Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
With such a big name, you expect big things from this park. And the
list of superlatives is long. At 13 million acres, this is the largest
national park in the United States, over six times the size of Yellowstone.
 Four
major mountain ranges meet here: the Wrangell, the St. Elias, the
Chugach and the Alaska. In fact, nine of the 16 highest peaks in the
United States are contained within the borders of the park, topped
off by Mount St. Elias at an awesome 18,008 feet. There are 150 glaciers,
the largest of which, the Malaspina, is larger than the state of Rhode
Island. The park's Bagley Icefield is the largest subpolar ice field
in North America. The park is home to bears, wolves, caribou, moose,
Dall sheep, mountain goats, bison (released in the 1950s and 1960s)
and, in the coastal waters, sea lions, seals, dolphins and killer
whales.
While it was these staggering facts that drew
me to the park, it really has to be seen to be believed. Even then,
you're not sure your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. Having spent
a month working on the North Slope of Alaska at a research camp, I
arranged to meet my wife Deb in Anchorage. We could hardly contain
our excitement over dinner that night.
It was a full day's drive east of Anchorage
to the park, but that drive was not without its rewards as well. The
road wound its way along the braided Matanuska River, with excellent
views of the Matanuska Glacier flowing out of the Chugach Mountains.
Dropping down into Glennallen, views to the east were dominated by
the towering ice-covered volcanoes of Mount Sanford, Mount Drum, Mount
Wrangell and Mount Blackburn, letting us know that we had reached
the park border.
While this part of the drive was easy, reaching
the interior of the park was quite another matter. Two primitive roads
claw their way in, the Nabesna Road to the north and the McCarthy
Road to the south. The 45 mile Nabesna Road requires a four-wheel-drive
vehicle, so we opted for the McCarthy Road, which is passable in a
two-wheel-drive car. We knew it would be a harrowing drive. Much of
the McCarthy Road was built over the old railroad bed that was used
to transport the copper ore out of the Kennecott mines between 1911
and 1938. It is 60 miles of potholes and washboard ruts. A sign at
the start of the road warns of exposed railroad spikes and urges you
to "Drive at Your Own Risk." There are no gas stations, fresh water,
or public restrooms anywhere along the road, so basically you're on
your own. |
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