Not far out of Anchorage, on the Glenn highway lies some amazing scenery; glaciers, wild rivers, animals, everything you can imagine
If you go to Alaska you might as well go the most remote part you can find right? Well short of flying on planes, which was out of the budget, going to the middle of 13 million acre Wrangell St Elias National Park seemed to fit the bill. Now the park is huge so to say we went beyond exploring the tip of the iceberg would be wrong but we had a great time and it was insanely beautiful and remote. We stayed near a town called McCarthy which was about 300 miles from Anchorage, the final 60 on a dirt road located on an abandon railroad. McCarthy was a town built to support a massive mine, the Kennecott, that produces 200 million dollars worth of copper between 1911 and 1938. Kennecott copper is still is existence, they own the copper mine outside Salt Lake actually. So you have a town abandon in 1938 and slowly re-inhabited. It is a crazy place; the buildings are the same as 1938 but people live in them. The mine is 5 miles up the road and in a state of arrested decay/restoration. Not to mention it is surrounded mountains up to 16,390’ tall covered in glaciers. If you want a beautiful, rugged, remote place with mind blowing scenery then this is the place. There is a glacier 120 miles long and 3,000 feet thick, there are grizzly bears and every other large mammal. People seem to love it up there, they go up for a visit and never return, it has that kind of pull.
A Mother Moose and offspring graze near Kenny Lake Alaska, not far from Thompson Pass where the riding goes down outside Valdez
The road to McCarthy follows and abandon railroad line, which in it’s time was amazing feat to build. At one point they built the railroad over a glacier. It was deemed impossible to build but now you can rent a Kia Rio and cruise down it, hoping your tires make the journey because there are no services what so ever
More of the 60 mile long dirt road, over all it was pretty good with a few rough spots, took about 2.5-3hours to go 60 miles
The Kennecott mine with the Kennecott Glacier grinding away right out front. What looks like dirt piles is actually dirt covered ice. As a glacier grinds out the mountains, much material ends up falling on top of the ice
Root Glacier. Up in Alaska you are free to wander around where ever; go fall in a crevase, go tease grizzly bears, whatever
A huge building in the midst of vast wilderness
The actual mines were 4,000 vertical feet up the mountain and served by tramways. There are stories of people using the trams for skiing in the winter
This building is like 270 feet tall or something
16,390’ Mount Blackburn 
The road is closed to the public about ½ mile form the town of McCarthy and 5 miles from the Kennecott mine. We got to rent an ATV cheap to cross the bridge and drive up to the mine. In the summer there are shuttle’s but after Sep 15th you are on your own
Whenever we made dinner Sable would show up. We brought our food since all the places to eat were closed
Feeding the birds on the porch. Our host was actually from Escondido, CA but fell in love with Alaska 20 years ago. He told us where to look for Grizzly Bears (did not see any) invited us to have beers with his friends and made sure we had what we needed
The town of McCarthy closed on September 15th, literally someone was walking around turning off the water and power. Some residents do stay all year
The bar had a final party with free food and beer. Too bad we arrived 2 days after the party
Not really a ghost town, originally abandon in 1938 and slowly re in habited, currently this building is occupied
No one really talks about fall colors in Alaska but there is a lot
More of the town, people living a hardscrabble life in a rugged beautiful area
Dall Sheep on the highway back to Anchorage
Back in Anchorage, people said the best place to look for wildlife was Anchorage - near the airport and they were right. The moose come down to feed in the marshy areas