Six Yellowstones fit inside this Alaska park but almost no one visits

America’s biggest park isn’t crowded

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park covers 13.2 million acres of southeastern Alaska, and in 2024, only about 81,670 people showed up.

That’s roughly the size of Yellowstone, Yosemite and Switzerland combined, with a fraction of the foot traffic. Four mountain ranges collide here: the Wrangell, St. Elias, Chugach and a portion of the Alaska Range.

Nine of the 16 highest peaks in the country stand inside the park. There’s no entrance fee.

And once you’re in, the wilderness swallows you whole.

From Ahtna homeland to copper rush to national park

The land belongs first to the Ahtna Athabascan people, whose ties to this ground stretch back long before any miner showed up.

Copper changed everything in 1900, when prospectors found massive deposits and built the Kennecott operation deep in the mountains. The area became a national monument in 1978, then a full national park on Dec. 2, 1980.

Today it shares a UNESCO World Heritage designation with Canada’s Kluane, Glacier Bay and Tatshenshini-Alsek, forming one of the largest protected wilderness areas on Earth.

Peaks over 18,000 feet and a steaming volcano

Mount St. Elias rises to 18,008 feet, the second-highest peak in the country. Mount Blackburn hits 16,390 feet.

Mount Sanford reaches 16,237. The St. Elias Range forms the highest coastal mountain range in the world, and the numbers stack up fast once you start counting summits.

Then there’s Mount Wrangell, standing at 14,163 feet, one of the largest active volcanoes in North America. Steam still rises from its summit from time to time.

A quarter of the park sits under glacial ice

About 25 percent of Wrangell-St. Elias hides beneath glaciers.

The Malaspina Glacier alone is a piedmont glacier roughly the size of Rhode Island, the largest of its kind in North America.

The Bagley Icefield stretches about 127 miles, making it the biggest nonpolar icefield on the continent. The Nabesna Glacier ranks as one of the longest valley glaciers in North America.

You can see many of these from the air on flightseeing tours, or get close on guided glacier hikes.

Walk onto Root Glacier with crampons on your boots

Root Glacier is the easiest glacier to reach in the park, just a moderate 1.5-mile walk from Kennecott.

You can step onto the ice on your own, but a guide and crampons make the difference between a walk and a real exploration. Blue pools sit in the ice.

Waterfalls pour through canyons carved into the glacier. Crevasses and moulins drop into darkness below your feet.

The roughly 7,000-foot Stairway Icefall towers above, and Mount Blackburn fills the sky behind it at 16,390 feet.

A 14-story wooden mill still stands at Kennecott

The Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark preserves a copper mining operation from the early 1900s. Between 1911 and 1938, miners pulled nearly $200 million worth of copper out of these mountains, in 1938 dollars.

At its peak, 500 to 600 workers lived in this remote company town, surrounded by glaciers and rock. The 14-story wooden mill building still stands, one of the tallest wooden structures in North America.

The National Park Service took over the site in 1998 and runs guided tours through the buildings.

Cross the footbridge into tiny McCarthy

McCarthy and Kennecott sit at the end of the 59-mile McCarthy Road, deep inside the park. You can’t drive directly into McCarthy.

You park, cross a footbridge over the river and either catch a shuttle or walk in. McCarthy grew in the early 1900s as a supply and social hub for Kennecott miners.

The McCarthy-Kennecott Historical Museum runs a self-guided walking tour through the area’s past. Old rail spikes from the Copper River and Northwestern Railway still turn up on the roads around town.

See 13 million acres from a small plane

With only two roads cutting into 13 million acres, the air is one of the best ways to understand how big this place really is.

Flightseeing tours leave from McCarthy and Chitina, carrying you over the Bagley Icefield, past peaks above 16,000 feet and along glaciers that stretch to the horizon.

Some tours land in the backcountry, dropping you into wilderness with no trails and no people. You can see Mount Wrangell’s volcanic dome and sweeping icefield views that no road will ever reach.

Dall sheep, brown bears and free-roaming bison

Wrangell-St. Elias holds one of the largest concentrations of Dall sheep in North America. Brown bears and black bears move through the park, especially near berry patches and salmon streams in late summer.

Moose hang around willow bogs and lakeshores. Caribou from the Mentasta and Chisana herds cross the tundra on seasonal migrations.

Bison, released into the Copper River Valley back in 1950, still roam parts of the area. Over 200 bird species live here, including bald eagles and trumpeter swans.

Drive the 42-mile Nabesna Road with no services in sight

The Nabesna Road runs 42 miles along the park’s north side, one of only two roads in. Miners built it in 1933 to reach gold and silver claims, almost 50 years before this became a national park.

Mount Sanford stands at 16,237 feet and dominates the view ahead. Along the way, you pass kettle lakes, wetlands full of birds and trailheads for day hikes.

The road is mostly gravel with no services, so check conditions at the Slana Ranger Station before you head in.

Raft the rivers and hike where trails don’t exist

Rivers are one of the main ways into the deep backcountry.

Guided rafting trips range from calm floats to full whitewater runs, depending on how much you want your heart rate up. Backpacking here takes real preparation because marked trails barely exist.

Bush planes can drop you at remote airstrips for multi-day treks where you won’t see another person. If glaciers are more your thing, local guide services run ice climbing trips on Root Glacier for all experience levels.

Fewer than 82,000 visitors came in 2024

Yellowstone draws over four million visitors a year. Wrangell-St. Elias saw about 81,670 in 2024.

That gap tells you everything about what it feels like to be here: no crowds, no noise, just open country in every direction.

Most visitor services run from mid-May through mid-September, so plan your trip inside that window. Cell service barely works throughout the park.

You come here to disconnect, and the park makes that easy whether you want it to or not.

Explore Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska

You can reach Wrangell-St. Elias by driving about 300 miles east of Anchorage, roughly six hours on the road.

Start at the Copper Center Visitor Center on the Richardson Highway, where you’ll find exhibits, ranger programs and the Ahtna Cultural Center next door.

The 59-mile McCarthy Road from Chitina is mostly gravel, and not all rental car companies allow their vehicles on it. You can also fly into McCarthy from Chitina on scheduled flights.

Give yourself at least three days to take in the glaciers, history and wilderness.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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