Alaska is home to the largest U.S. National Park—Wrangell-St. Elias, which sprawls a whopping 20,600 square miles and is actually larger than if you combine Yellowstone, Yosemite, AND the entire country of Switzerland!

This park, tucked away in southeastern Alaska, is a unique mix of quirky small towns, pioneering history, and the largest swath of untouched wilderness in the United States. If you want to explore this incredibly remote corner of the U.S. for yourself, here are 10 incredible things to do in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. 

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Why is it called Wrangell-St. Elias National Park?  

Alaska is home to eight U.S. National Parks (the second highest of any of the states!), most of which have pretty straight forward names—Denali after Mount Denali; Kenai Fjords after the fjords of the Kenai Peninsula; and Katmai after Mount Katmai. But what’s up with the name “Wrangell-St. Elias”? 

It turns out that this national park is actually home to four different mountain ranges—the Chugach, the Alaska, the St. Elias, and the Wrangells. 

Both of the names “Wrangell” and “St. Elias” date back to Alaska’s Russian period. 

Wrangell was named after Baron Ferdinand Petrovich von Wrangell, who was an arctic explorer and an administrator of Russian Alaska in the early 19th century. He had a host of things in Alaska named after him during this time period, including Mount Wrangell, the Wrangell Mountain range, Wrangell Island, and the town of Wrangell. 

And St. Elias was named by Captain Vitus Bering (yes, of the Bering Sea fame), who was sent to explore Alaska by the Russian Emperor Peter the Great in 1725. He first spotted a large mountain from his ship during the feast of St. Elias and thus, decided to name the mountain in honor of the saint. 

So, the naming of Wrangell-St. Elias is basically as straightforward as Denali National Park—just with a few less famous mountains at play! 

Things to do in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

1. Hike the Root Glacier Trail

One of the most popular things to do in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is to hike to—and actually, on top of—the 15 mile long Root Glacier.

Out of the 3,100 glaciers found in Wrangell-St. Elias, the Root Glacier is the most accessible. You can reach it via a 2.5 mile (one-way) trek from the town of Kennicott, with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and the toe of the glacier along the way. 

Once you reach the glacier itself, you’re welcome to explore its icy slopes and hillsides to your heart’s content. When Justin and I hiked on the Root Glacier Trail, it was absolutely one of the highlights of our three month stay in Alaska. It seriously felt like being on another planet, surrounded by nothing but ancient ice and towering mountains everywhere you look.

Just be sure to bring microspikes as it is, unsurprisingly, quite slippery to walk on a massive sheet of ice and be extremely careful near any cracks, cliffs, or ledges.

Walking on glaciers is inherently dangerous, so proceed at your own risk. If you’d feel more comfortable or just want to learn more about the glacier or the national park, consider going with a knowledgeable guide, like on this half day hike. 

2. Go on a flightseeing tour

With over 20,000 square miles of pristine wilderness, four mountain ranges, and over 35% of its landmass covered with glaciers, Wrangell-St. Elias is CERTAINLY a sight to behold. And what better way to take it in than from ten thousand feet above the ground?

There are several operators that offer flightseeing tours here, like Wrangell Mountain Air and Copper Valley Air Service. Tours typically range from 60 minutes to two and a half hours and offer birds-eye views of the park’s glaciers, wildlife (it’s a great way to spot bears!), river braids, waterfalls, and mining ruins. Plus, along the way, your pilot will tell you all kinds of fascinating information about the geology and history of the park.

They’re definitely on the pricier side, typically starting around $400 per person, so it was sadly out of our price range after spending three months in Alaska (which is not exactly a cheap state). But, on our next trip to Wrangell-St. Elias (and we will be back!), this is absolutely at the top of our list! 

3. Explore the mining town of Kennicott 

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is more than just mountains and glaciers. It’s actually home to one of the best remaining examples of early 20th Century copper mining on the planet—the Kennecott mine and mill town.

As a mini-history lesson, in the early 1900s, a group of investors and prospectors acquired the rights to a plot of land near the Kennicott Glacier, which later was determined to be the richest known concentration of copper in the world, at the time.  From 1908 to 1911, a complex mining operation was constructed in one of the most remote and logistically challenging corners of Alaska, complete with five mines, a 14-story concentration mill, and an entire railway (the one that once ran along McCarthy Road). 

At its peak, over 600 people lived and worked in the town of Kenneccott, until the mines and the town were abruptly abandoned in 1938, when the copper ran out. Although the workers and their families left Kennicott behind, the mines and the town they had created left a permanent footprint on the Copper River area. 

