8/8-11/2021 -Glennallen/Kennecott, Alaska

As the daily new cases of COVID-19 were spiraling down many months ago, we started to plan an extended summer vacation for this year. Alaska was easily on the top of our list. The first time we visited Alaska was 2017 on a seven-day Holland American Cruise to Alaska. We visited several coastal cities and Anchorage during the trip but never made up to Denali and Fairbanks. Although the initial thought was to visit all national parks in Alaska, after some research, we decided only to see two national parks, Denali and Wrangell-St. Elias accessible by vehicle. We hope we could visit other parks in the future.

We flyto Anchorage on Aug. 8th and drive three and a half hours to Caribou Hotel at Glennallen for the night. The hotel is old and not well maintained. At least we have a few hours of good sleep. The shuttle to McCarthy/Kennecott picks us up at the hotel at 7:00 am. On the way to Chitina, the driver, Jason, picks up seven more passengers. Jason is very quiet but good at spotting the wildlife. The highway ends at Chitina. The road from Chitina to McCarthy is unpaved but well maintained. Many travel advisory websites warn not to drive rental cars on McCarthy Road. The road condition is better than any forest road we often drove on before. Although we could easily drive to McCarthy by ourselves without any issue, we believe we made the right decision to leave the driving to the other so we can enjoy the scenic view along the road.

After four hours slow ride, we get off the shuttle bus at the footbridge over Kennicott River near McCarthy. We walk over the bridge with our suitcases to the other side to meet our hotel shuttle from Kennicott Glacier Lodge. Our initial impression is that the only way to McCarthy/Kennecott is to walk over this long footbridge. We wonder how the people who live in the town get vehicles and other supplies over to the other side of the river. Do they drive across the river during the winter when it is frozen, we even asked? No. The fact is that the car bridge is not too far away from the footbridge for the residents of the towns to drive through. It is another Alaska tourist marketing trick we fall for. However, it is the best way to control car traffic in a remote town where the main road is muddy and poorly maintained.

Kennecott is 5.5 miles away from the footbridge. We arrive at The Kennicott Glacier Lodge, the only public accommodation in the town. The lodge faces the rocky, dirty-looking Kennecott Glacier, not the clean white glacier we expected. Too early to check-in, so we store our luggage in the lobby and go to the dining hall for lunch. The lodge has a three-meal plan that costs $65 per person. As soon as we finish our lunch, our room is ready. We stay at South Wing Building, a new building with private bathrooms. The main building was a mine-worker dormitory many years ago. The rooms in the main building has only shared bathrooms. After settling down in our room, we walk across the street to Alpine Guide Office to sign up for the tour to the mill in the afternoon and the glacier hike the following day.

The dinner is one seating at 7 pm with a fixed menu. The food is okay, but the weather is perfect, turning from rain to sunshine before dinner. All couples are seated outside. We have a great time. Three tables down, we overhear an old lady and her grandson talking loudly to other guests about their trip. She is the famous Grandma Joy, visiting 58 th out of 61 national parks with her grandson. After the meal, we do a google search on her. Her story is amazing and inspiring.

Wrangell-St Elias National Park is the largest national park in the US, with more than 13 million acres. It is a very primitive national park. However, inside the park, there is an old copper mining town, Kennecott. At the peak, the copper mill employed more than 500 people. $100 million had been invested in the infrastructures and equipment, and the mill produced $200 million worth of copper. It is a national historic site now. After National Park Service acquired the mill, the site has been renovated. The mill tour takes us to inside the building. The milling operation was highly automatic in the standard of its time. The mill was shut down in 1938 and became a ghost town until National Park Service took over it.

The following day, we go on a glacier hike with a guide and another couple, Mary and Philips, from Maine. Our guide was Alex from the Alpine Guides. We hike 2 miles on the dirt trail, then 0.5 mile on the white Root Glacier. The weather is drizzling, but the scene is beautiful. The glacier extends miles and miles. After a five-hour hike, we get back to the lodge, have a quick lunch, and take the hotel shuttle back to the footbridge. Once again, we walk over the long footbridge with our suitcase to the other side of the river. Our shuttle driver Jason is waiting for us. On our way back to Glennallen, we see a black bear on the roadside.

We have Thai take-out tonight. The food is terrible.

• We use Kennecott and Kennicott through the writing up. Kennicott was used for river and glacier. When the mill was started, someone misspelled the name with e instead i for the place.