Wrangell-St. Elias National Park
One of the world’s true masterpieces.
Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest national park in the country. Kennicott-McCarthy’s location right in the middle of it gives us unparalleled access to an incomparable wilderness.
Within a day’s hike from our office you can be on the white ice of scenic glaciers, paddling on wild lakes and rivers, or hiking in pristine alpine. With multiple days and a bush plane ride, you can access this epic wilderness of off trail hiking, rivers made for packrafting, and world class backpacking. Wrangell-St. Elias is a world class destination for adventurers of all kinds.
The park is a landscape of towering peaks, glacier filled valleys and forests without end. The scale of the land itself can be hard to comprehend. The three tallest volcanoes in the country, Mt. Bona 16,550 ft, Mt. Blackburn 16,390 ft, and Mt Sanford 16,237 ft soar above the clouds and the glaciers that flow off them feed rivers that run hundreds of miles to the ocean. As the most glaciated part of North America and home of some of the largest glacier features on the planet, the park offers an unparalleled opportunity to experience a world still being carved by ice. Boasting four major mountain ranges and nine of the 16 highest peaks in the United States, the skyline is dominated by high peaks with countless unnamed 10,000 ft to 7,000 ft peaks in the foreground.
Wrangell-St. Elias is roughly the size of Switzerland with only two dirt roads; the McCarthy Road in the south, and Nabesna Road in the north. Most of the park is roadless, trailless and wild. It’s the largest wilderness area in the National Wilderness Preservation System. It is also part of the world’s largest international protected wilderness, along with its neighbors Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve, the Canadian Kluane National Park & Reserve and Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park.
- Largest national park in the United States.
- Largest wilderness area in the National Wilderness Preservation System.
- Designated as a World Heritage Site with Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve, the Canadian neighbors Kluane National Park & Reserve and Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park. (Making this the world’s largest international protected wilderness.)
- Four major mountain ranges:Wrangell, St. Elias, Chugach, and the eastern part of the Alaskan Range.
- Mt. St. Elias, at 18,008 feet (5.5km), is the second highest peak in the United States.
- Nine of the 16 highest peaks in the United States.
- Mt. Wrangell, at 14,163 feet (4.3km), is one of the largest active volcanoes in North America.
- The Nabesna Glacier, at approximately 53 miles (85km), is the longest valley glacier in North America and the world’s longest interior valley glacier.
- The Malaspina Glacier, larger than the state of Rhode Island, is the largest non-polar piedmont glacier in North America.
- The Hubbard Glacier is one of the largest and most active tidewater glaciers in North America.