Wrangle Mountain- St. Elias National Park (McCarthy and Kinnecott)

We left our trailer in Chitina and drove our truck from Chitina, AK to McCarthy, AK this morning. The road was dirt with a lot of potholes. One of the old railroad bridges that had been turned into a vehicle bridge was damaged yesterday evening, but they were allowing vehicles under 6,000 pounds across the bridge. The road from Chitina to McCarthy is about 60 miles. At the damaged bridge, we were about 12 miles from McCarthy. There is no road, available to the public, into McCarthy. We had to cross Jumbo Creek bridge once we got close to McCarthy, and then a second bridge, to reach McCarthy on foot. From McCarthy, you can walk or take a shuttle about 5 miles to Kinnecott. The glacier walking tour that we wanted to take leaves from Kinnecott.

When we arrived in Kinnecott, we learned that the Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT) decided to close the damaged bridge we had come across that morning! That left us stranded with our truck across the walking bridge from McCarthy and our trailer another 60 miles away in Chitina. We were able to secure lodging at a hostel across the walking bridge from McCarthy. Then we went on our ice glacier walking tour.

We used ice crampons to allow us to walk on the glacial ice. We really enjoyed the experience.

When we returned, we learned that they didn’t plan to open the bridge before the following Monday. That meant we would have to spend several days in the hostel with no change of clothes, no food, and no medicines. At the hostel, we had a cute little cabin with no electric and no plumbing, but access to wireless internet that had just been installed that day. We slept very well. We were very content to have a place to sleep.