The Road to McCarthy

On the second day of our trip we drove to a tiny little mountain town in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park called McCarthy. The road to McCarthy used to be a railroad built by the Kennicott Copper Mine around 1911. McCarthy itself started as a homestead in 1906. Later, (around 1938), after all the copper was mined and the money was made, the railroad was abandoned and the land was handed over to the U.S. government. In the early 1970s the railroad was turned into a driving road and the bridge over the Copper River was rebuilt. So there you have it in a nutshell! The road is about 60 miles long, and very bumpy and wild at times. Because of that, it took roughly 2 hours to get to the end. Of course our trusty Saturn, Betsy, had no trouble getting us to our destination! 

Here is the "entrance" to the McCarthy road: 

The beautiful Copper River, where all those delicious salmon come from:
Here is our picnic spot along the road- we just stopped and cooked up some lunch. No need to worry about too many passing cars this time of year!
Here is a canyon we passed over on another bridge along the road.
Look at those gorgeous fall colors! We were so lucky to see the trees at their peak.Stay tuned for more!