State(s): Alaska
Link: https://www.nps.gov/wrst/index.htm
Days: 1
Month: August
Hotel: Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge
Hikes: 1 = 4 miles
National Park Visit Order: #24
Ice Cream: N/A
This post continues our Alaska Cruisetour Series, where we’re recapping our 15-day adventure — 7 days at sea with 8 days on land, taking us to 4 National Parks: Glacier Bay National Park, Kenai Fjords National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and Denali National Park. Additionally, we made it to 1 National Historical Park: Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. It wasn’t perfect — we ran into a few hiccups — but overall, this trip delivered the kind of adventure we were hoping for.
Day 1
We kicked things off with the Kennicott Explorer excursion, a 3.5-hour van ride to Kennicott, followed by about 5 hours to explore the area.
We made a quick stop for gas along the side of the road, then a brief stop at Liberty Falls — a nice little waterfall right off the road.
Between stops, we spotted a couple of bunnies, and then made our way to the Kuskulana Bridge. It was a really cool stop — we got out to check out the bridge and walk across it. From there, we continued on; the gravel road wasn’t bad for most of the drive since it had just been regraded the day before.
We stopped for lunch at the Meatza Wagon. I had the Three Little Pigs, and Colleen had the chicken tacos. The food was just okay, and it took about 40 minutes to get our order once we’d ordered — between the wait and the cost, we were expecting a bit more.
Fair warning for anyone heading this way: the flies and mosquitoes are vicious. Come prepared.
We hiked the Root Glacier Trail, a moderate out-and-back trail running about 4 miles round trip from the historic Kennecott mill town, with roughly 400 feet of elevation gain. It’s considered one of the most accessible glacier hikes in Alaska, winding through scrub forest before opening up to sweeping views of the glacier and surrounding peaks. Along the way, we stopped at a nicely flowing waterfall that cooled us off quite a bit — the air temperature was 64 degrees, but with the sun beating down it felt closer to 80. The newer section of the trail is quite steep, which made both the descent and the climb back up pretty tiring. Touching the glacier itself was a highlight — the water was ice cold, but incredibly refreshing. On the way back, we stopped by the waterfall again to cool off one more time.
We swung by the visitor center on our way out to grab a stamp for our National Parks passport.
On the drive back to the lodge, an RV clipped our side mirror off and didn’t stop — we ended up chasing them down before continuing on. Once we got going again, we made a quick stop at a trestle bridge, which ended up being our only stop on the return trip. Unfortunately, the incident put us well behind schedule, so we missed out on stopping at any of the other scenic spots along the way.
We wrapped up the night with dinner back at the lodge, then packed our bags for the next morning. Then we continued on our Alaska Cruisetour Series – Land journey.
