We headed off on a 2 week alaskan roadtrip in early July with a few vague goals in mind. (http://malamutemotel.blogspot.com/2009/07/alaskan-adventure-2009.html)
While the weather was a bit iffy, we still had a great time!
McCarthy/Kennecott is at the end of a long road. You drive 30 miles on pavement to Chitna and then cross a bridge over the Copper River (be sure to admire the fish wheels catching
Copper River Salmon & King Salmon) and then drive 2.5 hours on a single car dirt road that was built over an old railroad track. Watch out for the miscellaneous train track spikes that have worked themselves out and all of the bumps from the washboard...
At the end of the road you reach a parking lot - also home of the Base Camp for Root Glacier - day parking and overnight camping as you can't drive to McCarthy/Kennecott. You have to stop here and walk, bike or ride an ATV over the glacier river and travel 1km to McCarthy.
We set up camp and were pleased to see the sunshine so headed out on the ATV immediately to explore, see if anything had changed and catch some time on the glacier.
On a sunny day, the view of the Root Glacier is phenomenal. It is brilliant white backed by a bright blue sky that makes it jump out. The best part of the Root Glacier is how accessible it is. Just 1.5km from Kenecott along a hiking trail, you can walk right up onto the glacier and start to explore. With the every changing landscape of the glacier due to melt, freeze and erosion, it is a different experience each and every time.
The US National Parks service continues to work on upgrades to Kenecott (a central point within the Wrangell/St. Elias National Park) and it's great to see old buildings coming to life again.
The 4th of July celebration was great - parade, kids games and fireworks - just as we remembered!
Still somewhere that we have on our list to re-visit and we recommend it to everyone!
