We went to the Visitor’s Center for the Wrangell - St Ellias National Park & Preserve. It is located about 10 miles south of Glennallen on the Richardson Highway. The same highway we will take tomorrow to go to Valdez. Although you may have never heard of this national park, is it the largest national park in the US. By comparison, it is about six times the size of Yellowstone and Yellowstone is huge. The park has 9 of the 16 tallest mountains in the US. It has a glacier, the Malaspina Glacier, that is larger than Rhode Island. There are only two roads into the park and both are reported to being very rough. In Alaska, “very rough” means like nothing you probably have ever driven on.
The Visitor’s Center is very impressive. They have a film about the park and multiple displays. While we were there we also heard several short talks by Rangers. One was about river otters that live in the park and the other was about the assent of the 16,390 foot Mt Blackburn in 1912 by Dora Keen and George Handy.
Here is a fish wheel that sets at the Visitor’s Center. The Native Americans place these along the river banks when the salmon are running. The wheel is propelled by the running water. It scoops up fish and deposits them in a basket on the side.
Everyone has heard the comment, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait 10 minutes.” In Alaska this seems to be really true. From the Visitor’s Center, there are some impressive peaks that can be observed. Today the only one to show itself was Mt Drum. A few minutes before this picture the whole top of the mountain was shrouded in clouds.
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