Alaska (2) - Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

From Valdez, our next stop was Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. At over 13 million acres, Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest unit in the National Park System, more than twice of the size of Denali National Park, six times the size of Yellowstone National Park. Yet there are only 40,000 (?) people visit the park every year. Largely because of the road conditions. There are only two roads to access the park: the 42 miles Nabesna Road, and the 60 miles McCarthy Road. Both are unpaved.

McCarthy Road is probably the worst of the three unpaved roads (McCarthy Road, Nabesna Road, and the Dalton Highway) we drove on this trip. There were many places we could only drive 10 mph. It took ~2.5 hours to reach the end of the road - Kennicott River Footbridge. After crossing the footbridge, you can either walk 3/4 mile to McCarthy, and another 4.5 miles uphill to Kennecott, or take a shuttle bus.

A stroll down McCarthy's main street gave me a strange feeling. Even though there were several business open (one museum, one hotel, one hostel, one saloon, one gift shop, several air/bus/guide services), we saw very few people on the street. It was so quiet.

1. Ma Johnson Hotel at Downtown McCarthy.


2. Old truck and unrestored building at Downtown McCarthy.

Kennicott was slightly more busy, with people working on some of the buildings, either to prevent them from collapsing, or to remodel them for modern use. The work is expected to take many years.

In order to explore the inside of the Kennecott Mill, we took a tour. The tour lasted ~2.5 hours. There were 14 people in the tour (next tour only had 4 people, and this was in late August). We went into the chemical leeching building and the mill building. Both had no lightings inside, so it was really dark at places, my headlight was put to use. The mill building is a mind boggling 14-story wooden structure. There are a total of 208 stairs. The tour guide led us all the way to the top, with many stops along the way, to talk about what kind of working conditions workers faced back then, how equipment was operated, how different grades of copper ore were separated ... vividly showed us how life was like decades ago. It is one of the best tours I have ever taken.

3. Kennecott mill building from one side.


4. Kennecott mill building from the other side.


5. From top of the mill building looking down one side.


6. From top of the mill building looking down the other side.


7. On top of the mill building. The mines were up in the mountains. There used to be cable cars between the mill building and the mines to transport copper ores and workers.


8. On top of the mill building.


There are several hiking trails around Kennicott. Only the Root Glacier Trail is easy/moderate, all the others are strenuous. We walked to the Root Glacier (1.5 miles one way). Fresh animal scat was all over the trail. We were warned by sign that there was a problem black bear in the area, so we were a little concerned, suspected that was the bear scat. We made it to the glacier, took some pictures, then headed back to town. The ranger at the Kennecott Visitor Center later confirmed the scat we saw was indeed the bear scat. And the bear approached some hikers recently when they sat down for their lunch, scared them away and ate all their food. They probably had to track and kill the bear. :(

(To be continued)

A brief history about McCarthy & Kennicott from Internet:
In the summer of 1900, rich copper deposits were found near Kennicott Glacier. In 1906, Kennecott Mines Company was formed, which later became Kennecott Copper Corporation. (The mining company was supposed to take the name of the glacier, but the company name was misspelled). In order to transport the copper from the mines to the coastal town of Cordova, where it would be shipped to Tacoma, Washington by steamship for smelting, a railroad was built between 1907 and 1911. The town of Kennicott began to grow quickly but with strict rules: no women (except managers' wives and 2 school teachers for their kids) and no alcohol. Thus McCarthy was born to serve as supply and recreation stop for the mining district. By late 1920s, the supply of high-grade ore was diminishing, and KCC was diversifying into other North America and Chilean mines. Declining profits and increasing costs of railroad repairs led to the eventual closure Kennecott operation in 1938.