09JUL15 - Glennallen, AK (wrangell-st elias national park & preserve)

Thursday morning, 09JUL, it was an early morning departure for Glennallen, AK.  We left Anchorage early to leave us time in Glennallen for some sightseeing, since we planned on only overnighting.  It was a beautiful drive thru the Matanuska Valley, with great views of the Matanuska Glacier & Wrangell Mountains.

After setting up camp & eating lunch it was off to the Wrangell-St Elias National Park & Preserve Visitor Center.  We arrived just in time for the park film (very good).  The Visitor Center is divided into four very nice buildings – Visitor Center, Display Area, Auditorium, & the Ahtna Cultural Center.  Last thing was a brief “hike” on the nature trail next to the center.  As their website says:

·        * Largest national park in the United States.

·        * Largest wilderness area in the National Wilderness Preservation System.

·        * Designated as a World Heritage Site with Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve and the Canadian neighbors Kluane National Park Reserve and Tatshenshini-Alsek National Park. (Making this the world's largest international protected wilderness.)

·        * Four major mountain ranges: Wrangell, St. Elias, Chugach, and the eastern part of the Alaskan 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.

·         *Mt. Wrangell, at 14,163 feet, is one of the largest active volcanoes in North America.

·         *The Nabesna Glacier, at approximately 80 miles, is the longest 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.

http://www.nps.gov/wrst/index.htm

http://www.ahtnaheritagefoundation.com/

Then we returned to Glennallen for a little (& we mean little) walkabout.  For whatever reason it seems like Thai food is all over AK; so we had a snack at a Thai food truck near the local visitor center, before calling it a day.