Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska - June 24th to 25th, 2022
You can’t always choose the weather conditions when you travel. The wildfire smoke diminished our views of the mountains in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, but at least it wasn’t raining. Luckily, we planned a full day within the park to enjoy its beauty close up.
The drive from Chicken to Slana on Friday was on paved roads, well mostly. Taylor Highway from Chicken to the intersection with the Alaska Highway is paved, but that is a generous statement. The road is still rough, with plenty of pot holes, large cracks, and dips along with some small sections of gravel. However, the road improved the closer we got to the Alaskan Highway that we were actually able to reach the speed limit of 50 mph. It took us about two hours to reach the town of Tok. There we were able to get gas and groceries. We skipped topping off our gas tank in Chicken because we thought it would be cheaper in Tok. It was actually more expensive in Tok than Chicken, oh well. We ate lunch outside the visitor center so we could use their restroom.
From Tok, we turned onto the Glenn Highway (also known as the Tok Cutoff) to reach Slana. There isn’t much in Slana. Our reservations were at the Hart D Ranch, right next to the post office, a mile down Nebesna Road. In addition to the RV Park, Mary Frances DeHart has rooms for rent in her lodge. When we arrived, Mary was busy working with a couple of others to load up a trailer. It sounded like she was a little overwhelmed with trying to recover from the damage done by the record breaking winter. They had 11 feet of snow, which turned to ice, and caused damage to some of the structures, collapsing her greenhouse. Because of the damage, she said she only had three RV sites open this summer instead of 43. We were the only ones with reservations for that day, so we had our pick of the three sites. They were full hookups, which we didn’t really need, but we’ll use them to dump our gray and fill our fresh water cans before we leave.
Nebesna Road is one of the access points into Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, which is why we chose to stay at Hart D Ranch. The Nebasna Road ranger station was a 15 minute walk back up the road. We wanted to go on a day hike on Saturday and wanted to get some information about the road and trail conditions. The ranger was very helpful. He let us know that the road was in good shape up to Tanada Lake Trail. After that point, the road fords a few creeks and the water was still running high. The Skookum Volcano Trail, near the end of the road, was closed due to an aggressive bear in the area. We had researched the Caribou Creek Trail a little bit and heard there was a water crossing along the trail. The ranger said there are several creek crossings, but they are not difficult. At this time, the water is only about ankle deep and there was no significant rain in the forecast to raise the water level. He said the creek is normally lower in the morning, before the sun warms up the snow in the mountains, creating more runoff. When he learned that it was our first time in the park, he loaded us up with information, the park newspaper, and an audio tour on DVD.
After we returned to the campground, we stayed inside our Red Tail Lodge (our van). The mosquitos were bad outside, especially if you stood or sat still. Our van was comfortable with the sliding door open and the screen protecting us from the bugs. We had an internet connection for a change so we had a lot to get caught up on. The last time we had an internet connection was back in Dawson City over two days before, and that connection was not that great. Despite not being in a town at Hart D Ranch, we had an excellent Verizon cell signal. There was no AT&T signal, but we only need one or the other. Our cell phones are AT&T, but we also carry a Verizon Jetpack (paid link) hotspot. Even without the WeBoost (paid link) turned on, we had fantastic download and upload speeds. Hart D Ranch also provides a free wifi, but we didn’t need to use it.
We noticed that the views were hazy most of the day. When we stepped out of our vehicle in Tok, we could smell the wildfire smoke. There were reports of lots of wildfires in the western part of Alaska, with lots of smoke in Fairbanks. However, when we arrived at Hart D Ranch, we could no longer smell the smoke. The views were still hazy, though.
Saturday we hiked the Caribou Creek Trail. The trailhead is located at mile marker 19 on Nebesna Road. On the drive there, we listened to the audio tour that the ranger gave us the day before. The audio tour was broken up in to sections, letting you know when to pause and restart the tour based on landmarks along the road. The main attraction is Mt. Sanford. However, between the haze and a few clouds, we never did get a really good view of the mountain. The Wrangell Mountain next to it was even harder to see. Wrangell Mountain is the only active volcano in the park. It is a shield volcano, which erupts slowly instead of explosively. The narrator of the tour said you can sometimes see steam rising from the mountain. We couldn’t tell if we were seeing steam or just clouds.
The parking area for the Caribou Creek Trail is about a quarter of a mile before the trailhead, so you start out with a short road walk. The trailhead sign said there were four to five creek crossings. The trail description in the brochure the ranger gave us said three creek crossings. We were guessing our feet were going to be wet most of the hike.
