Alaska - McCarthy Road and Kennecott - July 3-6

After the Denali Highway, we headed south a bit to the McCarthy Road which travels about 60 miles in to Wrangell-St Elias National Park.  It is the largest national park in the US and most of it is wilderness.  Chitina is the town at the beginning of the McCarthy Road.  At the other end, across a foot bridge and a 1/2 mile walk is McCarthy.  

Chitina Emporium at the start of the McCarthy Road

Old car in Chitina

Gilahina Trestle along the McCarthy Road

Kuskulana Bridge along the McCarthy Highway.
 It was built in 1910 to support the railway out to the Kennecott Mines.

McCarthy is a fun little town.  There is a small general store, a hotel and a saloon.  There are about 45 year round residents, another 60 or so folks that live there in the summer and a whole bunch of tourists.  We spent 4th of July there and enjoyed an old fashioned holiday celebration.

Old cabin in McCarthy

4th of July parade in McCarthy.

Street scene in McCarthy

Ma Johnson's Hotel,  McCarthy

A 'fixer upper' in McCarthy

McCarthy Lodge and the Golden Saloon

The next day we spent in Kennecott which is an old mining town about 4 1/2 miles past McCarthy.  Luckily they have a van that shuttles you from the end of the walking bridge, so we didn't have to hike the whole way.  

The mill buildings are now a National Historic Site.  The main structure in Kennecott is the 14 story tall copper mill building.  There were 5 copper mines in the mountains above the mill that sent ore down to the mill via cable car.  The ore was crushed and separated to concentrate the copper.  The ore was then shipped by rail to Cordova where it was taken by boat to Tacoma, Washington for smelting.  

In addition to the interesting buildings, there are two glaciers near town - Kennicott and Root.  No... that is not a typo.  The glacier and the river that runs from it were called Kennicott.  The town and mill were named after it, but they misspelled it in the paperwork, hence the discrepancy.  Root glacier runs into Kennicott glacier above town.  The combined glacier extends down to town, but the ice is covered by gravel so it just looks like big piles of dirt until you look close and see sections of ice. 

View of the Kennecott mill and power plant looking back at town from the Root Glacier Trail.

The copper mill and "Rigor Mortis".  Rigor Mortis is the truck in the foreground.
The original owner built it from scavenged parts.  It ran for many years before being abandoned.

Looking up at the mill building.

View of the mill building and the manager's office (far right) from the bridge across National Creek.

Power plant

Power plant interior - boilers

Interior of power plant

Machine shop with the glacier and mountains in the back ground

View of Kennecott from path in to town.
The bridge over National Creek is in the lower right. It still has the rails from
when the only way in to town was on the railroad.

Kennicott Glacier as it looks in front of town with Wrangell Mountains in the background

Root Glacier in foreground, Kennicott Glacier on mountain side in background