Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Glacier Bay National Park combine to make the largest protected wilderness on earth. In this mountain kingdom, wildflower meadows, glacier carved massifs, roaring glacial rivers and endless coastlines are just the beginning of the adventure.
The Wrangell-St. Elias mountains are a mountain kingdom with unrivaled splendor. Towering peaks, enormous ice fields, raging glacial rivers and ice scoured valleys make this National Park a dramatic destination for your wilderness adventure.
With the second highest peak in the nation, the largest collection of ice fields in Alaska and the mighty Copper River, it is a land of superlatives.
With 9.6 million acres of designated wilderness Wrangell- St. Elias National Park is part of the largest federally protected area in the world and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Rising from the Copper River and its bird- rich delta to 18,000 foot peaks.
From salmon rich rivers lined with bears to the austere and icy Chugach and Wrangell-St. Elias ranges, this national park offers diversity of both landforms and ecology.
The high country supports Dall sheep and mountain goats. The lush, green glacial valleys have bears, moose, wolf, and lynx. Alaska’s Copper River and its tributaries fill with millions of the world-famous Copper River Salmon each summer.
Despite the rugged landscape and extensive ice fields the Wrangells are rich with wildlife during the brief Alaska summer.
We offer a variety of custom trips in Wrangell St Elias. We can plan either a backpacking or base camping trip for you amongst the crags and glaciers in places like Hidden Valley, Wrangell Mt., or our favorite, Mt Sanford.
If rafting is what you are dreaming of, we can guide you down the Nabesna, Chisana or Nizina. Or if you think that Packrafting is even better we have lots of great routes we would love to show you. With millions of acres of wilderness to choose from, we’ll help you see the best of the Wrangells.
Glacier Bay is so much more than the what you can see from a Cruise Ship! We favor the quiet corners of the park where there are more animals than people, where we can camp and explore this exceptional National Park. Together with Kluane and Tatshenshini parks in Canada and Wrangell St Elias National Park, Glacier Bay is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site and the largest wilderness on earth.
Glacier Bay includes not just it’s namesake bay but also long stretches of the outer coast on the Gulf of Alaska, Enormous glaciated peaks in the interior, and the famed Tatshenshini and Alsek Rivers at the northern edge of the park.
Established in 1925, Glacier Bay has long been recognized as a place worth protecting. John Muir first popularized the area with his poetic writings and the rugged land has been celebrated for its scenery and wildlife since. Most of the area was buried under glacial ice as recently as 1800 and the rapidly retreating ice has left us with a deeply gouged and spectacularly rugged landscape. Glacier Bay has everything from tide-water glaciers to 15,000 ft peaks to rugged beaches on the Pacific Coast.
Originally protected as a place for Brown Bears, Glacier Bay provides habitat for a great variety of animals. Rich marine areas support tremendous fisheries and marine mammals which rely upon them. The rivers fill with all 5 species of Pacific Salmon, which in turn feed wolves and bears and eagles and more. Goats inhabit the crags. Spruce forests host a variety of passerines and owls, while the intertidal areas feed shorebirds and waterfowl. In spring and fall the pacific coast is raucous with migrating birds winging north to the Arctic.
We can guide you on a great many adventures in Glacier Bay National Park. We guide rafting expeditions on the Tatshenshini River and on the Alsek River most summers in July. Many people think the Tatshenshini/ Alsek is North America’s premier rafting trip.
Most years we also offer a backpacking trip on Glacier Bay’s Wild Coast, a truly unique and inspiring hike along the Gulf of Alaska beaches. We can also arrange custom base camp trips, kayak trips or most anything else you can dream of.