3 July 2018. Wrangell St Elias. The largest National Park in the United States.
Headed out of Tok this morning along highway 1. Weather was “Bluebird Sky” (what we call it while snowmobiling). Drove along the western edge of the Wrangell St Elias National Park. Was absolutely stunned as Mount Sanford (16,000 ft) rose in the distance. It was soon joined by Mount Drum (12,000 ft). Why Mount Drum is the jagged one and the other two have smooth tops, I don’t know. You would have thought a “drum” would have a smooth top? Must be someone’s name? Mount Wrangell (14,000 ft) was hidden behind Mount Sanford for quite a while, but it showed itself between the other two eventually. Saw just a little wildlife, a trumpeter swan, eagles. Lots of bouncy roads, with dips sneaking up on us interspersed with relatively nice stretches.
We stopped in the Wrangell St Elias visitor center and made sure the McCarthy Highway was passable. They gave us the OK, so we headed toward Mount Blackburn (16,000 ft) and the Kennicott glacier and mining town.
This first 33 miles of the road were paved, it only took us an hour for that part. Then the next 60 miles were mostly not paved (some chip seal and gravel early – then dirt) This part of the road was built over the old railroad grade. It took about three and a half hours, but it was quite stunning. The Visitor Center people even gave us a CD to listen to while we drove. It described the history of the road and several of the areas along it.
We camped for the night at Base Camp – Root Glacier. The guy had an 80 acre field with five Outhouses and you could camp wherever you wanted in them. We ended up in a field of strange weeds – see picture
We did a short hike to the town of McCarthy – you can only walk there – and need to take a footbridge across the roaring glacier flow, headwaters of the Chitina River. But locals have a “special” bridge downstream that they pay for the right to cross. There were plenty of vehicles and ATVs on the edges of McCarthy. McCarthy was historically the “more colorful” town of this mining area, featuring dance halls, bars, and women of the evening. From the far side of the footbridge you can take a shuttle the five miles to the Kennicott mine.