Wrangell - St. Elias National Park

DISTANCE Approximately 28 miles round-trip.

TIME: Seven to eight days depending on side trips and route taken.

TERRAIN: Trail, scree, some brush, streambeds, rocky, glacial ice.

ACCESS: From McCarthy to Kennicott by local shuttle bus, or by walking the 4.5-mile gravel road.

ROUTE: The trail begins on the north end of the town of Kennicott as a gravel wagon road that once led to the Erie Mine approximately 4 miles along the Root Glacier. The trail crosses Bonanza Creek after only 1/2 mile. About 1 mile along the trail you will have to hike up and around Jumbo Creek, which cuts a deep narrow gorge across the trail. You can either wade across the stream, or cross it on the planks that are usually present about 50 yards upstream. Once across, the trail becomes a single path following the top of the lateral moraine. Another mile down the trail you will cross the dry outwash plain of Amazon Creek. The stream seeps into the ground several hundred yards upstream of the trail. The stream usually surfaces just downstream of the trail but later in the summer when water levels are lower, it doesn't resurface. The trail angles slightly uphill as you cross the stream bed. A good campsite can be found by hiking down the stream bed about a hundred yards or so, then diagonalling downhill and to your right towards two larger rocks. There are a couple of patches of sand and small gravel that make good tent sites. Across the dry stream bed the trail cuts through a brushy section before you break out on top of the moraine again. The trail meanders in and out of the brush and along the top of the moraine from here to the Erie Mine.

Once at the Erie Mine, the trail follows the top of the moraine until you are cut off by a steep ridge. Here you must climb down over loose scree to the edge of the glacier. (An alternate route is to hike down at the Erie Mine and follow between the moraine and the glacier. It is extremely rocky and uncomfortable hiking. A campsite can be made in the small, sandy patches just below the Erie Mine. Generally, water can be found in pools in the rocks closer to the glacier.) Once down along the glacier, below the steep ridge, you can follow the trough that has been formed between the glacier ice and the lateral moraine. It is relatively flat. After several hundred yards, you will be forced to hike onto the glacier ice. It is relatively flat and possible to hike without crampons, but you may wish to carry crampons for extra safety. (The glacier is referred to as being "dry" since the winter snow covering melts off by the first of May. The crevasses are exposed.) The glacier has formed a joukaloup (glacial dammed lake) to your right. You will want to hike around this lake on the ice several hundred yards to the left of the lake. (It generally drains by mid-June and has numerous large icebergs beached in the basin.) As you cross the glacier, you will see a waterfall straight ahead on the east side of the glacier. This is your landmark as you cross the glacier. Try to diagonal towards it. You will be hiking up the brushy hillside to the right of the waterfall. Diagonal across the rock covered portion of the glacier to reach the lateral moraine. Go a couple hundred yards to the right of the waterfall; your final destination is the top of the waterfall. It gets extremely brushy near the top of the waterfall, so take your time.

From the top of the waterfall, hike up the stream, watching for the trail on the left hand side of the water. The trail leads to an area suitable for camping on top of the "knob" or "knoll" as it has been called (elevation 3,800'). This is a beautiful spot that offers one of the best views of the Stairway Icefall. From here you are going to cross Bonanza Ridge and drop down into the McCarthy Creek drainage to the east. From the knob you can look along the ridge and see the lower pass that you will be hiking through, a 5,400' pass between P 5,905' and P 6,506'. From the knob, hike down to the north, winding your way down through the low brush to reach the top of the moraine. Follow the top of the moraine to reach the foot of the hillside leading to the pass. Hike up the grassy hillside, then rock scree to the low pass. A campsite can be made in the loose shale in the pass. The pass offers views to the west across the Donoho Peak ridge towards Mt. Blackburn, and to the east of the peaks above McCarthy Creek and the glaciers flowing off the flanks of Regal Mountain. You will be hiking down the stream drainage that drops off the east side of the ridge into the McCarthy Creek Valley. Hike down the hillside to reach the valley floor below. The trail along McCarthy Creek cuts back and forth across the stream several times as it goes down the valley. The trail may be hard to follow as it is not regularly maintained. You may want to follow the easiest path down the stream to avoid the brush.

Five and a half miles down the valley is the Motherlode Mine tram station. The actual mine site is on the west side of the valley 3,000 feet up the hillside. The trail below the tram station crosses McCarthy Creek and follows the old wagon road on the west side of the creek from the east. (You may want to add days to your trip and hike up to camp at Nikolai Pass (4,200'). It is a beautiful alpine region that offers great views of the area east of the Nizina River. The pass looks down at the Nizina River some 2,500' below. There is an old wagon road that goes along the south side of Nikolai Creek leading up to the Nikolai Mine that provides access to the alpine slopes around Nikolai Pass. The trail down McCarthy Creek to the town of McCarthy follows the east side of the river from here. A horse packer has been using the trail for several years and it is well traveled. When you reach the town of McCarthy, the residents have put up a log bridge across McCarthy Creek, which makes it easy for hikers to get back across the creek.

POTENTIAL HAZARDS: Travel with caution near and around glacial melt pools and river potholes. The fine glacier silt may look dry but it can be very slippery. The melt pools are also extremely cold. Travel on the glacier itself is very dangerous, and not recommended: Contrary to visual first impressions, there is only a thin layer of rocks covering the ice. Even with crampons it is very difficult to obtain traction on the slippery surface.