McCarthy, Kennicott and the Root Glacier

The drive out of Valdez this morning wound up a deep canyon with dramatic waterfalls cascading from either side into a rushing gray river. With names like Bridaveil and Horsetail Falls, they easily rivaled their namesakes in National Parks around the country. This shot's from a side trip we did up Mineral Creek in the hills just above downtown Valdez. #dogochasingwaterfalls #valdez #airstreamtoalaska #toyotasequoia

Stopped a bit short of Chitina this afternoon so we could get a final empty and top off of the tanks before taking our time on the notorious McCarthy Road tomorrow. An empty campground beside the fairy tale Liberty Falls was just an unexpected treat. #libertyfalls #mccarthy #wrangellstelias

In tonight's installment of "It's Not Always Glamourous: Communications Edition," here's how I posted that last pic. JetPack in the Wilson cradle powered by the laptop and connected to a portable antenna suction cupped to the stop sign at the top of the hill. #suckitwilderness #picsoritdidnthappen #gnight!

Seemed like we set up the hammock at every campsite for a while there. Maybe it's been mosquitoes or too many beach sites without trees, but this location from what Wynne was calling "The Rainbow Tree" beside Liberty Creek was too good not to rig something up. #eno #enolife #enostyle #airstream #airstreamwithkids #airstreamtoalaska #liveriveted #myrivetedlife

If you Google "bearded father drives family and all their possesions including a variety of stringed instruments to mccarthy alaska," that's not me, but we still drove the road today. #pilgrimswilderness #mccarthy #wrangellstelias #airstream #airstreamtoalaska #liveriveted #myrivetedlife

60 miles of washboard and potholes, though there was a short section near the top with some decent pavement (okay, it was actually pretty wonky with frost heaves), but no road is ever as bad as people say. Damage report? 1) Broken Ball jar we use to hold kitchen utensils. It's actually held onto the cork countertops with some industrial strength Velcro which held perfectly; the top of the jar just rattled itself to pieces against the wall. 2) One of our cabinet latches that we added to keep the drawers closed. I know just when it happened too. Picked up speed after seeing some good pavement and hit a gnarly heave. Saw the trailer do a sickening waggle in the side mirror. 3) Two cracked shelves on the fridge door. Honestly, the top one was already pretty cracked. It seems *someone* keeps trying to jam more beer cans in it than actually fits. A little superglue and we should be back in business. Oh and 4) Bent entry steps but that was while trying to off-road into the perfect riverside campground on baby head boulders. If it was bent by a rock, I should be able to bend it back with one. #logic #airstreamprotip #airstream #airstreamtoalaska #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #mccarthy #wrangellstelias

Yeah, so that entire white part between the mountains is a glacier. One glacier. The Stairway Icefall on the Root Glacier to be exact. Abusive road justified and we haven't even explored the remote town of McCarthy or the abandoned Kennicott Mines. Or hiked out onto that glacier (which you can do!). #airstream #airstreamtoalaska #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #mccarthy #stairwayicefall #rootglacier

First priority after setting up camp, of course, is filling that pesky glacial torrent up with rocks. And there's that cute #littleredairstream again! #mccarthy #childhoodunplugged #airstreamwithkids #airstreamtoalaska #airstream

Draw! [then gets out markers and paper and makes stick figure drawings of her family] Took the free shuttle from the footbridge into town - the only bridge that can carry cars is just up the river from our campsite but residents pay $300 a year to use it - for dinner at the Golden Saloon, not to imply there are many other options for the 28 full time residents. Still, a good burger, lots of friendly folks and a glimpse into a bit of remote Alaskan life. Apparently, the open mic on Thursday at the Golden is packed, so I'll definitely be making at least one more trip into town. #mccarthy #wrangellstelias #airstreamtoalaska #childhoodunplugged

After a rainy night, the forecast calls for clearing (with scattered finger painting while the baby naps). Hadn't been able to see these mountains of Wrangell-St. Elias when we pulled in! #airstreamwithkids #airstream #airstreamtoalaska #myrivetedlife #liveriveted #mccarthy #wrangellstelias

In addition to being an incredibly patient trooper on a 2.5 hr tour through the Kennecott Mines, Wynne also managed to capture countless grasshoppers with her bare hands back at camp. I dub her Super Toddler today💪 Here, she is "helping" the grasshoppers out of the jar. #runforyourlives #mccarthy #alaska

What was originally mistaken for green grass on a high hillside turned out to be one of the largest copper strikes of all time. Some of the ore initially tested from the site showed up to a 70% concentration of the precious element, enough to justify the building of a railroad almost 200 miles across formidable terrain (including a bridge that cost over a million dollars in the early 1900's!) from Kennicott to the coast at Cordova where it could be shipped south for processing. That rail line is now the McCarthy road we drove in on. After 27 years of incredibly profitable mining began to yield lower and lower grade ore, one day in 1938, the 500 workers living in the company town of Kennecott below the mines were given 24 hours notice to pack up what they could and vacate. While early homesteaders in the McCarthy area helped themselves to many of the valuables including building materials like windows and roofing, for many years one could walk through the abandoned buildings of the town and find papers on the desks and food staples on the shelves just as they'd been left. Today, we took a great tour through the town and into the 14 story mill where the ore was processed. #Kennicott #Kennecott #wrangellstelias #copper #mining #ghosttown #airstreamtoalaska