Today, the ghost town of Kennicott was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. The town itself is SO cool-looking, with red historic buildings, set against the rugged waterfalls and cliffsides of the Wrangell Mountains.

Today, there are several of the buildings that are left open with exhibits and informational signs for you to explore on your own, like the General Store, Post Office, North Sacking Shed, and General Manager’s Office.

For a deeper dive into Kennicott, though, there are a number of historical tours that you can join to learn more about the town’s history and the mining process itself. For example, this two hour historical tour is offered by the only operator that’s allowed by the National Park Service to enter into the concentration mill, which remains one of the largest timber structures in the entire world (plus, you get to wear cool hard hats!). 

Pssst… you might notice that I keep spelling Kennecott/Kennicott differently throughout this article. That’s because the corporation that operated the mine and the mine itself is spelled “Kennecott”, whereas the surrounding natural features, like the glacier, valley, and the town, is spelled “Kennicott”. 

Supposedly, the mining company made a mistake when they were filing their official paperwork, accidentally swapping the “i” in Kennicott for an “e”, and leaving behind a very confusing naming convention in its wake for centuries to come. 

4. Explore the town of McCarthy

Every good mining town needed its own Red Light district where its miners could blow off its steam. And McCarthy, located about four miles down the road from Kennicott, played that role for the mine, with pool halls, saloons, and brothels lining its streets. 

The town has a much more family-friendly vibe these days, but there’s a surprising amount of fun you can still get up to in such a tiny town! 

We wrote a whole article about the best things to do in McCarthy, but, in short, here are some of the stops that you should absolutely make sure are on your itinerary:

• The Potato: We ate lunch at this cozy cafe, with killer rosemary garlic fries and stick-to-your-ribs sandwiches. We LOVED our food and the laidback atmosphere—plus, the owners are super sweet! 
• The Golden Saloon: This bar is the beating heart of McCarthy’s surprisingly buzzy social scene, with an extensive cocktail menu, an open mic night every Thursday, and lots of live music throughout the summertime. 
• The Salmon and the Bear: The itty bitty town of McCarthy is the unlikely home of this foodie destination, a restaurant that focuses on hyper-local ingredients and unique takes on Alaska dishes. With The Salmon and the Bear’s growing accolades, including winning the Wine Spectator Award Of Excellence for multiple years in a row, so has its popularity with visitors. So be sure to make reservations well ahead of time! With only 10 tables, the restaurant regularly is fully booked in the summer months.
• McCarthy Center Store: This is the town’s general store, with a pretty impressive selection of groceries for how remote it is (they had a backroom with dozens of different craft beer and vegan ice cream). There’s also some grab-and-go items, like wraps and paninis, that are perfect for taking on day hikes.

One thing that’s worth noting about McCarthy is there are TONS of adorable resident dogs freely running around its streets. 

If you’re a dog lover like Justin and me, this is AWESOME. However, if you’re not the biggest fan of dogs or are planning on bringing a reactive dog of your own, you might want to limit your time wandering around the puppy-ridden streets of the town.

Pssst… if you’re not sure how to get here, be sure to check out our section on getting to McCarthy and Kennicott below.

5. Visit the McCarthy Kennecott Historical Museum

Besides all of the fun food and drink that you can enjoy in town, there’s also a lovely small museum, housed in McCarthy’s old railroad depot, which preserves the history of the area with old photos, models of what the town once looked like, and fun artifacts, like the old cable car that residents once used to pull themselves across the Kennicott River. 

This non-profit museum is free and totally run by volunteers. However, if you’d like to support it, there’s a small gift shop for you to pick up a t-shirt or a postcard to remember your time in one of Alaska’s quirkiest small towns.

Because it’s 100% run by volunteers, it also doesn’t exactly have the most reliable schedule. If it happens to be closed during part of your visit, be sure to give them some grace and check in again during your stay.

6. Go white water rafting 

In a MASSIVE park with essentially no roadways, exploring Wrangell-St. Elias by water offers visitors a unique opportunity to see parts of the landscape that few visitors ever get to experience. 

The park has a number of glacial rivers, but the most popular one for rafting trips is typically the Kennicott River, which features Class II-III rapids. This makes for the perfect adventure for rafters of all skill levels, with a good mix of swift waters, splashy waves, and technical maneuvering, with more chill sections to enjoy the surrounding wildflowers and, with any luck, wildlife, like moose, bears, and Dall’s sheep that graze along the riverside.

