Alaska - Day 16

We got up early for our last full day in Alaska to explore Kennecott. I have to say that 2 of my favorite days in Alaska were spent at old mines because while there I learned so much about the history, culture, and the people of Alaska in the past.  Not surprising really since I love history.  Plus, it is amazing for me to see what sort of exploration and engineering feats they could accomplish in such harsh weather conditions, rugged terrain, and in the middle of nowhere.  Anyway, when we got there most of the buildings and the visitors center wasn't open yet so we quickly set off for a hike to the Root Glacier and stopped along the way for some quick pictures.

 As we walked through town we got a great view of the Kennicott Glacier.  The day before when Brent and I were walking across the footbridge to McCarthy, Brent stated that it felt like there was a bunch of cold glacier air. We were walking over a glacier fed river so that would kind of make sense but then we noticed that just to our left was a huge glacier that was kind of hard to initially notice because it was totally covered in sediment.  That is Kennicott Glacier in the picture below.  It was huge and literally filled the entire valley.  Back in the time when Kennecott was thriving there are pictures of the glacier being even larger. It actually rose above the city in the winter time so that the town was in a valley between a glacier and the mountains.  It is hard to really describe this glacier. Turns out it is really hard to describe most glaciers in a few words and a little picture.

 Feeding into the Kennicott Glacier is the Root Glacier.  One of the most popular activities in Kennecott is to go on a guided glacier hike onto Root Glacier.  You can literally just leave the hiking trail and step onto the glacier and explore the entire valley filled with ice.  Since Brent and I have been on glaciers before we opted to get in a good hike and were lucky to see the blue sky start to peek out and were treated to the Stairway Icefall that we weren't expecting.  The entire time we were hiking we could hear the ice cracking and moaning as it moved along. I know a lot of these pictures kind of look the same but I just had to include them all. The picture below shows the Kennicott Glacier coming in from the left, the Root Glacier coming in  from the right, and covered with perpetual snow in the background is Mt. Blackburn at 16,390 ft.

 Like I said, we were surprised by the Stairway Icefall.  We thought we were just going to hike along the Root Glacier for a while and turn around when we were ready. But then we caught a glimpse of the icefall and luckily the clouds kept clearing so we decided to keep hiking and were rewarded with the following views of a massive icefall.

 We spent the next while at the visitor's center learning about Kennecott and exploring the buildings.  When we were walking through one of the old houses Brent and I realized that although this placed seemed like it was from a completely different time, our own house is actually older than most of the buildings at Kennecott. That made us laugh.  An interesting fact about the mines.  The first copper was actually discovered when two explorers noticed a large green patch of what they thought would be good grazing ground for their horses.  Turns out that it was all copper and Kennecott grew from there.

 I think this is one of my favorite pictures form our trip. It has it all...a historic place, a huge glacier, beautiful mountains, a very tall snow capped mountain, and us looking a little dirty and gross but really happy.

 These are all photos from our drive out on the McCarthy Road. Photos are so much nicer with light and some blue sky.  We drove most of the way back to Anchorage that evening and couldn't stop talking about how cool Kennecott and the surrounding areas were. We were so glad we made time for it.

Alaska - Day 15

The best thing about turning our 5 day kayaking trip into a long 3 day trip was that we were able to get to Wrangell St. Elias National Park.  Most people haven't even heard of this national park or most of the other national parks in Alaska.  However, it is kind of a big deal.  This national park is the largest national park, it is larger than 9 states, and it has 9 of the 16 tallest peaks in North America within its borders. Its grandeur is impossible tocomprehend.  We've decided a great plan for our next Alaska trip would just be a couple weeks in the park taking a bush plane from area to area throughout the weeks.  

There are only two roads into the park.  The Nabesna Road goes in 42 miles on dirt in the North. The McCarthy Road goes in 60 miles to McCarthy and Kennecott and is a dirt road that used to be the old railroad.  We took the rental Hyndai down a pretty beat up McCarthy road so that we could get to Kennecott.  Along the way there were such great views and amazing history.

I'll post more pictures specifically of Kennecott tomorrow but some history is good to know.  The Kennecott copper mines operated from 1911 to 1938. In order to get the copper from Kennecott to Cordova, crews worked non stop through temperatures as low as 40 below to build the railroad over 196 miles of rugged territory.  This is the Kuskulana Bridge, built in the winter of 1910 and is 238 feet above the river below. It is still only as wide as the railroad was so only one car can go at a time.

This is the Gilahina Trestle.  About 35 miles of the 196 miles of railroad from Kennecott to Cordova was bridges and trestles.  

Once you get to the end of the McCarthy Road, the only way into McCarthy and Kennecott is to walk across a foot bridge over the river. No vehicles are allowed. McCarthy is a little town across the river that really only consists of one main dirt road, a museum that was awesome, some outfitters, and some hotels (and by hotels I mean the main street buildings that were hotels and lodging places back in the day, not the Ritz Carleton or anything).  Many of the buildings there are original and you really kind of get an idea of what it may have been like in the past.