For $27 a piece ($13.50 for the kids), we took a complete top to bottom tour of the mill, all 14 stories including many of original crushers and sorters, *massive* pieces of equipment that were hauled in in Winter on sleds pulled by horses so that there would be ore ready to load once the train tracks were complete. Of course, the NPS has determined that the building is safe to walk through - at least the route they've specified with plenty of additional handrails, oh and of course, bright red hard hats for safety - but seeing the way the structure was cobbled together and feeling the 100 year old wood creak under foot (especially with two kids in backpacks) quickened the pulse a bit. At one point our guide pointed out a turnbuckle connected to a cable from an anchor in the hillside to a large beam in the building and explained that with all the vibration and pounding of the machinery, the building tended to "loosen up a bit" and the turnbuckles were used to crank it back into place! #safetyfirst #Kennecott #wrangellstelias #mining #anythingforajuniorrangerbadge #advodnaxmascard

Over the years, they just kept adding to this mill building as they went, resulting in what is still the tallest wooden structure in North America (without a foundation). Red paint was the cheapest color they could find at the time. Everyone who visits with anything from the best camera in the world to our iPhone 6's now appreciates their thrift. #Kennecott #copper #mining #wrangellstelias

Mornin'! #wrangellstelias #mccarthy #dreamexplorediscover #followthesunapparel #elsadress

$5 shuttle ride (plus $20 to rent crampons in town) and a 2 mile hike and you're at the glacier. #heylookkidsaglacier #rootglacier #Kennecott #Kennicott #mccarthy #wrangellstelias #glacierbaby #deuter #babybackpack #babywearing

A stop at the bottom of the moraine to do what mountaineers do - fuel up with power food, strap on crampons and change the baby - then out onto the glacier. Remember, these huge slabs of ice are actually sliding down the mountain, so it's important to time it perfectly when jumping on (is what I explained to Ann). #rootglacier #mccarthy #deuter #babybackpack #babywearing #heylookkidsaglacier

Flying leaps on Kennicott Glacier. All Wynne talked about the whole way there was skating on the glacier. She couldn't quite understand that you can't skate with crampons. We had to give her a thrill somehow. #safetyfirst #glacierhike #kennicottglacier #kennecott #alaska

Absolutely every single person we've met in McCarthy and Kennecott has been really nice and welcoming. From the people driving the free shuttle from the footbridge to town to the people working at the gear store or serving food at The Potato or the Golden Saloon to the Park Rangers and guides from St. Elias Alpine Guides and Kennicott Wilderness Guides we passed on the trail or talked to at the Thursday open mic. I think after reading "Pilgrim's Wilderness," we both expected a little more of a "you can poke around, but don't bother us" attitude which haven't found at all. Instead, it's been questions about our travels, helpful suggestions on what to explore and encouragement for getting the kids out traveling and into nature early. The proximity of funky McCarthy, historic Kennecott and the stunning(ly accessible) Root Glacier makes the drive down a bumpy road completely worth it (though I'll report back this afternoon after driving back out!). #mccarthy #Kennecott #Kennicott #rootglacier #heylookkidsaglacier #familytravel #fulltimefamilies #fulltimetravel #advodnaxmascard

Junior Ranger badge number 8 is from Wrangell-St. Elias, the largest National Park in the U.S. and was also the best repeated pledge so far! #alsobestwardrobe #elsadress #followthesunapparel #dreamexplorediscover #juniorranger #wrangellstelias #nationalparks #fulltimefamilies

On the road to the ruins at Tikal in Guatemala, you're stopped at a checkpoint and given a slip of paper stamped with the time. If you arrive at the next checkpoint in under 20 minutes, they know you were speeding and will happily give you a ticket (link to our blog post from Tikal temporarily in profile or find it on the blog!). I took a similar approach to driving back out the McCarthy Road. It had taken us just under two and half hours on the way in. Today, In an effort to minimize damage inside the trailer, I challenged myself to make it take at least three full hours. While I drove *much* slower and hit my desired benchmark, we still managed to flip several of our cabinet latches up so drawers went everywhere, dump the teapot (full of water of course) out of an upper cabinet onto the floor, re-crack one of the shelves on the fridge door and (oh, I hadn't mentioned this one the first time around cause it took us a while to notice it) re-crack the hinge on our freezer door that I'd temporarily repaired with JB Weld (aka "Dada Play Doh"). Still completely worth it and the trailer was easy enough to put back together and new repairs of superglue and silicone are already underway. Note, the wooden trestle in the pic was part of the CR & NW Railway built to haul copper ore from Kennecott mine and was built in just 8 days... in Winter! #mccarthy #wrangellstelias #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #shakerattleandroll!

So, this is what our trailer looked like when we stepped back in it after driving the McCarthy Road back out to Chitina...also, our kettle full of water fell out of the cabinet and our freezer door is juuuuust about to fall off. Boots and the baby were added post drive 😜. #youvebeenwarned #potholes #washboard #mccarthyroad #alaska