Leaving Talkeetna and heading into sunshine was an unexpected treat after weeks of clouds and rain. By the time we headed east on RT 10 to Chitina, the sun was hot and we were joyful. The town of Chitina, once a ghost town when the railway pulled out, is now home to about a 100 people and marks the start of the McCarthy Road. It is also the gateway to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The Wrangell-St. Elias consists of 13.2 million acres of which 9.7 million acres are designated wilderness. The park contains the greatest collection of peaks over 16,000 feet on the continent, including Mt. St. Elias, second to Denali at 18,029 feet. It is a roadless park with only two roads allowing access, one being the McCarthy Road.
The major attraction in Chitina is the Copper River which could possibly be the largest source of Alaskan Salmon. The size, strength and cement grey water of the Copper is downright scary, yet fisherman are both in the river and on it when the salmon are around. We stopped to watch the many fish wheels dotting the bank.
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| The Copper River |
Fish wheels which can only be operated by select people, I'm not sure who that is, but definitely not us !
We felt fortunate to have our friend Carter's truck for this trip, complete with a mattress in the back for sleeping. We spent a restful night, bug free, beside the road waiting for a bridge that was closed for repair to reopen in the morning.
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| As always, Bucky the cook. |
The McCarthy Road is 60 miles one way, Built over an old rail bed, ties and rails can be seen through the gravel. It was our hope not to hit anything metal or sharp that might make using the spare a necessity.
Gilahina Trestle
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| The Wrangell Mountains |
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| View of the Kennicott River while crossing on the footbridge. Note the ice chunk making its way downriver. |
Even upon reaching the end of the McCarthy Road, the journey is not over as the only way to reach McCarthy is across the Kennicott River by footbridge. Different forms of handcars on cable were used in by gone days. After crossing the river it's a quarter mile walk into town. Vans also take people between the river, town and 5 miles to the mine. Some people travel to McCarthy by plane or by van from Chitina to avoid driving the rough road. The Kennicott and Root Glaciers presented themselves around every turn in the road.
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| View from the McCarthy Airport showing the Kennicott Glacier to the left and the Root Glacier on the right. |
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Entering town was quiet and peaceful. Is this really a National Park?
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Downtown McCarthy showed the tell tale signs of their rainy summer. We were comforted to hear that this sun was some of the first they had seen. Although having seen pictures of the town, I was not prepared with how both isolated and small it really was.
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People come to McCarthy to see the Kennecott Mine which operated outside of town from around 1907 until 1938. The mine and the glacier and river have slightly different spelling evolved over time. Over 600 mine workers lived in bunkhouses and small cottages near the mine. The NPS is working hard to preserve these buildings. Some are in private ownership.
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The mine with the the general manager's office in the foreground.
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Kennecott was phenomenal to see and well worth the trip in. Although we didn't take a tour, we felt we left the mine with an understanding of the magnitude of the operation and the impact the mine had on this part of Alaska.
We headed back out the road to Chitina and home to Talkeetna, but along the way Bucky had time to continue his search for diamond willow and attempted to catch his first grayling. He was somewhat successful in both ventures. The spot he chose for willow picking had been poached before by someone with a chainsaw making the harvest much faster than with the folding saw Bucky had. Long Lake produced several small grayling, but as I tried to capture the moment, Bucky dropped the fish, tearing its lip, allowing it to escape back into the lake. We have a long history of fish dropping which has made us consider having T shirts made with, WE DROP FISH, something like, we ship anywhere, we recycle, we are proud grandparents, it's just who we are and what we do. Carter, you know what we mean !
Some peeling revealed that this MIGHT be diamond willow, hopefully it won't be confiscated at the border like last year.
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| I wish I had a chainsaw. |
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| Grayling |
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| Fool |
On our way back to Glen Allen, we took a look at the pipeline on the final leg of its 800 mile journey to Valdez where the oil is loaded onto ships.
The pipeline always appears insignificant in size when thinking of the importance of what it carries to the world. Our plan is to stay put in Talkeetna waiting for the Silver Salmon to arrive as well as for the arrival of Levi on August 8th. Perhaps he'll bring some of the summer heat of the Northeast with him.
