Visited: August 2021
Nearby town: Glennallen, AK
Wrangell-St. Elias is a whopper of a National Park! 😄
Wrangell-St. Elias is, by far, the largest National Park and the largest unit maintained by the NPS. At over 13,175,799 acres, Wrangell-St. Elias is larger than 9 states. The park is larger than Yosemite National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and the country of Switzerland combined! 9 of the 16 highest mountains in the nation are found within the park boundaries. The highest point in the park, Mt. St. Elias - at 18,008 ft - is the second-tallest mountain in the USA. The park also contains the largest piedmont glacier in the world (Malaspina Glacier), the longest tidewater glacier in Alaska (Hubbard Glacier), the longest valley glacier in the world (Nebesna Glacier), and the second largest non-polar icefield in North America (Bagley Icefield).
It's almost incomprehensible to grasp just how vast and wild this place is. We only saw a small slice of the park...and it was truly incredible.
Our adventure began in the small town of Glennallen. Mt. Drum (12,010 ft) lies in the extreme western edge of the park, and towers over the town.
We stayed at a cute bed & breakfast in town - the Antler's Rest. Our first day, we headed to the Visitor Center just south of town. There, we learned about the history of the area and did a short hike that leads to an overlook of the Copper River.
the Copper River runs for 290 miles in south-central Alaska
a traditional salmon trap
The next day, we headed into the interior of the park. Deep in the park, you will find the tiny town of McCarthy and the abandoned copper mine of Kennecott. In its heyday, over $200 million in ore was extracted from the mine, making it the richest concentration of copper ore in the world. About 50 people live year-round in the town of McCarthy, but the population explodes in summer thanks to the tourism industry.
One option to visit McCarthy/Kennecott is to drive the 60-mile gravel road from Chitina to McCarthy (which takes several hours), or to fly in. We opted to fly. We did a day-long guided tour through Wrangell Mountain Air. It was great. It covered the flight in-and-out, lunch, and a hike to the Root Glacier. There was also some down-time to walk through the abandoned mine and ghost town.
We drove to the Chitina Airport
the "terminal" at Chitina Airpot 😀
I had never traveled via small plane before...and I was quite nervous about it. But, it was fantastic. I wore a scopolamine patch under my ear to deal with the motion sickness. For the flight out to McCarthy, we took a 6-seater plane.
right before takeoff...yes, I was scared 😁
Seeing the Alaska landscape from this plane was just absolutely incredible. We flew along the volcanic Wrangell Mountain range, over countless glaciers, and into McCarthy. It was a little cloudy in the morning, but we still had great views.
Copper River from the air
Kennicott Glacier
Root Glaicer (later that day, we hiked on this glacier)
as we came in for a landing, we passed by this abandoned mine on top of a mountain
We then hiked through the mining town and up to Root Glacier. When we got to the glacier, we strapped on the krampons (provided to us through Wrangell Mountain Air). It was incredible to walk on a glacier.
All-in-all, it was about a 6 mile hike. We first walked through Kennecott. Almost all the buildings in town are painted with a distinct red color. You'll have time at the end of your guided-tour to explore more of the town before the flight back, but for now, we must bee-line to the glacier.
Kennicott Glacier lies right next to town. The glacier is 27 miles long, and picks up a lot of rocks and soil as it moves along (making it look like a big pile of dirt, but underneath this thin layer of dirt is the ice)
Mt. Blackburn (16,390 ft) poking out through the clouds.
as we head out of town, the trail goes through the forest along the mountainside. It's a pleasant hike.
If you have more time, you can hike up the mountains to explore some abandoned mines
the toe of Root Glacier (the brilliant white glacier) as it collides into the Kennicott Glacier
Tara with her krampons on. These help you hike on the glacier safely.
a deep crevice in the glacier, known as a "moulin"
A moulin can be hundreds of meters deep. At the bottom of these crevasses, water runs underneath the glacier, like a river.
in the background is the Stairway Icefall (a 7,000-ft nearly vertical wall of ice). This is the largest icefall in the world outside of the Himalayas. At the bottom of the icefall, the Root Glacier forms.
inside the Kennecott mine buildings
For our flight back to Chitina, we took an even smaller plane. A four-seater, but, there was only three of us on the flight back (me, Tara, and the pilot). Thank goodness there was only 3 of us, because it would have been a tight fit with me in the back. 😂
The clouds broke in the late afternoon, and we had an incredible flight back to Chitina.
this was our trustworthy steed for the flight back.
We drove to the small town of Chitina (pop. 100) and took the short hike to Liberty Falls.
The day-trip with Wrangell Mountain Air was one of our most adventure-filled days in our National Parks. We had such an incredible time in this incredible park! For more info:
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