The McCarthy road in Alaska.

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The railroad was built in the early 1900s to service the copper mines and then it shut down right before WWII and then in the 1950s they pulled up the rails and made it into a one lane road that is still known as one of the worst roads in Alaska.

The idea that it is the worst road is actually the fun part.

The location my dad homesteaded in 1964 had been a sawmill that cut lumber for the mines and the town of McCarthy. The place had burnt down at least twice but there is not much history on the place.

The homestead is about 18 miles from the town of McCarthy which is at the end of the road.
You can see an awesome glacier from the parking lot at that end,but my place is all trees, my dad got weird and put the stakes for the homestead on both sides of the road, so he could get two lakes and a creek and all the space for a small airstrip in the same property.

So anyway I will be getting some photos and other stuff on here and I might not be traveling so much mysel, but I tend to meet a lot of the more adventurous types who do get brave and get on out in the Wrangell mountains on the McCarthy road and look around a little.

I can tell you , it is a peaceful , TAME forest, most of the way if you want to stop the rental car and get out, and go off the road a few hundred feet, you can't see anything from a car, please don't make a mess and please slow down a lot and go ahead and take a minute to get out there and look at that forest, alone, or with a guide, you are welcome to it, and it is not teeming with wildlife or anything it is just a forest. It is a 50 million acre forest, and it is pretty cool.

Try to get back to your car or camp by TWILIGHT, that is like four or five in the afternoon, that is like the shift change between the daytime animals and the nocturnal animals, and they move around a little then.

I actually walk around at night all the time, but I guess I just get used to it and sort of stay out of the animal's way. No, I haven't figured out a way to do that with the mosquitoes yet.

If you have any questions about the Chitina Valley , Wrangell mountains, or the McCarthy road I have been around awhile and I sort of keep track of a few guys who really get into it, if we can find them.

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