Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park

Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park was the 6th of the 15 National Parks that we have visited while in Alaska.  It's a six hour drive from Eagle River to the town of Chitina where the road to McCarthy starts.  The McCarthy Road is the old raiload bed that took the copper from the Kennecott mine to Valdez.  The road is not paved and often has old railroad spikes on it.  Top speed is 15-20 miles per hour.  It is 60 miles to McCarthy.  Once at the end of the road, you must park the car and walk .6 mile into the town crossing a footbridge across the Kennecott River.  We camped and slept in our minivan right next to the very turbulent river.  It is 4 and 1/2 miles etween Kennecott and McCarthy on another dirt road.  We opted to take the shuttle to go between the two towns.  Kennecott was the mining town.  Although it closed in 1938, it is still regarded as the richest copper mine in the world.  It was a very strict town.  Only the superintendent and managers were allowed to have their families live there.  All of the mine workers  who were there alone had to go into McCarthy to drink, gamble and chase loose women.  None of that was allowed in family-friendly Kennecott.  Today only the remnants of the two towns remain and are run by the National Park Service as part of the Wrangell-St Elias National Park.  While in Kennecott , we took a guided nature walk with a national park ranger along the lateral moraine of the glacier and attended the history talk that focused on the Kennecott "kids" who were the children who grew up in Kennecott during the active mining days.  We also visited with Paul Hanis, who had been volunteer and winter caretaker at the Eagle River Nature Center.  He made the sculpture on the Nature Center's deck and is highlighted on the Eagle River May 2003 link under Alaska. Our 4 day, 3 night trip to Wrangell-St Elias National Park included camping in the Liberty Falls State Park one night going and one night returning.

Het verhaal en ondertitels in het nederlands zullen later toegevoegd worden.

There is a total of 45 photos.
Er zijn in totaal 45 foto's.

	Mount Drum and Mount Wrangell	A thick grove of balsam poplars
	The village of Chitina is the last stop before starting down the McCarthy Road	The NPS District Ranger Station is in a 1910 log cabin
Warnings are posted at the beginning of the road	We strat the 60 mile trip down the road
Fish Wheels on the Copper River	A typical section of the McCarthy Road	Kuskulana Bridge crosses 238 feet above the river
Kuskulana River
Long Lake provides reflections of the surrounding mountains		Old wooden railroad trestle at the Gilahina River
Footbridge over the raging Kennecott River	Downtown McCarthy
		Smoke on the water...
Camping in our minivan next to the Kennecott River		The breaks through and lights up the mountain top
A fish in the clouds
Lateral moraine of the glacier	Remnants of the Kennecott Copper Mine
Glacial ice is only inches below the terminal moraine	Kennecott Glacier Lodge	The long front porch of the Kennecott Glacier Lodge overlooks the town and the glacier
Another part of the Kennecott Copper Mine	The face of the glacier just before the terminal moraine
A willow rose along the McCarthy Road	The Matanuska River	Mudflats along the Matanuska River

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