Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Floating on a raft down one of the many rivers in Wrangell-St. Elias, visitors will see Dall sheep on the tundra and mountain goats on the rocky crags of mountain slopes. But there are so many huge glaciers in this park that there is not very much habitable terrain. The park's largest glacier, Malaspina, is so big that Rhode Island could fit on it.

This rugged region has been called the Himalayas of North America. In fact, the park's terrain may actually be wilder than the great Asian mountains. There are still valleys in these mighty Alaskan mountains where people probably have never set foot, and countless peaks remain unnamed and unscaled. The park is so vast that it contains more unexplored terrain than the Himalayas, largely as a result of the short summers and long winters that come with its proximity to the Arctic.

The size of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is overwhelming: The biggest national park by far, it is larger than Switzerland and six times the size of Yellowstone. But it is not inaccessible. Two roads lead into the heart of the park. The road from the Chitina River Valley goes to two tiny towns that are remnants of the gold and copper mining frenzy at the turn of the century. Today, these communities are staging areas for hiking, rafting, climbing, and kayaking adventures in the park.

Wrangell-St. Elias is also a place to come and listen to the loon sing hauntingly out on the lake or taste the sweetness of the berry that is the essence of the Alaska outback -- the mountain blueberry.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Photo Opportunities

Wrangell-St. Elias is sure to provide sights you've never seen before. Here are some that you'll want to capture with your camera:

So how did such an awesome park come to be? Check out the next section for a brief history lesson on Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, conjoined with the adjacent Kluane National Park in Canada's Yukon Territory, together protect 19 million acres. What was once the exclusive domain of prospectors, trappers, and big-game hunters is now a designated World Heritage Site.

Because of its volcanic past, Wrangell-St. Elias is a landscape rich in valuable minerals, including gold, silver, and copper. In the early part of the century, the Kennicott Mining Company operated a highly productive copper mine near McCarthy, an area that is, ironically, now one of the chief attractions of the park. One of Wrangell-St. Elias's two good unpaved roads leads visitors back in time to the Alaska gold rush days at the turn of the century.

From the ranger station at Chitina on the east side of the park, the road follows the abandoned Copper River and Northwest Railroad for 60 miles to its end. There, a hand-pulled cable tram takes you across the Kennicott River to the tiny community of McCarthy. Now almost deserted, it was once a town of 3,000 miners, hustlers, and card sharks.

From the McCarthy side of the river, where you can rent a bicycle or hire a taxi, another dirt road leads to the ghost town of Kennicott, the site of a 14-story mill that was abandoned in 1938. The mill and other deserted buildings here are covered with ferrous-oxide red paint and trimmed in white. They are among Alaska's finest and most photogenic samples of turn-of-the-century structures. The copper mine at Kennicott, now on the National Register of Historic Places, was once the world's richest.

From visiting these historic mining towns to flying over the massive glaciers and mountain peaks, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park has an incredible amount to see and do for the entire family.

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