The road ends at a river, a footbridge carries you over it, and then a shuttle van climbs toward a row of weathered red buildings stepping down a mountainside beside the Kennicott Glacier. Kennecott is a mining town left standing, with a huge wooden mill, bunkhouses and sheds still holding the shapes they had a century ago. It is a visit about history, rock and ice, deep inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.
Is visiting Kennecott worth it?
Yes, for travelers who like their scenery with a story attached, and who don’t mind that getting here is part of the trip.
Plenty of Alaska places show you a glacier from a viewpoint or a boat deck. Here the glacier sits right beside a copper mining camp, and the Root Glacier is one of the most accessible in the state, reachable on foot from the town.
Kennicott is called Alaska’s most famous ghost town, yet it is not a museum behind glass. You walk among the buildings, hear about the people who worked and lived here, and then head up a trail onto the ice. The small, quiet village of McCarthy below adds a frontier atmosphere that few other attractions in the state can match.
The park around you is larger than Vermont and New Hampshire combined, which explains why the surroundings feel so big and so empty. That scale is the other reason people come.
What to see at Kennecott
The mine town formed in the early 1900s after copper was discovered nearby, and everything you see grew out of that find. The buildings are the draw, and the glacier is the backdrop.
The concentration mill
The mill dominates the hillside, a fourteen story wooden structure painted the deep red that you will recognize from every photograph of Kennecott. Ore came down from the mines above, and this is where it was crushed and concentrated before the long trip to the coast. Seen from the road below, it looks almost like a stack of boxes leaning into the slope.
Tour groups based in Kennecott now lead guided tours of the mill, and touring the abandoned mill is one of the activities visitors come for. Inside, you climb through levels of timber framing and old machinery and see how gravity moved rock from the top of the building to the bottom. Look for the worn floors, the huge beams and the way daylight falls through the old windows.
The town site and its relics
Around the mill, the rest of the settlement still stands as a ghost town that keeps its relics. Bunkhouses, storage buildings and equipment give a sense of daily life in a place built entirely around a single industry, far from any city. Walking between them, you notice details such as rusted tools, old signs and doorways sized for workers long gone.
Behind it all the Wrangell Mountains rise, and the contrast is part of the pleasure. Human work here was real and heavy, and the landscape still looks bigger than anything put up against it. The Copper River Northwestern Railway once carried the ore from Kennicott to Cordova, running until 1938, and the road you drive to get here follows part of that old rail bed.
The Root Glacier
From Kennicott you can hike two miles and then walk on the Root Glacier, one of Alaska’s most accessible glaciers. Glacier hiking and ice climbing are among the popular activities here, and local guide services offer these hikes for anyone who wants help with route-finding.
Expect blue ice, meltwater streams and a surface that changes from one visit to the next. The hike over the moraine and onto the ice is as much a part of the experience as the glacier itself, with views back toward the buildings and up into the mountains. A guide is a sensible choice if you have never traveled on glacier ice.
Hours, tickets and rules
Kennecott is not a single gated site with one opening time. You walk through a historic town inside a national park, and the mill tours are run by Kennecott-based tour groups, so the schedule depends on the operator. The table gives the hours and schedules that can be stated for the area.
| Site | Open |
|---|---|
| Golden Saloon, McCarthy (breakfast) | Daily, 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM |
| Golden Saloon, McCarthy (dinner) | Daily, 5 PM to 10 PM, bar open later, kitchen closes at 10 PM |
| Wrangell Mountain Air, Chitina to McCarthy | Three times a day, mid-May to mid-September, with advance reservations |
| Ellis Air, Gulkana Airport to McCarthy | Wednesdays and Fridays |
The rules that apply are about getting there. Cars are not permitted in McCarthy, so visitors park at the footbridge and walk across into town. A private service bridge for vehicles exists, but it is available only to residents, businesses and the National Park Service for an annual fee. Many Alaska car rental companies don’t allow their vehicles on non-paved roads, while Alaska 4×4 Rentals and Alaska Overlander, both based in Anchorage, do.
How to get to Kennecott
From Anchorage the drive to McCarthy and Kennicott is approximately 7 hours, and from Fairbanks it is approximately 8 hours.
Driving the McCarthy Road
You take the Edgerton Highway to the McCarthy Road, a 60-mile gravel road that begins at the Copper River near Chitina. The final 2 hours of the drive from Anchorage or Fairbanks are on this scenic, rugged road. From Chitina, the one-way trip to Kennecott takes 2 hours 45 minutes, and from the Wrangell-St. Elias Visitor Center at Park Headquarters it is 4 hours.
