Road to McCarthy and Kennecott Mine

We decided to do a 3 day trip to McCarthy and the Kennecott Mine. With 4 adults and a dog in a Eagle Cap cab over camper. The camper does have one slide out, so there is a little extra room.

The road to McCarthy from Chitina is 60 miles long and gravel. The road used to be a the old rail road track, so there may be a left over rail road spike to jump up and attack your tires. Although we didn't get a flat tire on the road we did manage a flat tire on a sharp rock at the campground. The problem with the road is some people tend to drive like they are on pavement. Several vehicles went by very fast and kicked rocks up.

Here is a link for the map of the route. Palmer to McCarthy

In the early 1900’s prospectors discovered a rich deposit of copper ore near what is now the town of Kennecott.  Mines, a concentration mill, and a company town were quickly established to support the extraction of the valuable metal. The management of the mine decided that a railroad would provide the much needed transportation and the 196 mile Copper River and Northwestern Railroad was constructed between 1907 and 1911.  Beginning at the coast in Cordova, the railroad was a monumental feat of engineering as it crossed raging rivers, active glaciers, bogs, and impenetrable forests on its way to Kennecott.  However, once completed, the railroad provided the much needed transportation and was vital for the success of the mines in Kennecott. The railroad operated for 27 years until the mines closed in 1938. Over 200 million dollars worth of copper was removed from the area. Eventually, the rails and ties were removed from the road bed and the road was first graded for vehicles in the 1960’s.


A picture just getting on to the Edgerton Highway. The Edgerton Highway is 33 miles long that goes from the Richardson Highway to Chitina. The McCarthy road starts at Chitina and ends at McCarthy.

Looking into the Copper River from the Edgerton Highway.

 Liberty Falls is a small campground a few miles before you reach Chitina. It is very well hidden on the side of the road.

Leaving Chitina going through a single lane hole in the rocks. This was originally just for railroad tracks.

Where the Chitina River flows into the Copper River.

The Kuskulana Bridge, built in 1910, is 525 feet long and 238 feet above the Kuskulana River. Before 1988, vehicles had to pass over wide open gaps on the wooden decking of the bridge with only 18-inch safety rails on either side. Now, this 3-span steel bridge has solid wooden decking and sturdy safety rails, along with gorgeous views of a deep river canyon. 

Looking down into the Kuskulana River from the bridge.

The Gilahina trestle, which is 880 feet long and 90 feet high, was built in 1911 with a half million board feet of timber.

A great view of Root Glacier.

McCarthy sprang up partly because alcoholic beverages and prostitution were forbidden in Kennecott, McCarthy grew as an area to provide illicit services not available in the company town. By 1938 the population of McCarthy and Kennecott fell to almost zero until the 1970s. In 1980 the area was designated Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. 

I think this plane has seen better days.

Continue on to Deadhorse.

Day 3

We were up early for our day 3 start and after breakfast we started rolling north. We decided to push past Wiseman and do a visit on our way back. The road had recently been paved and was very nice, but didn't last long. The road quickly turned to dirt and a little muddy. Scenery started immediately.
(Note: Any picture can be clicked on to see larger version.)

A couple hours of picture taking and we started up the bottom of Atigun Pass. Atigun Pass is a 4739 foot pass across the Brooks Range around mile 244. Clouds had moved in and a light rain kept us from seeing to far up the mountain. There are several pull outs on the way up to the top, and the road is fairly wide. It seemed a little more ominous on Ice Road truckers, although they were doing it in the winter. 

View looking toward the pass.

 View looking south as we headed up the pass. My Aunt loved the valley below the pass and kept telling us that someday she was going to move up here and build her a nice little cabin.  We told her to have fun with that as the snow in the winter would bury her and her cabin. :) She decided that maybe she would build it and only come up in the summer, she is a wise woman.  

Starting up the pass.  This is where the CB can come in handy to let trucks know you are coming up as they tend to take up pretty much the whole road as they come down.

 The truck at the top of Atigun pass.

The north side of the pass drops quickly in just a few turns, seemed to be much more impressive than the south side. A stop at Galbraith Lake around mile 274 was cut short as I believe another few minutes and I would have been packed off by mosquitoes. I could seriously almost cut a path with a knife! This is why we suggested the bug net on the "Things to bring" section in the first chapter. 

More Scenery shots.

Around 2 pm we rolled into Deadhorse and checked in for our 5:30 pm tour and dip in the Arctic Ocean. You can't drive to the Arctic Ocean in a privately owned vehicle, there are security checkpoints that only badged personnel are able to go through. The tours are run by the oil field security personnel and they show you a short video before the tour, that is actually pretty neat.  The tour guys are pretty funny and they will stop and let you take pictures and point out wildlife.

While waiting for our tour we decided to fuel up and take a few pictures. Fuel was $5.19 a gallon. All the pumps are inside the building and with no attendant it took a few moments to figure it all out.

Here is the fueling station, notice the yellow plastic square you are required to put under your vehicle by your fuel door.  This catches any possible drips.  The oil companies are very strict about following environmental safety procedures and will fine you if you are caught not using one of these, and the penalties are pretty steep.

 These are Rolligon's, they have very large tires to spread the surface pressure out over a large area and are used to move equipment for the oil riggs across the tundra.  The wheels are specially designed so that driving over the tundra doesn't damage the tundra environment.

Our tour of the oil field and ultimately a dip in the Arctic Ocean left on time. The tour cost $45.00 per person but was well worth it. The driver was very knowledgeable and the video before the bus ride was very informative. By the time we got to the ocean the wind was blowing and the temperature was 32 degrees. I was thinking maybe a dip in the ocean was not the smartest thing to do, but my Uncle was determined to do it. When we got off the bus I knew it was going to be cold, but when I stepped in the water it wasn't that bad. It was getting out that was cold. Quick toweling off and back on the bus. Well worth the bragging rights that I took a dip in the Arctic Ocean.

