Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is probably the biggest place you know almost nothing about.
While the park off the Richardson Highway is the nation's largest, it lacks some of the attention received by its smaller in-state cousins - Denali, Kenai Fjords and Glacier Bay.
Wrangell-St. Elias is 13.2 million acres, twice as big as Denali National Park and Preserve. Yet Denali receives about 400,000 annual visitors and Wrangell-St. Elias gets about 10 percent of that. Glacier Bay has 3.2 million acres, while Kenai Fjords is just 607,000 acres.
Things at Wrangell-St. Elias are big, they just aren't crowded.
"We are the biggest national park in the United States and have more than half of the glacial ice in the entire state of Alaska inside the park," said Smitty Parratt, chief interpreter at the park. "Here you're going to have the opportunity for great backcountry experiences. We've got some of the wildest, most active geologically terrain in the world.
"The park is never really crowded. If you get into the backcountry, you won't see other people."
What you will see a lot of are mountains.
Wrangell-St. Elias is home to the nation's second-tallest mountain, 18,008-foot Mount St. Elias. The mountain doesn't stand alone. Four ranges - the Alaska, the Chugach, the Wrangell and the St. Elias - converge at the park, which is home to nine of the nation's 16 tallest mountains.
Flowing out of those mountains are dozens of glaciers, many of them among the largest anywhere. The massive Malaspina Glacier is larger than Rhode Island, while the 80-mile-long Nebesna Glacier is North America's longest. The Hubbard Glacier is one of the most active tidewater glaciers in Alaska. It stretches 76 miles from the Yukon territory to the sea at Yakutat. The calving face of the glacier is six miles wide. Parratt said several cruise ships visited Hubbard Glacier last year. According to passengers on Holland America, the glacier was the No. 1-rated visitor experience, Parratt said.
Air taxi companies will deliver visitors into the park. Those who want to drive have two primitive roads. The 59-mile McCarthy Road lets visitors travel from Chitina to McCarthy. They can expect the trip to be slow and bumpy.
Once in the park, many visitors head straight for the abandoned Kennecott Copper Corp.'s mine, especially the 14-story mill in Kennicott. (The names of the town and the mine are spelled differently.)
"It's really interesting to walk around or tour the mill," Parratt said. "The mill town is never really crowded. You can find a nice quiet nook to paint or take a picture or take a nice walk. It's a nice educational experience. You can really learn about the mining history."
Tours inside the mill are offered by St. Elias Alpine Guides (www.steliasguides.com , 1-888-933-5427). In addition to the 21u20442-hour guided tour inside the mill ($25), the company offers ice trekking on Root Glacier ($60 to $100) and a variety of other outdoor activities.
Special sections editor Steve Edwards can be reached at sedwards@adn.com or 257-4316. Visit his Alaska travel blog at www.alaska.com/alaskology.