The road has a reputation. It is notorious for potholes, washouts, railroad spikes and flat tires, though it is usually suitable for passenger vehicles. Drivers should check current conditions with Park Headquarters at (907) 822-5234. It ends at the Kennicott River, where cars stay behind and you cross on foot.
Flying in
McCarthy has a 3,500 foot gravel runway, and several services land there. Copper Valley Air Service provides scheduled flights between McCarthy and both Anchorage and Glennallen. Wrangell Mountain Air flies from Chitina to McCarthy three times a day from mid-May to mid-September, with advance reservations, and Ellis Air flies from Gulkana Airport near Glennallen on Wednesdays and Fridays. One alternative combines both modes: drive approximately 6 hours from Anchorage to Chitina, then fly to McCarthy with Wrangell Mountain Air.
The last miles on foot and by shuttle
At the end of the road, a footbridge crosses the Kennicott River. McCarthy lies about half a mile beyond, and walking to town from the bridge takes about 15 minutes. Kennicott is 5 miles uphill from the bridge.
During the tourist season, shuttle vans and buses run from the bridge to both McCarthy and Kennecott. From McCarthy it is 4.5 miles to Kennecott, and shuttles are available on that stretch too.
When to visit Kennecott
Summer is when Kennecott is at work as a destination. The old mine buildings, artifacts and colorful history draw visitors to McCarthy during the summer months, and the shuttle vans run during the tourist season.
The air services give a clearer window. Wrangell Mountain Air flies from mid-May to mid-September, so a trip planned around that schedule has the most options for arriving by plane.
The climate here is subarctic, with cold winters and short, mild summers, and the swing between day and night is particularly large in spring and summer. A cool morning can turn into a warm afternoon, and the reverse happens in the evening, so the day changes on you as you move between town, trail and glacier.
Much of McCarthy’s summer population lives elsewhere in the winter, which gives you a sense of how seasonal the place is.
Within a day, plan the glacier hike for when you have the most time, and the mill tour for whatever slot the operator offers. McCarthy’s Golden Saloon serves breakfast in the early morning and dinner from 5 PM, which makes a convenient bookend to a day up the hill.
Tips for your visit
Two things take real time here: the mill tour and the Root Glacier, and the hike to the ice starts with two miles from Kennicott before you reach the glacier. Staying in the area lets you spread them over separate days instead of rushing between them.
Plan your logistics around the footbridge. Park there, cross on foot, and use the shuttles during the tourist season. If you are driving from Anchorage or Fairbanks, remember that the last 2 hours are on gravel, and call Park Headquarters at (907) 822-5234 for current road conditions before you set out.
Combine Kennecott with McCarthy, which has a one-block, dirt-paved Main Street and only about 100 year-round residents. The Golden Saloon is there for meals. If you want a broader introduction to the park, the main visitor center is the Wrangell-St. Elias Visitor Center at Park Headquarters in the Copper Center Area, and the park’s official newspaper and visitor’s guide is called K’elt’aeni, named for the Ahtna Athabaskan word for Mount Wrangell.
For the glacier, local guide services offer the hikes if you would like help with route-finding. If you are interested in the backcountry beyond Kennecott, the park lists backpacking, mountaineering and public use cabins among its activities, but those are a different scale of trip from a visit to the mill.
Travel times between the park’s five visitor service areas are long, which is normal for a park this large. If the plan includes more than Kennecott, count the hours between areas and treat each as its own destination.
Good to know before you go
Kennecott is a place of long distances and small settlements. McCarthy had a population of 107 at the 2020 census, and services are limited to what the village and the tour operators provide. The tourist season shapes what is open, from the shuttles to the flights, so plan your dates around the services you want rather than the other way around.
The glacier is real ice and the hike is real distance. Take the guide services up on their offer of route-finding help if you are unsure of the way.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Kennecott, Alaska (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennecott,_Alaska), checked October 11, 2026
- Wikipedia, McCarthy, Alaska (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthy,_Alaska), checked October 11, 2026
- Wikivoyage, McCarthy (https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/McCarthy), checked October 11, 2026
- Alaska.org, dest mccarthy (https://www.alaska.org/destination/mccarthy), checked October 11, 2026
- National Park Service, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park & Preserve, plan your visit (https://www.nps.gov/wrst/planyourvisit/index.htm), checked October 11, 2026