McCarthy, Alaska lies in the middle of the United States’ largest National Park and is home to the historic remains of the Kennecott Mine – the largest and purest yielding copper mine of its day!

After saying goodbye to Valdez we drove out on the Edgerton Highway/10 to Chitina (pronounced CHIT-na), then took McCarthy Road 60 miles on narrow gravel through Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is the largest National Park in the United States spanning 13.2 million acres of mountains, glaciers, volcanoes, rivers, and wildlife.
Watch our full adventure in Valdez and McCarthy in Go North Episode 14 below:



We also took the rough “Wagon Trail”/ATV trail instead of the road, and got to Kennecott Mine just as it was closing. In hindsight, we should have taken the shuttle up and biked down – the going was a little tough, and we didn’t have as much time as we would have liked to explore!
Kennecott Mine



We didn’t have time, but the Root Glacier Trail is a popular hike from the Mine Site – many people were returning from their day hikes out to the Glacier when we arrived.
Check out this list of things to do in McCarthy-Kennecott to help plan your visit!








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