There’s a huge array of tours to choose from, from short day trips, like this 4 hour trip, to week-long expeditions, down the rugged Copper River, depending on your budget and how long you can hang out in the park. 

7. Try ice climbing

If white water rafting isn’t adrenaline-pumping enough for you, another one of the most adventurous things to do in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is to try your hand at ice-climbing on the Root Glacier. On an ice climbing tour, you’ll be provided with gear, like a harness, crampons, and ice axes; hike to the Root Glacier with a knowledgeable guide; and learn how to scale a wall of ice, ice axes in hand. 

We previously tried ice climbing in Iceland and had SO much fun—we felt like such badasses, climbing out of a giant crevasse of a glacier along a sheer cliffside of milky blue ice. 

There are a handful of operators in Kennicott that you can book ice climbing tours with, like St. Elias Alpine Guides and Kennicott Wilderness Guides. On these tours, you’ll usually first learn how to ice climb on a gently sloping incline and, once you’ve mastered that, head to a more extreme area, like a steep cliffside or a deep crevasse, to put your skills to the test.

While we felt reasonably safe hiking on the Root Glacier by ourselves, you should absolutely not try ice climbing without a professional guide with you—there’s all sorts of fancy equipment, like ice screws, that you need to climb safely and it would be SO easy to hurt yourself while trying this activity. 

8. Hike the other trails in the park

The Root Glacier Trail is, by far, the most popular hike in Wrangell-St. Elias, but there are several other options for you to explore as well. 

For example, an excellent option for beginners is the West Kennecott Glacier Trail, a 2.1 mile hike that leads to the milky glacial lake at the toe of the Root Glacier. We did this trail on our second day in the park and enjoyed getting to see the unique formations at the toe of the glacier and icebergs floating in the vibrant waters. 

For something more challenging, the Bonanza Mine Trail is definitely a butt-kicker, gaining almost 4,000 feet of elevation over the course of about 4.3 miles. At the top, though, you’re rewarded with epic views of the Bonanza Mine ruins, set against the jagged, snow-capped peaks of the Wrangell Mountains. 

9. Explore McCarthy Road

Most visitors to the park will have to drive along the McCarthy Road to reach Wrangell-St. Elias, so you might as well enjoy the beautiful sites along the 60 mile stretch! 

The National Park has an excellent detailed guide to the stops on McCarthy Road, but some of my favorites are: 

• Mile 17.2, Kuskulana River Canyon and Bridge: This bridge was considered an engineering marvel when it was built in 1910. It towers at a whopping 238 feet above the rushing Kuskulana River below and is constructed of steel girders, unlike most bridges in the Copper Valley area, which are supported by timber pilings. Given its impressive height, the bridge offers jaw-dropping views of the glacial river snaking through the surrounding forest. 
• Mile 34.8,  Crystalline Hills: The hills to the north of McCarthy Road here are composed of dark metamorphic and igneous rocks and are one of the best places in the area to spot Dall’s sheep (this is a good place to have binoculars on hand!).
• Mile 45.5, Long Lake: Almost 20,000 sockeye salmon swim up the Copper and Chitina Rivers to spawn in Long Lake, from around August through April (which is uniquely late for salmon runs!).
  
  Long Lake holds a special place in my heart—Justin and I found a dispersed site along its shores for our RV and we had a lovely time camping there during our visit to Wrangell-St. Elias, with a family of muskrats happily swimming in front of our fire ring every night. 
• Mile 58.1, viewpoints of the Kennicott Glacier: As you get close to the McCarthy Footbridge, there are several pull-offs to enjoy your first views of the Kennicott Glacier and the milky rivers that it feeds.

10. Visit the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Visitor Center

If you’re a national park lover who wants to get your Wrangell-St. Elias passport stamp or just want to chat with some rangers, the park’s visitor center is actually located well before you reach the first stretch of McCarthy Road along the Richardson Highway about 10 miles south of Glennallen.

The visitor center offers an introductory film to the park; hands-on exhibits, including lots of skulls and furs from various animals in the area; and a nature trail with educational signs about native plants and fungi to the area. It’s well worth a stop before taking on McCarthy Road. 

Where to stay in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

There are only a handful of accommodations in the park, almost all of which are owned and operated by the McCarthy Lodge Resort. The resort has gone out of its way to preserve the historic character of the buildings here, with antique facades, shelves crammed with old books, and photographs from McCarthy’s golden years. 

