Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Breathtaking Backcountry. Beguiling Backpacking.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is astonishing. The place is a real jewel of the entire US National Park system.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is relatively little visited. Many people have never even heard the words Wrangell–St. Elias National Park.

The park gets (as of 2007) less than 40 000 visitors a year. Denali National Park gets close to a million, and parks in the Lower 48 states such as the Smokies or Yellowstone get in the vicinity of 10-12 million.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is nearly six times larger than Yellowstone National park. 14 million acres of wild, remote, gorgeous country. Established as a National Park in 1980, the area was proclaimed a World Heritage Site in 1979. Together with Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park adjoins Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park and Kluane National Park in Canada to form a 24 million-acre wilderness, the largest internationally protected area in the world.

The entire region is part of the World Heritage Site.

So what do you get for all these big numbers? Big mountains, big glaciers, big rivers, big country!

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is home to 9 of the 16 highest peaks in the United States, including Mt. St. Elias, Mt. Blackburn. Mt. Logan, the highest peak in Canada, and the second highest mountain in North America to Denali sits right over the border and is clearly visible from much of the park. Other well-known mountains here include Mt. Sanford, Mt. Bona, Mt. Drum, and Mt. Wrangell.

Nowhere in North America stand a comparable range of big mountains.

Nowhere.

Wrangell-St. Elias Favorites

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park Backpacking

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park - Camping

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park - Packrafting

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park - Photo Tours

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