Friday, August 16th-Wrangell-St Elias National Park

Today we went to the Visitor Center and went hiking near the entrance to the park. Here’s my Bride of 48 years at the entrance:
Wrangell-St Elias has on its website (https://www.nps.gov/wrst/whats-so-special.htm) a list they call Park Superlatives. Here’s the list with my one addition at the end:

  • Largest national park in the United States (At 13.2 million acres or over 20,000 square miles, it’s the same size as Yellowstone NP, Yosemite NP, and Switzerland COMBINED!)
  • Largest wilderness area in the National Wilderness Preservation System
  • Designated a World Heritage Site with Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve with Canadian neighbors Kluane National Park Reserve and Tashenshini-Alsek National Park (Making this the world’s largest international wilderness.)
  • Four major mountain ranges-Wrangell, St Elias, Chugach, and the Eastern part of the Alaska Range
  • Mt St Elias, at 18,008 feet, is the second highest peak in the United States
  • Nine of the 16 highest peaks in the United States (Four of them above 16,000 feet
  • Mt Wrangell, at 14,163, is the largest active volcano in North America
  • The Nabesna Glacier, at approximately 80 miles long, is the largest non-polar valley glacier
  • The Malaspina Glacier, larger than the state of Rhode Island, is the largest non-polar piedmont glacier in North America
  • The Hubbard Glacier is one of the largest and most active tidewater glaciers in North America 
  • (Added by Mike: It is a completely fee-free national park!)
WOW!

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