Jun 29, 2012 - glacier hike

Earlier on this trip we took a mechanized tour of a glacier in Jasper National Park. That was fun, but to have the chance to hike on a glacier on a bright sunny day was amazing. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park has the largest collection of glaciers in North America. The size of it all is impossible to convey with words or with photographs. Let's just say the word "wow" is used with every breath you take. Six of us took a guided hike to the glacier which started with a two mile hike along side the bottom of the glacier, which looks like a...

Jun 28, 2012 - rafting adventure

We’ve gone on many great rafting trips over the years, but the one here at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park was like none other. Things at the end of the road are never easy. There are plenty of rivers to raft on and people happy to guide you, but when the rafting trip is over, there you are in the middle of nowhere. There are no roads, there is no bus with a trailer to put the raft on, - it’s just you and lots of trees and mosquitoes. So, to raft here you have to arrange for a plane to come get you and all the equipment. And that’s just...

Jun 27, 2012 - at the end of the road

Ironically for such a wild land, this area’s main attraction for visitors is its history. The richest copper deposit in the world was found here in 1900 by a group of prospectors who mistook a green mountaintop for a patch of green grass where they could feed their horses. It was a mountain of almost pure copper, with metallic nuggets the size of desks. The deposit produced trainloads of a 70% pure copper. The first ore was so rich it required almost no processing before shipping, then came lots more copper that did need minimal processing....

Jun 24, 2010 - McCarthy - Ice Climbing & Mill Tour

If you haven't ever tried it, and want to experience the thrill of ice climbing in Alaska, this is the place to do so. We awoke early to hike the stunning beauty of the Wrangell St. Elias National Park, in particular the Root Glacier which offers the perfect venue. Today we were going to go adventuring - ice climbing! (Insert a subtle YAY here). The adventure began at the historic copper mining town of Kennecott with breathtaking views of 16,390’ Mt. Blackburn and the Kennicott Glacier. This was our view as our guide fit us for a harness,...

Jun 20, 2010 - McCarthy Kennicott AK

We had to meet the guides at 8:30 for the glacier hikes. We were fitted with crampons and we were on our way by 9:15. Adam, Graig and I were on an all day glacier hike. Zack and Alyssa did a half day hike with a different guide. It was a 2 mile hike to the glacier. At first all we saw was dirt. That was the glacier. We walked up and down and all around. We saw plenty of cool things. We saw a glacier half pipe and tried to walk thru it but we ran into wall or stream. We walked for about 10 miles on the glacier. When we first put those things...

Jun 19, 2010 - Shhh..We driving to McCarthy-Kennicott

We were up by 6:30. We ate breakfast like all campers –eggs, sausage, and potatoes. Yummy! We were on the road by 8:30. There are fishermen everywhere. They use fishing wheels to catch the salmon. Adam and Graig hiked a ravine to get close to an old trestle bridge and glacier water. We did not see any animals but we found the old RR trestle. It was built for the copper mine. It was really cool. The road was not bad at all. We were able to drive 30 mph most of the way. If a car came from the other direction, you just had to pull over and let...

Aug 4, 2008 - Bone Jarring Drive to McCarthy

Up early so we could get to the Park Service office and meet with Geoff Bleakley, the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park historian concerning Barb’s great uncle Jack. Geoff was very nice and immediately went thru several files and pulled out more pictures of Jack. He made nice 8 x 10 copies of a couple photos Barb didn’t have. It was interesting that he knew about John Letendre and said it was because he appeared in quite a few photos. Even though this is fairly recent history he only knows a few names of all the faces that appear in the...

Jul 8, 2008 - Copper River and Kennicott Mine

We added one more day of fishing to our Valdez visit. We got to our spot early and staked it out. Two other couples that we had seen fishing the day before also staked out spots close to us. One of the girls grew up in Hope. The other girl was fishing with a kid's Barbie fishing pole and she caught just as many fish as anyone else. It was really fun to see her bring a fish in on that little pink pole. She told me she can't cast the longer poles and it apparently worked well for her. We caught our limit (12) then headed toward the Copper...

Jul 7, 2008 - Chitina to McCarthy 60 miles and low clouds

Our day began with a surprise visit of a cow moose walking thru the camping area. With a tentative noon fly over Wrangell-St. Elias mountain range we headed out on our 60 mile trip to McCarthy (2 hr. drive) The weather didn't improve as we made the drive & the fly over didn't materialize because of low clouds. Disappointed we took a 2 hr. walk thru of the former Kennicott copper mine. Over 200 million dollars worth of ore was hauled from the Kennecott mill 196 miles to the port of Cordova. The road today is on the railroad bed that operated...

Jul 3, 2008 - To McCarthy AK

Today we made the worst decision of our trip (so far). Our intention was to drive south to the town of Valdez. But when we stopped at the Visitor’s Center in Glennallen, we met an off-duty National Parks ranger named Brianna, who works in the Wrangell-St. Elias NP, the nation’s largest. We asked her about ways to experience the park, which (though huge) has very limited points of access. She encouraged us to drive down the 60-mile gravel road to McCarthy and Kennicott, former copper-mining towns on the western side of the park. We had read...

Aug 28, 2007 - Wrangell-St. Elias NP and Preserve

Wrangler-St. Elias National Park and Preserves-13.2 million acres of [park. K'elt'aeni- is an Athabaskan word for the Wranglerl Vola Steaming Mt. Wrangell, an active volcano, and nine of the 16 highest peaks in the U.S. form the backdrop for the vigorous story of plate tectonics and volcanism still unfolding here. More than just a National Park, Wrangell-ST.Elias, along with Glacier Bay, Kluane National Park, and Tatshenshinitage Site, make up a 24 million World Heritage Site, one of the largest protected areas on earth.K'elt'aeni-an...

Jun 26, 2007 - Welcome to McCarthy

We still had quite a ways to drive today and after a quick grocery stop near Glenallen, we were on our way. There aren't really any stores to speak of in McCarthy and only a few restaurants. But fortunately, we were able to bring in our own food and use the kitchen at the lodge, so that should save some money, plus I don't like eating out for three days straight. Marvie isn't able to go all the way with us. We had to head straight into the Wrangell Mountains on a questionable paved road to Chitina 30 miles from the main road. There we were...