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This Is the Largest National Park in the U.S.—With 13 Million Acres of Mountains, Glaciers, and Ghost Towns

Here's what you should know before visiting Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska.

By Stephanie Vermillion

Published on April 27, 2025

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How to Get There

Know Before You Go

Best Time to Visit

Best Things to Do

Best Hikes

Mountain range with a lake and grassy meadow, trees in the foreground

View of Mount Sanford in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Credit: Alan Majchrowicz/Getty Images

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is the largest national park in the United States.

Here, you can camp on Root Glacier, visit abandoned mines, and hike through the wilderness.

Summer is the best time to visit, with pleasant weather and wildflower blooms.

Overnighting on a glacier is not your average camping trip—then again, Wrangell-St. Elias is not your average national park. That’s a fact I learned quickly on my June 2024 visit.

I traveled to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska for the chance to enjoy summer solstice and the park’s around-the-clock midnight sun from a scenic sheet of ice. The excursion is one of many, many adventures you can have in the country’s largest national park.

Wrangell-St. Elias’ amalgam of sprawling glaciers, snowy peaks, and isolated boreal forests is roughly six times as big as Yellowstone. It lies over 200 miles northeast of Anchorage, near the Yukon territory border. Like many of the world’s grandest outdoor destinations, it takes a tiny bush plane or pot-holed road trip to reach the park’s treks and trails.

You have a few options for visiting Wrangell-St. Elias. In the north’s Nabesna District, there’s the less-trodden Nabesna Road, a rugged 42-mile route that leads to trails, campgrounds, and a remote wilderness lodge.

The southern and most-visited stretch that I visited, the Kennecott District, has two main areas. Kennecott offers a mix of ghost-town dwellings, historic attractions, and trails. The town of McCarthy, where I bookended my Root Glacier camping trip, looks straight out of the Old West. Stay here for quaint hotels, inventive restaurants, and a general store—not to mention Wrangell-St. Elias’ signature seclusion.

“Even in the heart of McCarthy and the historic Kennecott, that sense of remoteness lingers,” said wilderness guide Tessa Hill, who led my camping trip on the Root Glacier. “Gaze north and you’ll be met by two huge glaciers on the horizon, with the world’s second-largest icefall tumbling into view. It’s a place where nature’s raw power and beauty stop you in your tracks. Spectacular doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

She’s right. This panoramic wonder is something you have to see to comprehend, and in this guide to visiting Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, you’ll find all the intel you need to plan the perfect trip.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5718166&forum_id=2#48890973)