Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Nabesna Road

Day 54 Sunday August 7, 2016       Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Kendesnii Campground, site 6

216 miles           12.3 mpg

Left Tangle Lakes BLM campground at 08:00.  The sky was overcast, but the weather was much clearer today and we could see the scenery better.  Drove the 20 miles of paved section of Denali Highway to Paxson where it intersected the Richardson Highway.  Drove south on the Richardson to the intersection of the Glenn Highway where the crowed Tosoro gas station is.  It wasn’t crowded this morning.  I pulled right up.

Next errand was beer, ice, and groceries.  Drove about 10 miles on the Glenn to the only liquor store I know of in the area.  In Alaska you can buy alcohol only in licensed liquor store and this was the only one in Glennallen.  There wasn’t much selection and a 6-pak was $12.  Some rude old lady about 80 years old ran the place and lived in the back.  What an experience for a 6-pak of beer.

The IGA wasn’t so bad.  Just very expensive.

Then on up the Richardson for 14 miles to an extension of the Glenn Highway that runs NE up to Tok.  This road is known as the Tok Cutoff.  About ½ way to Tok, is Nebesna Road which is a spur into the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Here’s some photos on the way.  We had good views of the Galkana River basin and the Wrangell Mountains.

Copper River drains glaciers from Wrangell Mts.  Mt. Wrangell in distance.

Closer shot of Mt. Wrangell, an active volcano.

More Wrangell Mts.

A lake next to a wayside.

Typical view while driving down Nabesna Road.

This road is 42 miles long.  The first 16 miles is paved, and then the rest is gravel.  It is only one of two roads that take you into the Wrangell-St. Elias N.P.  The other is the McCarthy Road we took last month, south of Glennallen.  The Nabesna road takes you to trail heads, waysides, primitive campsites, and an actual campground administered by the nation park service.  We drove to mile 28 to the Kendesnii campground, formerly Twin Lakes campground.  There are 10 sites there, no hookups, not even water is available.  There were only 3 sites left when we got there and we chose site 6.  The other two sites filled up shortly afterwards.  Anyone who came later ended up boon docking at spots along the road.  There were a lot of spaces big enough to park an RV off the road.  And a lot of people did.

Kandesnii Campground, site 6

 Marsha was real tired when we got there and took a nap.  I took a walk along an interpretive trail to the lake, and a walk around the campground.  Then I followed a path behind the campsite and picked a half of a Ziploc bag with wild blueberries.  They are everywhere in Alaska.  Although not as dense here as in our last campground at Tangle Lakes.

When I got back, Marsha made blueberry pancakes for supper.  The wild blueberries are much smaller than the cultivated ones in the store, but they are concentrated.  They are really good.  And the pancakes were too.

Tomorrow we are going to take a ride to the end of the road, and then head for Tok.

We are nearly at the end of our stay in Alaska.  We are going to Tok to catch up on blogs, before entering Canada.  As you recall, Canada does not have any data cell coverage, and hardly any cell coverage at all.  We have to find visitor centers or libraries that have WiFi to post the blogs.  We also have the biggest pile of laundry we’ve ever had on the road.  So we won’t leave Tok until we are caught up.

Tok is the 1^st and the last town people visit when coming and going to Alaska.  The Canadian border is 90 miles from here on the Alaskan Highway.  We have not been on the section of the Alaskan Highway between Tok and Whitehorse, YT.  It is said to be the worst section because of frost heaves.