Wrangell St. Elias

Today we travelled south through Paxson, Glennallen,  and Chitina for a 60 mile dirt road journey to McCarthy, Kennecott, and Root Glazier all located in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.  This park has two major roads, one north and one south to McCarthy.  Choose the south road to McCarthy.  The majority of this road is built on an old railroad bed which was used to haul copper out of the mine at Kennecott.  Occasionally you would see an old railroad tie surfacing on the road.  On the trip, the road was in pretty good shape.  A part of the road had been paved, but between the frost heave and potholes, it was worse than the gravel road.

Rock tunnel leading out of Chitina

Leaving Chitina – As you leave Chitina headed to McCarthy, you pass through a former railroad tunnel.  The top of the tunnel was purposely collapsed so that large vehicles could pass through, but they did not widen the pass.  This grand entrance opened up to a great view of the river below.  Here were people camping in the braided stream to harvest spawning salmon as they migrate up the Copper River to spawning grounds further north.  This is a wide braided stream and one of the dangers of a braided stream is that the stream paths can change rapidly. 

We saw one motorhome at a strange angle and then realized that it had gotten trapped in the river by a change in the course of a stream. Point made, don’t park too close to a braided stream.

Kuskulana River Canyon Bridge – Built in 1910 for the Copper River and Northwestern railroad, it is a single lane wooden bridge with a 238’ drop to the river gorge below.  It will make you pucker a little when you go across.

Gilahina Trestle – This was impressive.  It is a 90’ tall, 890 feet long railroad bridge built in 1919 in just 8 days.  A large majority of the trestle is still standing and you can walk right under the bridge and look up.

Mullis still trying to catch a fish

Base Camp Central Command

Base Camp – At the end of the road, is 80 acres of private land known as basecamp.  An old fellow walked up to us and we asked him how this worked.  He said you can park anywhere for $5 or camp overnight for $20.  Our spot over looked the Kennecott River at the foot bridge leading to McCarthy.

Bridge to McCarthy

So we set up camp and headed over the foot bridge.  McCarthy reminded us of Chicken AK which we visited in 2011. Hard to get there, quite the group of unique individuals that make the trip and another even more unique individuals who live and work there.  Locals get their vehicles to the town via a $350 annual pass over a toll bridge that a local built out of semi trailer frames.  So there are few vehicles in town.  A local company has a ride service that will carry you from the bridge to Kennecot, 6 miles away for $5.  If you can carry your dog, there is no additional fee, but you are limited to two dogs.  The town consists of a hotel, two bars, a gift shop, hardware store-ice cream store combination, and some housing.  If you go around the corner, up the hill and past the raspberry bushes (yes they were delicious), there is another little jewelry store whose owner makes jewelry in the winter and sells them during the summer tourist season.

That night at the Palace Saloon/(restaurant and fine dining hall), a string band was playing bluegrass music.  Reminded us of the old Warm Springs Opera House during the 1970’s if any of you remember that place.  Kind of old time America, sitting around with a PBR, meeting new friends, rubbing the saloon dog when they came by seeking dropped food, and listening to some old time music.  I tried to record this on the phone but it didn’t turn out too good.

Palace Saloon House Dog

Bluegrass at the Palace

Next day we wake up to a 24° morning with clear skies and are off to see Kennecott and the Root Glacier.  We catch the shuttle at the foot of the bridge with 14 people, one baby, and only one dog and head up for the 30 minute, 6 mile ride to Kennecott (rough road makes slow progress).  As you can see in the pictures, the Kennecott Mine is an abandoned copper mine that operated from 1900 to 1938. The National Park Service maintains the buildings as a national historic site.  You have to walk straight through Kennecott to get to the Root Glacier Trail, which leads to access of the glacier.

Old Kennecott Copper Mine

Once on the glacier you are on your own to explore.  We had picked up miny crampons which go over your boots and has spikes to dig into the ice to keep from slipping.   It is the only way to experience this glacier walk without slipping over an edge to the deep crevasses or sinks caused by stress cracks and the power of running water.   It is hard to explain how beautiful it is out on the glacier, climbing around the ice and trying not to slip away.  We had lunch on the glacier then worked our way back to the exit point without getting lost.

Kevin strapping on his crampons

Great glacier hiker

Great glacier hiker part 2

On our way back in to Kennecott on the return trail, guess who we run into?  Our friends from Denali, Tamir and Maya.  I think we were all surprised to see each other.  They had gone on an airplane tour of the glacier that morning and were headed out for a hike.  We chatted for a while then headed into Kennecott for the ride back to McCarthy.  We found a food truck that smelled too good to miss and bought sandwiches for dinner that night. 

Three Little Pigs and Meatball Sub at Meatza Wagon Food Truck in Kennecott

When we got to the pickup point for the van there are about 20 people waiting for the ride back to McCarthy.  This meant about an hour wait.  So from lessons learned from “cowboy” in Denali ( I don’t think I talked about him yet), I stick out my thumb to hitch a ride back to McCarthy.  Kevin is thinking I am crazy, but the first car that came by stopped. About 10 minutes later an old pickup truck owned by a local, lumbers down the road and I get his attention.  It turned out to be the owner of the Jewelry store that I had mentioned before.  We threw our gear and Kevin in the back and this guy and I talked all the way to McCarthy.  Turned out that his dad was a geologist who field mapped a lot of the Yukon territory for the USGS, so we had something in common.  Kevin looked back at all the people waiting on the van and said they didn’t look too happy that we had hitched a ride.  Not our fault if they don’t have an imagination.  Back to the RV to get packed up and headed out for our next adventure on the Kenai Peninsula.   


Check out the like below to view the video of our glacier hike. 

 

Glacier HIke at Kennecott-Root Glacier