While Denali National Park has roughly 600,000 annual visitors, Wrangell - St Elias National Park has more like 60,000 annual visitors. Wrangell - St Elias, of course, is a much newer park than Denali, and therefore much less famous over the last century. But in fact, it is a larger park, with multiple mountain ranges, and terrain that falls all …

We are thrilled to partner with Kennicott Mountain Guides for a very flexible day of adventure on the Root Glacier. Folks have the option to hike to the edge of the glacier… hike upon the glacier with crampons… hike upon the glacier with additional opportunities for brief ice climbing and rappelling… or focus entirely on ice …

The sister towns of Kennicott and McCarthy have been through several iterations over the last century. Physical and cultural remnants of each iteration are still to be found today.

As with many western locales, it all started with mining. The hills around Kennecott produced millions of tons of ore in the early 20th century, feeding the …

Truly one of the absolute highlights of this adventure was the actual flight into the wilderness of the Wrangell - St Elias National Park. There are no roads into the park, and very few trails through its wilderness, but we were headed for four days backpacking in the middle of it all.

At the small airfield in McCarthy, we loaded into a …

Of course, on a trip arranged by Adventure Life, folks wouldn’t be left alone in the wilderness. Our travelers would have a guide, a fair amount of group camping gear, and plenty of great food - all dropped off with them, in a series of these small flights into the backcountry.

But being more experienced backpackers, we had …

On the final morning of our time in the wilderness, I was rudely awakened by an elbow to the ribs. “Kevin, there’s a bear.” Maybe thirty seconds later, another elbow to the ribs. “Kevin, there are two bears.” This second warning caught my attention, and I bolted upright to look outside the tent. Sure enough, …

We added a couple days beyond the normal stay in Kennicott and McCarthy, partly to spend time with friends of ours who were working seasonally at the Kennicott Lodge, and partly to try our hand at some pack-rafting.

On our final day in the McCarthy area, we loaded rafts, paddles, drysuits and other gear into backpacks - yes, backpacks - and …

Accommodations in and around Wrangell - St Elias are a little tricky for folks unfamiliar with the territory.

The Kennicott end of the valley is served nicely by the Kennicott Lodge - a large red structure in the same style and vintage as the Kennicott Mine a few hundred feet away. This will be the most comfortable and familiar sort of …