AKBrian's pics

Camping trip to McCarthy!

One of my favorite places to camp in Alaska. McCarthy is a small town built to support the copper mine of Kennecott (which closed in 1938). You can drive to about one mile away from McCarthy-from there it's on foot, because there's only a foot bridge across the river. Kennicott is about 5 miles up the valley, and beyond that is the spectacular Root and Kennicott Glaciers.

Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest National Park in the USA, the size of six Yellowstones, and larger than Vermont and New Hampshire together! The eastern border of Wrangell-St. Elias adjoins Kluane National Park in Canada.

I've been here 4 or 5 times, and I always enjoy it. The only bad part is that it's at the end of a 60 mile long dirt road, which is usually in pretty bad shape. Maybe that's a good thing though, since it keeps away a lot of people. A very secluded and peaceful place.

These pictures are from a trip I took there July 12-14th 2002 with my friends Joe, Marilyn and Angela.

On the way to McCarthy, we stopped off at the Trans-Alaska Pipeline! For the amount of oil that's passing overhead, it's surprisingly silent.	Turning onto the Edgerton Highway, you can see all the way to Wrangell-St. Elias	A couple of buildings and a plane (I think!) in McCarthy	Looking out onto the Root glacier. If I had a higher perspective, you would see the Kennicott Glacier in the valley to the left (West) merging with the Root Glacier coming from the valley to the East.
A view of the valley	An abandoned truck, at least I hope so.	McCarthy Museum	Leaving McCarthy and travelling 5 miles (uphill! whew!) we come to Kennicott, built around 1900.
The spectacular Root Glacier	Travelling further up the valley, and looking back toward the main mine building	This way to the Glacier! And yes, you can walk right out onto it. (Be careful, though!)	And that's what we did-even though it's mostly covered with dirt at the front end, it was still an amazing hike. That's Marilyn and Joe out on the Glacier.
Another shot of the mine buildings	Another view of the valley-this time you can see Kennicott at the bottom of the picture	Taken from the Glacier, looking up at a mountain.