There are four different properties that you can book through the McCarthy Lodge Resort:

• Ma Johnson’s Hotel: This hotel is cute-as-a-button and is actually an old boarding house from McCarthy’s heyday. The rooms are the perfect mix of historic charm with modern luxuries (think a historic bed frame with a nice, cushy mattress and super soft sheets, plus plush bathrobes, which I’m all about!). If we didn’t have an RV with us during our visit to Wrangell-St. Elias, this would have been my choice of hotel.
• Lancaster’s Backpacker Hotel: This is essentially McCarthy’s version of a hostel, with more basic amenities (no fancy homemade soap here!), a lower price point than Ma Johnson’s, and a more buzzy social atmosphere. 
• Kate Kennedy House: This is a two bedroom house that sleeps up to five, with a cute little patio, a wood-burning fireplace, and a sweet little garden area.
• The Rose House: If you’re traveling with a big group to Wrangell-St. Elias, this little bungalow sleeps up to eight, with cute historical furnishings and more luxurious touches, like bathrobes. 

How to Get to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

There are a LOT of confusing logistics involved in getting to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

We actually wrote an entire guide about everything you need to know about how to get to McCarthy, Alaska, which you actually need to get to before you can explore the rest of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. But here’s everything you need to know in a nutshell:

Driving 

The most straightforward and cheapest option of getting to Wrangell-St. Elias is by driving yourself. 

If you head there directly from Anchorage, it’s about an eight hour drive, or if you’re coming from Tok, it’s about a five and a half hour drive. 

If you can swing it, though, I’d STRONGLY recommend first visiting the charming town of Valdez along the southeastern coastline, which is about five and a half hours southeast of Anchorage. There are seriously SO many cool things to do in Valdez—kayaking in a glacial lake! watching sea lions eat salmon! driving down a canyon full of waterfalls! Once you’re done in this magical little corner of Alaska, you can finish the rest of the four hour drive to the park.

Regardless of whether you’re coming from Anchorage, Valdez, or elsewhere, most of the drive is on paved and well-maintained roads, until you reach the teeny town of Chitina. From here, the last 60 miles of driving to the park is along the unpaved and gravel McCarthy Road. 

This infamous road was built on top of an old mining railway that ceased operation in 1938, which left behind tens of THOUSANDS of railroad ties and spikes. These rusty remnants, as well as the omnipresent potholes, have made flat tires a VERY common occurrence along the roadway, so it’s incredibly important that you drive slowly and have a full-size spare on hand, just in case. 

To be honest, after seeing some wild YouTube videos about how hellish the road was, my husband, Justin, and I went into driving McCarthy Road, expecting the absolute WORST. While we encountered a few potholes along the way, we honestly didn’t think it was too bad and encountered MUCH worse roadways in Alaska, like the first 50 miles of the Alaska Highway after passing the Alaska border or the Taylor Highway, on the way to Chicken. 

McCarthy Road is totally unmaintained—and thus, closed, due to heavy snowfall—from October through mid-May.

From talking to other RVers who visited Wrangell-St. Elias, I’ve anecdotally gathered that maintenance may become more regular along the roadway as the summer wears on (I can attest that we saw several maintenance trucks working on the road in late August!), so if you’re visiting Alaska for a long period of time over the summer, I’d consider scheduling Wrangell-St. Elias towards the end of your visit. 

Due to the road’s unpaved condition, if you’re renting a car in Alaska, you should double check with your rental company whether you’re allowed to drive on McCarthy Road. Many agencies prohibit it! There are ways for you to get to Wrangell-St. Elias without driving your rental car on McCarthy Road—just keep on reading!

Insider tip: While others have reported having pretty decent cell service along McCarthy Road, Justin and I had ZERO coverage with T-Mobile service along the road or pretty much anywhere in the park. Accordingly, I’d strongly recommend downloading offline maps of the area on Google Maps, as well as any hiking trail maps you might need on AllTrails+ before you get here, in case your cell coverage is as spotty as ours was! 

Shuttles

There’s a number of different ways that you can get to Wrangell-St. Elias via shuttle. 

For example, Overflow Transit offers a direct route from Anchorage to McCarthy (departing Anchorage on Mondays and Fridays) for $450 round trip. 

You can also drive to Chitina, right before McCarthy Road starts, and hop on the Kennicott Shuttle the rest of the way there for $149 roundtrip.

Flying

There are a handful of different ways that you can fly to Wrangell-St. Elias. 

