Overview

The largest park in the U.S. National Parks system is arguably the least well-known.

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Overview Details

The largest park in the U.S. National Parks system is arguably the least well-known. This 13.2-million-acre wilderness sits at the convergence point of the Chugach, Wrangell, and St. Elias mountain ranges in Alaska and includes the most peaks over 16,000 feet high in North America, as well as the greatest number of glaciers. Nine of the 16 highest peaks in the U.S. are here, including 18,008-foot Mount St. Elias, second in elevation only to nearby Mt. McKinley. Most of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is backcountry: its wilderness areas alone are larger than the combined sizes of the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut. The Richardson Highway runs from Anchorage to the visitor center in the town of Copper Center (about a five-hour drive). Two gravel roads (McCarthy and Nabesna) enter the park itself, allowing access for backcountry camping; day visitors can hike on shorter trails like the four-mile Root Glacier Trail off McCarthy Road or the Caribou Creek Trail off Nabesna Road, where you could see caribou, moose, grizzly bears, and grey wolves. Visitors will discover a vast landscape with jagged mountain peaks, an active volcano, rivers, glaciers and ice fields, and the historic Kennecott copper mines. Date Formed: Dec. 2, 1980 Area: 13,175,901 acres Website: [www.nps.gov/wrst](http://www.nps.gov/wrst)

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