Wrangell-St. Elias National Park | Lost & Found EP.13
Welcome back for episode 13 of Lost & Found!
After our gracier tour in Whittier, we knew the time had come to make our way off the Kenai Peninsula for the last time. Having spent a month in the area, we’d completely fallen in love with this part of Alaska. We were sad to say good bye, but we knew that this was not the last time we’d be here. Owen and I both agreed that the Kenai Peninsula is a place we could potentially find ourselves living some day.
View from the sky of a river on the Kenai
Before making our way out of Whittier, we stopped by a local stream we’d seen earlier in the summer. A month prior, only a few salmon had arrived to spawn. When we stopped back through we found an incredible scene.
Salmon run
Black bear looking for salmon
Not only was the water teeming with Salmon, there were also black bears tracing the water’s edge. These bears however were not eating the salmon like they were in Katmai. These bears were dragging fish to the bank, stepping on them, and moving on. Confused and wanting to understand, we inquired with a local who was also enjoying the scene. He said that these bears have already gotten their fill of eating salmon this late in the season. Instead, these bears were looking for “dessert”. Desert came in the form of salmon roe (eggs).
When the bears grabbed and stepped on the the salmon, they were looking for roe to come out of the females. If they grabbed a male, they’d leave them on shore for the other scavengers. It was fascinating to see such a different bear/salmon behavior from what we’d already seen.
After spending some time just watching the salmon, we began out long journey towards Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and the town of McCarthy, Alaska.
This was the second Lynx in Alaska, but the first time getting a picture of one!
The drive was beautiful getting to this remote part of Alaska. Along the way we stopped and spotted this Lynx down a side road. In total we saw two Lynx while in Alaska. When we were recounting our sitings to some locals. They were impressed and said that some people live in Alaska their entire lives and never see a single one. I like to think that they were a sign from Luna saying that she was keeping an eye on us ;)
After taking all of 15 mins to explore to town of McCarthy we made our plans to hike to root glacier and to hop on a tour of the infamous Kennicott Mine the following day.
MAK on Root Glacier
We set off on to Root Glacier for a day of exploring. We didn’t have any real objectives, other than to explore the ice. While looking around the glacier, Owen had the idea of finding a blue hole, and doing a polar bear plunge. For those who are not familiar, a blue hole is a pool of water on the glacier. They’re called blue holes because of the insane blue color of the water on the ice. We’d seen a picture of someone jumping in one, and Owen couldn’t shake the idea of doing one ourselves.
We went in search of the perfect blue hole for operation Polar Bear Plunge. We found a few options before needing to race back into the town of Kennicott for our tour. So we left the ice and decided to return the following day to complete our mission.
*Root Glacier was a joy to explore. It is easy to access as you just walk past the Kennicott mine buildings and onto the trail that is waiting on the other side. The surrounding landscape wasn’t half bad to look at either.
Owen looking out over Root Glacier
Looking for a deep blue hole on the ice
Owen and I came running up just as our tour was starting.
Looking out of Kennecott Mine towards Root Glacier
Looking out of Kennecott Mine towards McCarthy
Our tour took us into many of the Kennicott Mine buildings, and most notably into all 14 stories of the processing mill. The view from the top floors of the mine were worth the money for the tour alone. As we made our way through the various floors, we learned of the dark history behind the mine, the ingenuity it took to run and maintain the mill, and about the surrounding glaciers.
Though it was hard to make sense of everything we saw in the mine tour, it was fascinating to learn more about the interesting history of this area and the people who have called this area home.
We appreciate you all for following along with the series. If you made is thus far, we hope that you’ve been enjoying it. It’s been a joy to put together! See you here next week. Same time, same place!
Love, MAK
Thank you to our sponsors
These brands made it possible for us to document our travels through Alaska and turn it into this series. Without their support none of this could happen. We are forever grateful to have brands we already use and love on our side to help us create something we’re proud of!
Our work life is powered by Battle Born. They make the best lithium batteries on the market and are a crucial part of our power system that enables us to work from the road! It took an incredible amount of power to create this series, and we have Battle Born to thank for making it possible.
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Maps are your best friend when you’re on the road. On X makes it easy to find open routes and trails no matter where we are. On X allows us to access saved maps offline so we can locate ourselves in the wild when there’s no service.
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We’ve trusted our Jetboil cooking systems for years. Our favorite, the Flash Cooking system is lightweight, compact and perfect for any trip!