Here are a few pictures of around Deadhorse.

Caribou feeding right in Deadhorse. There are several different herds of caribou that roam across the tundra; at times they can number in the thousands.  Up on the north slope the oil companies have a no harassment policy for all the wildlife up here, so what does this mean, this means that if you have a heard of caribou that decide to lay down on the road, you wait until they decide to move.  The only acception to this rule is if they have a grizzly or a polar bear that has decided to stick around and hunt a few humans, then there are trained personnel that have training from the wildlife troopers and they use non lethal ways to help the bears move on their way.

These are the only trees north of the Brooks Range. This may explain why the permanent population of Deadhorse is up to 50 residents, with the temporary residents who work the oil fields and staff the services, as high as 3000 people at any given time of the year. With only 4 fake trees I wouldn't want to live here either.

After the tour we decided a shower would be nice so for $10.00 at the Prudhoe Bay Hotel you can take a nice hot shower. After our nice hot shower we went to get a bite to eat at the hotel, but didn't realize that it was well after 10pm as the sun is up 24 hours a day in the summer.  When the sun rises on May 20th it doesn't set again until July 22nd, so it is light all summer long.  On the flip side when the sun sets on November 24th it doesn't rise again until January 18th so you have 24 hours of darkness. 

We decided to park at the Deadhorse General store for the night as we had the camper and the hotel rooms are a bit spendy and need to be booked well in advance.

Day 4

Morning 4 was a cloudy morning in Deadhorse, but you could visibly see where the sun was in the sky even at 5 am. At some point between 2 and 3 am the clouds had cleared up for a short time because the sun shot through the shades right onto my face. I had to hang a shirt over the shades to get back to sleep. While living in Barrow I just put aluminum foil on the bedroom windows, but at 2 am that wasn't an option. It was a cool morning with the temperature around 26 degrees.

After breakfast we spent a little time in the general store shopping for some souvenirs, my aunt had to get everyone back in the lower 48 something, this took awhile but very enjoyable. The store has a very good selection of souvenirs, from shirts to ivory and native baskets. 

Took some time to drive around the area to take some pictures and we actually ran into a friend and neighbor that works for the FAA who happened to be working up there during the time we visited.  It was pretty ironic that you can travel so far and still run into your neighbors.

This is called a bull bar (not sure why), but they use it in the winter time to plug all the vehicle in as the temperatures in the winter can get down to -50 degrees fahrenheit.  The vehicles are plugged in to keep the engine block warm so the oil and diesel in the vehicles won't freeze.  They actually have an entire crew in the winter that their entire job is to drive around and fuel vehicles and equipment that are plugged into the bull bars.

Carlile yard which is featured on Ice Road Truckers. My Uncle is a HUGE fan of this show and we were hoping to catch a glimpse of his favorite trucker Lisa, but no such luck.

Era Airlines terminal.

A couple of motorcycles that made the trip up the haul road.  There is actually a bike shop in Anchorage that rent the enduro bikes and will take you on tours up to Deadhorse and Chicken, yes I said Chicken, Alaska.  We actually made it over to chicken and I will have a post about this later in a different entry.

We were amazed at all the different kinds of equipment around the area. Here is a sled on top of some kind of tracked trailer.

A Snowy Owl also known as an Arctic Owl.

Some caribou hanging out near the pipeline.

A fox looking a little skinny.

 Some Muskox hanging out, this is where a telephoto lens would've come in handy.

We ran into a few areas of rain on the way back, kind of a cold dreary day. We still were able to get lots of pictures and enjoy the scenery. The rain made the road muddy in several places, but nothing to have any concern over.

After going over Atigun Pass we found a small area of snow along side the road. I just had to have my picture taken with snow in the month of July.

Next stop was Wiseman. Wiseman Alaska is a small community started by miners in 1919 and is just a few miles from Coldfoot. I had heard they had a few attractions worth taking a few pictures.

 Phone booth in Wiseman.

 The sign says "white mans totem pole". My Aunt is into recycling, and all she kept asking is how many pounds of aluminum we thought that was.  We had to watch her as we thought she might be skeeming on how she could fit all of them in the camper, lets just say if she could've taken them, she would've.

Wiseman post office that is sinking into the ground due to reclining permafrost.

Back at the Marion Creek Campground (Just out side of Coldfoot) for some dinner and more Smore's. Notice the truck and camper are just a bit muddy.

Day 5

Heading back to Fairbanks today. Took a short hike while waiting for everyone to get up this morning. Here is a picture of a tree that caught my eye. The main tree is bent all the way over so the top is touching the ground and a branch is shooting straight out of it. I assume the branch is becoming the main tree. Interesting to see how this looks in a few years.

 We got a kick out of this road sign, enough said.

 Second bear of the trip, but could only get a picture of him going away.

 A couple of moose.

Back in Fairbanks by 4pm. We had to restock the grocery's, fuel and propane to head to our next adventure of Chicken Alaska and Dawson City Yukon. We spent $427.58 on fuel for the 1320 miles and $12.87 on propane for the camper. It seems to be a lot for fuel, but when you consider the camper saved us 4 nights of hotel fees then the savings is well worth it. We used the heater at night and let the refrigerator run on propane the entire trip. We also spent almost $30 at the local car wash getting the mud off the truck and camper.

This was an amazing trip and I would recommend it to anyone even remotely considering it. Doing this trip in a cab over camper with 4 adults may get a bit crowded, but we spend most of our time outside and didn't notice any problems.

Next adventure of Fairbanks to Chicken and Dawson and back to Palmer coming soon.