The trail starts out pretty flat through thin woods. A large variety of wildflowers were abundant along the trail. We crossed a couple trickles of water. Were those the creek crossings? No. About two miles in we reached the first major water crossing. The current was a little swift and there were a few large rocks to step across on. Keith managed to make it across without getting his feet wet. Ann did not. Her right foot slipped into the water. At least it was only one foot.
After the creek crossing, the trail started to ascend a little steeper. The trail was nice and wide, wide enough for an ATV. We learned that Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve allows locals to subsistence hunt within the national park. Sport hunters are allowed to hunt in the national preserve which surrounds the national park. The ranger warned us that locals are allowed to drive ATV’s on the trail.
The trail was soft in many places. There were fresh tracks and scat all along the trail that could be caribou or moose. At one point we saw a track that at first glance looked like bear to us. Keith was ready to turn back. Upon closer inspection, we convinced ourselves it was two caribou tracks on top of one another. There was no evidence of claws in the print and there were no others in the area, only caribou. So we continued on.
However, we did not spot any wildlife other than butterflies and spiders. There were tons of butterflies, white ones, blue ones, black ones, yellow ones, and orange ones. But mostly white ones. They seemed to clump together in a spot that they liked. When we disturbed them as we walked by, they would swirl around us.
At the end of the trail is a small cabin. Just before we reached the cabin, we had our second major creek crossing. This time we both managed to step across on rocks and not get our feet wet. So we counted only two crossings. There were a couple of other places where there might be crossings if the creek was running higher. The ranger said that one of his coworkers was hiking the trail earlier in the spring and had to turn around because one of the creek crossings was waist deep and just kept getting deeper.
The cabin is available for rent to stay in overnight. It looked rather new and was rather cozy inside for a backcountry cabin. There were to bed platforms, a table and two chairs, and a wood stove with plenty of wood stacked up for use. An outhouse is up a short path, with a view out over the valley while you sit on the throne, if you’re willing to leave the door open. We ate our trail snack sitting on the front porch of the cabin, looking out at the view across the valley, then took advantage of the privy before starting our descent.
Nebesna Road is situated in a wide valley. Unfortunately, the most interesting mountains, like Mount Sanford and Mount Wrangell, were on the far side so they were hard to see through the haze. However, we still enjoyed the view from the cabin porch, with the sound of the creek flowing nearby.
We had not seen a single other soul on our hike up to the cabin, but we past about half a dozen hikers going the other direction on our way back down. There was also a group of three ATV’s that past us, then past us again coming back before we reached the trailhead. However, considering the trail is about 3.5 miles long, each way, it was a rather peaceful hike.
Keith managed to keep his feet dry the whole hike. Ann managed to get both feet wet on the same creek crossing that she got wet on the first time. It was a warm day, so getting our feet wet was not a big deal.
Since the skeeters seemed to be rather numerous, Ann wore her head net (paid link) the whole trail. It was the first time she used it. She put the net over her wide-brimmed hat to keep the netting off her face. It didn’t take long to get used to wearing it. She just had to remember it was there when she wanted to take a drink. Taking photos was also a little different, since she normally likes to use the view finder to frame her shots. Keith, on the other hand, chose to tough it out. He said the bugs really didn’t bother him much while we were moving. However, he was a little more annoyed than usual when Ann would stop to take pictures. Since she had her head net on, she could linger a little longer to get the shots she wanted while Keith was busy swatting insects.
We completed the 7.4 miles of 1145 feet of elevation gain in four hours.This was hike number 21 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022 and hike number 26 of our National Park Series.
After our hike, we continued just a little farther up Nebesna Road to Rock Lake Wayside before turning around and heading back. The road conditions were getting progressively worse, so it was a slow drive. Even though we didn’t go to the end of Nebesna Road, we listened to the rest of the audio tour on the drive back to Hart D Ranch. We really enjoyed the information provided by the tour and recommend picking up your own copy at the ranger station if you happen to visit Nebesna Road.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing at Hart D Ranch, making dinner, and trying to catch up on the YouTube channels we follow, while we had a good internet connection.
We were grateful for having the time to hike within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Had we only taken a drive to enjoy the mountain views, we would have been disappointed due to the hazy skies. Getting out on a trail gave us the opportunity to enjoy the natural surroundings on a smaller scale, from wildflowers and butterflies to animal tracks and babbling brooks. Hiking gives us a more intimate connection with the places we visit.
Check out our related video: Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska
(Ann)