Wrangell National Park, McCarthy & Kennecott

No way were we going to take the trailer down 60 miles of rutted and washboard dirt road, so instead we found a nice free campground right outside of Chitina to call home base. From here we took the truck into the National Park to visit McCarthy and Kennecott. It turned out to be the right choice as everyone else we knew who drove their trailers down to McCarthy came out with some form of repairs to be made.

McCarthy is a tiny town of only 28 inhabitants, resting deep in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, America’s largest National Park, and my 69th National Park visited. Today it exists primarily as a launching point to see the Kennecott mine – 5 miles up a road inaccessible to the public – or back country activities in the south side of the National Park. Not much more than a single Main street with a few businesses and tour guides, McCarthy preserves it’s small town feel by preventing the tourists from entering by any other means than foot traffic. Parking is allowed at the end of the 60 mile dirt road, at which time all visitors must hike in another half-mile to the town.

We did jump onto a shuttle van which would bring us further up the mountain side to Kennecott which is home to the Kennecott Mine, a National Historic Landmark. The mine opened in 1900 after two prospectors stumbled upon the richest known concentration of copper in the world. The mine operated for more than 30 years before being mostly deserted in 1939. In the ’80s this area became part of the National Park system and is still being restored today.

Kerri and spent a few hours walking around McCarthy and Kennecott, opting out of taking any tours as they were 2+ hours each and the thought of being bound to that amount of time with other tourists did not sit well with either of us. Before starting the 2-hour drive back to camp, we stopped in McCarthy again for a quick meal at the The Potato.