Wrangell-St. Elias to Chicken
August 11, 2023
We left Valdez on an early foggy morning and drove up the Richardson Highway into a beautiful clear day. Valdez to Base Camp Kennecott in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is only 179 miles but the last 59 miles after Chitina are legendarily rough. The McCarthy Road is a gravel and chip seal road built over an old railroad track that took copper ore from the McCarthy mines to Cordova. There are still old railroad spikes in the railroad bed notorious for causing flat tires, though we luckily didn’t have any mishaps. At Pippin Lake, we took the Edgerton Highway to Kenny Lake where we took advantage of almost the last place to fuel up and fill with water. We stopped at Liberty Falls to stretch our legs and have an early lunch.
From the Chitina Bridge, we could see fish wheels along the banks of the Chitina River harvesting the salmon run.
And then…the McCarthy Road!!
McCarthy Road was actually in better shape than we had imagined, but still took over 3 hours driving 30mph or less to travel the 60 miles. It was a quiet day on the road, with less than a handful of vehicles, so we enjoyed stopping at scenic spots for pictures and videos.
The Kuskulana Bridge
The Gilahina Trestle
Long Lake
We arrived at Base Camp Kennecott mid-afternoon and scouted about until we found this epic camp spot.
Since there was still plenty of daylight, we wandered across the footbridge over the Kennecott River to check out the shuttle pick-up point for the following morning’s adventure. Looking down through the bridge grate and watching the water pound against the pilings made you dizzy and wonder how the little bridge survived!
Pedestrians, bicyclists, and 4-wheelers use this bridge and there is a vehicle bridge downstream only for locals. RigorMortis, a truck assembled by a pioneer from whatever parts he had available, is proudly displayed on the McCarthy side of the footbridge.
After a hearty breakfast and coffee by the river the next morning, we crossed the bridge to meet our St.Elias Alpine Guides van.
It is a 5-mile drive from the footbridge to the town of Kennecott where we would start our hike to the Root Glacier. Our guide Max fitted our shoes with spikes we would need later for walking on the glacier and as we hiked the 2.5 miles out to the toe, he filled us in with area history and glacier information.
Once out on the ice, the spikes kept us steady on the hard-packed surface—like a giant ice cube!
Max led us to blue pools, waterfalls, deep crevasses, and hilltop overlooks. The beauty of the glacier hike was surreal and the experience is hard to describe.
Lunch included a turkey sandwich, cookie, and chips from Kennicott Glacier Lodge in town, and Max even served hot chocolate!
The six-hour adventure was over all too soon and we had a brief rest before joining Max again for the Kennecott Mine tour.
The stamp mill was similar to the Brittania Mine in British Columbia, with some of the same components in a different state of disrepair.
It was a more athletic tour with steep stairways and narrow passageways to navigate!
At the end of the day, we took the shuttle back to McCarthy where we ate at The Potato. Fresh black cod with kimchee seasoning and garlic rosemary fries-wow!
We walked back to the footbridge and home to the truck camper where we slept well beside the noisy river. We woke in the morning to the sound of rain and hoped the weather would clear for our trip with Wrangell Raft and Flightsee. Colorful rafts perched on the opposite bank just across the river from our camper promised that the adventure was a go, so off we went across the footbridge for another day’s fun!
After a short van ride and a stop to get outfitted in dry suits, we launched the colorful rafts into the Kennicott River which rushes continually with a constantly changing course and no deep spots to slow down.
The morning fog made us feel like we could have been early explorers charting unknown territory. In reality, our guides were the company owners, who took phenomenal care of all of us and made sure we had a great time! They set out a delicious deli spread for lunch on the gravel riverbed before oaring us through the Nizina Canyon with swirling currents between cliff walls.
After the canyon, there was an area on the riverbank just large enough for two little planes to land and pick us up. The rafts were deflated and folded, and it took two trips to fetch everything back to McCarthy.
We took the second flight out, and the plane flew over the glacier we had walked the day before for a different perspective.
This is the more remote and wild Alaska we love to experience!
It was hard to leave the next morning, but we made an early start for a 260-mile day to Tok. McCarthy Road was a little more congested—wherever these guys are going, count me in (Say, do you need a camp cook? Someone to look after the mules? Srsly!).
In Tok, we picked up mail we had sent from our mail forwarding service, did laundry, and boondocked at a rest area on the southeast corner of the Tetlin Bridge over the Tanana River just east of Tok. It was so quiet after several nights camping by the Kennicott River!
The next day we drove the Taylor Highway to Chicken, with gorgeous sweeping views of lower mountains, black spruce, and tundra with low bushes.
We stopped at an overlook & picked blueberries—well, I picked and Larry ate all his as he said he had to keep his hands free to use the bear spray in case we got company (we didn’t, but a plausible excuse).
Our next stop in Alaska is named after ptarmigan, a type of grouse found plentifully in Alaska. Story has it that townsfolk settles on the name of “Chicken” since the spelling of ptarmigan eluded them. See you there!