Where to stay in the Wrangell - St Elias National Park Area

     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 lodging for folks coming from the lower 48, and is a great place to start one’s trip.  The lodge serves down-home American-style breakfasts and dinners with great pastries and desserts, and provides an excellent base from which to explore the area.  But once you get the lay of the land, you start to feel like this comfortable lodge might be a little separated - as if the real action is somehow happening at the other end of the valley.

     Indeed, the McCarthy end of the valley is a little more rough-and-tumble.  This is where the general store and several bars and restaurants lie, with plenty of access to modern craft brews and hearty post-adventure meals.  There are also a fair number of private homes sprinkled around town, and a surprising number of abandoned wooden buildings from the mining heydays, falling together like giant piles of toothpicks.  Saved from this fate are several historical buildings that have more recently been renovated for touristic purposes.  One old brothel has actually been restored into a historical hotel, called Ma Johnson’s, with incredibly tiny rooms.  (You can imagine there was never much need for more than a bed in each room in the original establishment.)  The home of Kate Kennedy - a local businesswoman and legend from both the mining and post-ghost town days of McCarthy - has also been recently renovated as a lovely B&B property right downtown.  We particularly enjoyed the giant blueberry pie that awaited us in the pie safe at Kate’s old haunt!
 
     Newer lodges and B&B’s will most certainly be on the way in the years to come, as more and more travelers discover the cultural and backcountry wonders around McCarthy.  “Progress” will be haphazard, though, as the community wrestles with how exactly to take advantage of the increasing visitation, while preserving the beloved remoteness and the wildly independent preferences of local inhabitants.