McCarthy

Our adventure today took us 90 miles east into the heart of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The first 30 miles is good paved road and the last 60 miles is gravel that was in pretty good condition when we drove it. The views are magnificent with the Wrangell Mountains to the north and east and the Chugach Mountains to the south. Then right in the middle of that God plunked the Copper River for us to enjoy.

Copper River

McCarthy Road

The McCarthy road follows the bed of an old railroad and used to offer up railroad spikes from time to time to destroy the tires of vehicles passing by. Two years ago they hauled in $2 million of gravel and today the road is very passable. They do still utilize one of the railroad trestles as a one lane road bridge.

Trestle Bridge

At the end of the road we parked the Jeep ($5.00 for the day), walked across the foot bridge (only locals get to drive in) and caught the shuttle bus to McCarthy and then to Kennecott (4.5 miles further up the road. McCarthy is still pretty much the way it was in the early 1900s with a bent toward capturing the interest and money of the tourists. They have an interesting little museum with displays of live in the days when copper mining was king.

Ma Johnson's Hotel in McCarthy

The place of real interest is Kennecott which was a major copper mine from 1910 to 1938. Most of the existing buildings have been purchased by the National Park Service and are being restored. The company name and town is spelled Kennecott yet the river and glacier are named Kennicott. Apparently they spelled the name wrong on the first order of business cards and stationary and decided to leave it that way rather than reorder everything. This was a major copper mining operation with the concentrated copper shipped by rail to Cordova and then by boat to Tacoma, Washington for smelting.

Copper Concentrating Plant

Of as much interest to me where the Kennicott and Root glaciers which used to come together at Kennecott. I walked the two miles to the base of Root glacier but the walk to Kennicott glacier is much farther today. The views of the glacier and the surrounding mountains are stunning.

Root Glacier

Root Glacier Close Up

Our return trip presented us with excellent views of the Chugach Mountains to the south. Again we were hoping to see some wildlife on the journey and ended up seeing a plethora of Snowshoe ares and one black bear.

Chugach Mountains

We stopped at the Copper River on our way back to observe the process used by locals to catch the delicious Copper River Salmon. They either use a dip net or use a fish wheel. With the fish wheel, once set up, the fisherman just sits back and watches the wheel scoop salmon from the river and deposit them in a mesh container. This is subsistence fishing, relaxing but not too sporting.

Copper River Salmon Fishermen

Fish Wheel

We arrived back at the Winnebago at 6:30 PM, unloaded our gear and headed to the Mangy Moose Saloon to enjoy a cold beer and Taco Night. We dined and visited with Betty and Roy Ruff from American Falls, Idaho. Coincidentally Roy was celebrating his 69th birthday on the 17th and I am celebrating mine today the 18th. Happy Birthday to us! We ended the evening with a slice of delicious chocolate pie in their motorhome.

Another great day!