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Well, good news and bad news. Good news is that I’m really going to South America. Bad news is that we’re leaving a week earlier than I had planned. Also, I figure I have at least two weeks worth of refit to do before leaving. Finally, I also want to go see my godson in Houston, TX. Between those items and my tendancy to say “heck, I may as just well stay another day” mean that I now have to race through the next set of parks. It’ll be a marathon of beauty.

The first park on the marathon is Wrangel-St. Elias in the south-east part of Alaska. For this park, I was only going to spend one day. One day for a park six times larger than Yellowstone. One day for a park that encompases three mountain ranges. One day for driving the 60-mile gravel road to the Kennicott River. One day for avoiding the multidtude of mosquitoes. One day to explore before I had to make it to Haines to catch a ferry back south. My goal to not have time be a limiting factor in this trip was ruined. Oh, well. I felt that one month wouldn’t do this park justice, and decided to enjoy what I could see from the road.

But I did make it to the end of the McCarthy Road and began the long, five mile hike to the town of Kennecott. I looked at my watch, looked at the road, looked at the schedule of ferrys, and realized that I’d never make it to the town and back in time. Now, there is a bus service available through Wrangell Mountain Bus (no link), but I had exhausted my cash supply and there wasn’t an ATM in sight. Turning around, I hiked back to the truck and dropped into the visitors center a mile down the road. After talking to the ranger there, I realized I should have gone down the Nabesna Road and checked out some of the camping in the north end of the park. Next time, Wrangell-St. Elias, next time… Don’t think that I’m not coming back!

The place was beautiful though. Gazing over the ranges of mountains as I drove out the road and up towards Tok, it was reassuring to see all the untouched wilderness. Locked behind the towering peaks were glaciers, meadows, creeks, fish and wildlife, difficult to reach and difficult to ruin. I could hear them calling me and I was saddened that I couldn’t explore.

So, out of nearly thirty-seven parks I’ve vistied, I count this as my first failed visit. I got the stamp in my passport and stayed a night in the park, so I met my minimum requirements. But I have to admit that I’ve ever been to actually been to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. This was my Pittsburg, my Chicago. I’d been to those places too, but only as stops on airline flights going somewhere else.

So, my time here in Alaska is coming to an end. While I had a great time and met some fantastic new friends, the trip was almost criminally short. I head next to Haines, Alaska where I WILL explore Glacier Bay and then catch the ferry down the inside passage to Prince Rupert, Canada. I leave behind three parks in Alaska that I’m not going to be able to see, Katmai, Kobuk Valley and Clark Valley. As far as I can tell, each one of those parks requires a major trip just to get there.

Quoth the Terminator, “I’ll be back.”