Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve
A dynamic land marked by some of the nation’s highest peaks and the continent’s largest collection of glaciers, Wrangell-St. Elias is known for its mountains. The park is rich in natural resources and Native heritage, with an assortment of landscapes, climates, plant species, and wildlife.

Quick Links: Park Service Links -- Other Resources -- Tips for Visitors -- Natural Highlights -- Historical Highlight -- Cultural Highlight

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Tips for Visitors
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• Visitor centers pop up in strategic locations in the largest of America’s national parks.

• Fly over the park’s massive peaks and vast glaciers to truly appreciate the expanse of wilderness here.

• Hike to a glacier from the visitor center in Kennecott.

• Float the Chitina or Copper rivers for a wild backcountry experience.

• Drive the park’s gravel roads—McCarthy and Nebesna—to get into the park. What they lack in services (none) they make up for in the sheer expanse of wildness.

Natural Highlights

• The park is part of one of the largest internationally protected ecosystems on the planet, and a designated World Heritage Site.

• A land of superlatives exist here: Largest national park in the U.S., more than half of the country’s highest peaks, the longest non-polar valley glacier, and some of the richest deposits of copper and gold were discovered here.

Historical Highlight

One of the park’s featured attractions is the historic mining town of Kennecott, once the center of activity for several productive copper mines in the early 1900s. In 1916, the peak year for production, the five mines produced copper ore valued at $32.4 million. Today’s visitors can tour the abandoned mill, hike to several old mine sites, or go ice climbing or trekking on nearby glaciers.

Cultural Highlight
The park takes its name from the two mountain ranges that surround this rugged land. The Wrangell Mountains were named after Baron Ferdinand Petrovich von Wrangell (1796-1870), a Russian Naval officer, arctic explorer, and government administrator. Mount St. Elias was the first piece of Alaska mainland to catch the eye of explorer Vitus Bering when he ventured beyond Siberia and spotted the lofty peak on July 16, 1741, the feast day of Saint Elias.