Scheduled flights from Anchorage

If you’re looking for the most affordable way to fly from Anchorage to Wrangell-St. Elias, Copper Valley Air Services offers flights on Monday and Thursday (year-round), as well as Wednesday and Saturday (only offered June through August). 

You’d first have to fly with them from Anchorage to Glennallen and then from Glennallen to McCarthy, costing a total of $455 one-way. 

Private charters from Anchorage

Alternatively, if you’re traveling with a larger group or have a bigger budget to play around with, there are a handful of private charter companies that fly from Anchorage to McCarthy, like Copper Valley Air Service and Wrangell Mountain Air, with pricing starting at $2160 for up to three people one-way. 

Scheduled flights from Chitina

If you just want to skip driving on McCarthy Road (like if you have a rental car from an agency that doesn’t let you drive on gravel), you can fly to McCarthy from Chitina for quite a bit cheaper with Wrangell Mountain Air, costing $430 roundtrip per person. 

How to get from the McCarthy Bridge to McCarthy and Kennicott

You know how I said that getting to Wrangell-St. Elias isn’t exactly straightforward?

You can’t just drive or be driven to the park, because McCarthy Road ends here, at the McCarthy Footbridge that crosses the Kennicott River. To actually get into the park itself, you’ll need to either walk or take a shuttle to the town of McCarthy, and then walk or take a shuttle to the old mining town of Kennicott.

I know it sounds confusing, but it’s honestly not too bad once you get there! 

Getting from the McCarthy Bridge to the town of McCarthy

Once you drive the 60 miles of McCarthy Road, you’ll need to leave your car at one of the parking lots near the footbridge.

When we visited in August 2024, it cost $5 to park our car all day in the Base Camp Kennicott parking lot. All of the lots have their prices painted on their signs, so it should be pretty easy to determine which lot is the cheapest!

From the footbridge, it’s about a one mile walk along the roadway to the town of McCarthy along a fairly flat pathway.

There’s a sign along the way that points you to a footpath through the forest that shaves off about a quarter mile to the town. We took this path both days we visited the park and found it to be a pleasant walk, surrounded with pine trees and views of the surrounding mountains. 

Alternatively, there are two shuttle companies that offer transportation from the eastern side of the footbridge to McCarthy.

• The Copper Town Shuttle costs $15 for unlimited rides around the McCarthy area and runs every half hour or so. 
• The Blackburn Heritage Shuttle (or, as the driver introduced himself to us, Five Dollar Dan) costs $5 per ride and runs approximately every hour. Cash only! 

Getting from McCarthy to the town of Kennicott

Once you’re dropped off in McCarthy, there’s plenty to see and do in the town itself (more on that below!). However, most of the national park’s hiking trails and its mining history is in the ghost town of Kennicott, located about four and a half miles north of McCarthy. 

You’re welcome to walk between the two towns, although there is a significant incline between McCarthy and Kennicott—so be ready for those thighs to be a burnin’! 

Alternatively, both of the aforementioned shuttle companies—Copper Town and Blackburn Heritage—run between McCarthy and Kennicott. We actually wound up taking each of these companies between our two days in the park. 

We happened to see the Blackburn Heritage Shuttle (and its shuttle with $5 emblazoned on it!) during our first day in the park, while it was picking up passengers at the McCarthy Kennecott Historical Museum. We REALLY enjoyed our experience with them—$5 Dan was definitely a character (in a good way!), picked us up exactly when he said he would for the ride back to McCarthy, and told us he donated all of the profits of his shuttle to local schools. However, he was nowhere to be found the second day we visited the park, so I’m not sure how consistently he runs or what his normal schedule is. 

On the other hand, you can buy a pass for unlimited rides with Copper Town at the McCarthy Center Store for $15 (cash or credit card accepted), where the shuttle also offers pick-ups. They seem to be a bit more professionally run and reliable, albeit with perhaps a bit less character than $5 Dan. 

When to visit Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

The park is technically open year-round, but many of the park’s services, including tour operators, restaurants, shuttles, hotels, and stores, are closed with McCarthy Road from mid-May through October. 

I’d generally suggest visiting from mid-June through August, when the Alaska Department of Transportation has had time to come perform any necessary maintenance on McCarthy  and the national park can perform trail maintenance on any landslides or other issues you might run into after the harsh winter.

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There you have it—the very best things to do in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park! Do you have any questions on visiting our largest national park? Let us know in the comments below!