiences within Wrangell-St. Elias NP.

The trail, which starts past the Mill, takes you through a forested area and crosses two creeks with small footbridges. You’ll then get to an overlook, where you can see the end of the glacier and Donoho Peak, known for its alligator-like face. The route then heads up the lateral moraine for a spectacular panorama of this sparkling white sheet. 

When we reached the edge of the glacier, we donned crampons (a crampon is a traction device attached to the base of your boot to aid travel in winter and icy conditions) and began our exhilarating trek.

If you’ve never walked in crampons, it takes a bit of practice, as it’s different from walking in hiking boots. The key is to first ensure they’re properly fastened to your boot. When you start to move, keep your feet slightly wider apart to avoid catching the sharp crampon points on your pants, which can damage them and most importantly, cause you to trip. Also, lift your feet a little more when you step.

Our guide gave us a safety briefing, made sure that everyone in our group put on their crampons correctly and then demonstrated how to safely walk in them. Once I trusted the crampons, I found it easy to walk on the ice.

As we trekked, we took in the sublime scenery. The glacier dazzled and the mountains stood like stalwart sentinels in the background. We passed by crevasses, small canyons of ice and beautiful blue pools, and also got a good perspective of the Stairway Icefall, the second largest in the world. As there are no set trails on the glacier, you can really go anywhere. 

Throughout the tour, our guide served as a primer on all things glaciers. She told us that the Root Glacier is about two million years old and 300-500 feet thick. Though it is receding, like many glaciers, its lateral extent has not retreated as much as the amount of its shrinkage in height. The glacier is devoid of life except for a few lichen-covered rocks called glacier moss balls. 

There’s a number of other longer hikes to take in the park, as well as multi-day backpacking trips. And you can also do scenic flight tours, pack rafting, ice climbing and more to immerse yourself in this pristine wilderness.

nps.gov/wrst   

kennicottlodge.com

steliasguides.com

kennicottguides.com