June 13, 14, 15 McCarthy - Kennecott

 June 13 was an easy travel day from Valdez - Chitina 133 miles.  June 14th put on some truck miles as we drove McCarthy Road into Wrangell-St.Elias National Park.  Named after two huge mountain ranges.  The road is 60 miles one way.  An adventure in itself as we saw swans, bear and moose along the road.  The bear & moose were camera shy so no pics to share.  McCarthy Road took us to the town of McCarthy and then a short van ride to Kennecott, the home of an old Copper Mine along with a view of both the Kennecott and Root glacier.  We had a great "culture" day learning the history of hard amazing work in the copper mining industry.  The residents of Alaska have fish wheels in the Copper River and while we were exploring, we stumbled upon the owner of a wheel who generously showed us both her wheel and how it works.  The bonus was she gave us a red salmon that she caught in the wheel.  WOW!  June 15th got Rick and his fishing pole out to a nearby Lake.  Catch & release, but lots of smiles from the fisherman!