18-20 July

Route: Chitina(Chit-na)-McCarthy-Chitina-Fairbanks.

We had a bit of time to kill today as our flight into Wrangell-St Elias (Sint-a-lie-ass) NP is only at 05:45. We had anticipated that the towns in Alaska would be quaint, charming little places, where you could sip hot chocolate next to a log fire. We could not have been more wrong; Alaska feels like a rough, tough mans country, with all the locals (you seldom see woman) out riding 4 wheelers, fishing and shooting.



Old rusting cars, parked haphazardly around a timber cabin, with massive bakkies that have exhausts like drain pipes and trailers with a couple of 4 wheelers, kayaks and a boat, standing ready for action, seem to be ‘town’. We went into one place for a coffee, called Grizzly Café, chatting to the owner, he declared that “Alaska is an Obama free, gun country”. Pretty much sums the place up.
What started out as cloudy got progressively worse and by the time we were scheduled to leave, the mountains were hidden behind a blanket of clouds and it was raining heavily. I really thought that our flight would be cancelled, but this is Alaska & before we new it, our tiny little plane was fighting the side wind as it ‘crabbed’ its way down the runway. The wind racing down the Copper River valley buffeted us for a while, but soon we were flying between the massive peaks where all was calm. Flying is the only way to see the countryside properly. From the air we could see the beauty of Wrangell-St Elias NP, which together with the Canadian side of the park, covers more than 34 million acres.


Kennicott Glacier covered in debris it has ground away over the eons.

Raging rivers fed by melt water from massive glaciers, 9 of Alaska’s 16 tallest peaks & water logged Spruce forest, make up this vast wilderness. The pilot pointed out a rock glacier, which is made up of 80% rock ‘suspended’ in ice slowly inching down to the valleys. Flying past Hidden Lake, which has great big chunks of ice floating in it, he explained that when the adjoining glacier has melted sufficiently, this huge lake would empty in less than 24 hours, as if the plug had been pulled.

We approach McCarthy via the 4th of July valley, the same pass that prospectors, Tarantula and his pal had traveled through on the same date in the early 1900’s.


Bonanza mine, the richest, perched high on Wrangell Mtn, as seen from the air.

They staked 5 mining claims, which eventually become the Kennecott Copper Corporation, which between 1911 & 1938 when the mine closed, produced more than 2 billion dollars in today’s terms, of copper.



High grade copper ore as concentrated as 70%, mined high up in the mountains, was brought to Kennecott mill in buckets on two cableways, where it was processed, before being bagged in heavy hessian sacks and transported via rail to Cordova, from which it was shipped to Washington state. Miners worked around the clock, through out the year in temperatures that regularly plummet to -45F. Today the Park Services are slowly rehabilitating the 14 floor mill & a number of adjacent buildings.


In the morning we were rather concerned as it had rained through out the night and we had planned to hike up onto Root glacier. However by the time we had been kitted up with crampons etc the sky had lightened considerably.



Root glacier is a relatively small glacier that ‘flows into’ the absolutely massive Kennecott glacier that dominates the valley.


Kennicott power plant, photos around 1911, show the glacier to be far higher than the chimney stacks.

Our guide pointed out how high the glacier was at the turn of the century. In just 100 years this glacier, although still 500m deep, has shrunk in height by approximately 100m. It is totally covered in rock and sand, which it has ground away on its way to the valley, making it appear like a disused mine, whereas Root glacier is clean white ice.


Staircase Ice fall is where Root Glacier originates.

The grip that the crampons give allows us to climb up and walk on the glacier. Melting water and the pressure of the advancing ice has sculpted wonderful shapes, creating blue pools & crevasses.



It really was special to be able to experience the raw beauty of nature.



We finished the day taking the historical tour of the mine, a rather different, sometimes vertigo inducing, but interesting experience before taking the shuttle down the hill to nearby McCarthy town.


McCarthy has been preserved much as it would have looked during the copper boom. A muddy track leads into town where workers from Kennecott, 5 miles up the valley would come to spend their hard earned wages, at the New Golden Saloon with possibly a visit to Ma Johnson.


Our small but comfortable room was furnished in original pieces, with artifacts from the era. We were at first disappointed, but once we had stayed for a while and immersed ourselves in the history of the day, Ma Johnson & McCarthy really grew on us.



The low clouds forced the pilot to take the longer route out, we were not complaining as we got to see a lot more. With more than 500km to Fairbanks, we took full advantage of the long days, actually at this time of the year Alaska is truly the ‘Land of the midnight sun”, so when we arrived at 10pm the sun was still high in the sky. On route we saw a pair of Moose, the male with massive paddle shaped antlers, swimming across a large lake. We also traveled a long way next to the Trans-Alaska pipeline, which snakes its way 800 miles across the tundra, from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. To date more than 16 billion barrels have been pumped in the 48inch diameter pipeline, which cost $7 billion to build in 1977.
We had originally planned to fly to the Gates of the Arctic Circle NP, but in reality all we would get out the $1000, 6hour trip was to be able to say we had crossed the Arctic Circle. Maybe one day, if we return in winter to experience the Northern Lights of the Aurora Borealis.