Wild is right! the WSTENP has 13.2 million acres to explore – and only 100 miles of gravel road to travel on! The largest national park in the USA, Wrangell is larger than Switzerland, with taller mountains! Six Yellowstone NPs equals the size of this National Heritage site. The park is so big that there are 7 visitor centers. Seashore, magnificent mountain ranges (tallest range in the USA), rivers, valleys and glaciers are here for anyone to explore.

Although the access is as physically limiting as Denali NP, the difference here is that the park encourages one to explore, camp, and hike – without paying for permits or campsites or regulations on where you can camp or drive. The only thing that rangers ask is that you let someone know if you are heading out to explore.

The 100 miles of road are split: on the West side of the park is a 60 miles bumpy accessed from Richardson Highway to the small McCarthy and Kennecott villages. One has to park and walk across the bridge and another 1/4 mile to get to the communities. One the Northern edge, is Nabesna Rd, which runs about 40 miles with many pullouts for free camping along small lakes, but has three creeks one must drive through (no bridges).

We have spent at least 12 days traveling along the Western, Northern and Eastern eadge of this fantastic park – with a few forays on the beginnings of each of the gravel roads. I think we could have spent all 5 months of our journey here – and only scratched the surface!!!