Wrangell - Saint Elias National Park and Preserve, Sept 7,8

This will go through some updates, as I have a slow connection tonight in Haines.

AND, I'm updating old posts - check them out.

Wrangell-Elias is the largest park in North America. Over 13.2 million acres, in the southeast part of the state (it also links with Canadian parks to extend farther south along the west coast).

There are only two roads into it...

We went 30 miles down the first (Edgerton Highway) to Chitina, hoping to go the full 90 to Kennicott, and discovered there was a bridge that had been damaged during the summer at about mile 45, which wouldn't handle more than 6000 lbs. safely (we're closer to 8,000). So we crossed the Copper River and turned around.

We drove north to the other entrance (at Slana), for the Nabesna road, and stopped at the Ranger station to check on road conditions. Some creeks were running across the road, but she thought we could make it the entire thirty odd miles. So we had lunch on Rufus Creek,

 Finally we drove through the creeks, dodging hunters (their trucks, ATVs) and found a spot at the farthest unmaintained campground, on the river. It was gorgeous.

Finally, driving out towards Tok, we saw a couple of moose. Although they are one of the most prevalent large animals in Alaska, and more of them seem to have been killed on the highways than by wolves, we hadn't seen any on this trip outside of Denali.  That's now changed.

Most of you know what a moose looks like - if you want to see one up close, come visit us (Deb and me) in Hailey in October/November.