The Nabesna Road

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska is the largest park in the nation, covering 13.2 million acres.  It has extremely limited access, with only two major roads.  One lies to the south, the McCarthy Road, and the second road lies on the northern side of the Wrangell mountain range.  This is the Nabesna Road, 42 miles of rough gravel, including at least five water crossings.  A high-clearance (preferably 4-wheel-drive in wet weather) vehicle is necessary for the last ten miles.

We traversed the Nabesna during our 2010 trip.  At that time, the park was building a primitive (dry) campground but it was not yet complete.  We stopped at the Salana Ranger station, located at the beginning of the Nabesna Road to check road conditions.  Dark clouds hovered over the mountains.  The park ranger told us that with all the rain that some of the water crossings may be high but should retreat quite quickly once the rain passed.  Another ranger told us that the postal driver had turned back earlier in the afternoon at the third crossing because it was too high.

We traveled as far as the same crossing.  The water rushed through the gulley in a torrent.  Not knowing how deep it might be, we retreated to the now-completed campground for the evening.  The campground was nestled in the pines and provided a quite and beautiful spot for the night. 

The following morning, we broke camp and decided to try the water crossings again.  To our delight, the water had gone down substantially.  We decided to ford and travel to the end of the road to the now defunct and historical Nabesna gold mine.  

Water crossing on Nabesna Road

The mountains before us boasted a fresh dusting of snow.  In the distance, we spied mountain goats.

The town of Nebesna rests near the end of the road.  It has maybe a dozen houses, a bed and breakfast, an outdoor adventure guide, a few small planes, and a grass runway.  The road narrows substantially after the town and dead-ends at a “road closed” sign.  About 3-1/2 miles up this road rests the ruins of the Nabesna gold mine.  

We decided to stroll up the road.  About a half-mile in, we discovered a trail to the Rambler Mine.  We could see the water flume from the road but dared not try to take the trail.  Although it was under a mile in length, the trail climbed over 400 feet in altitude.  Our Golden girl’s legs were already trembling.  We decided it best to hike back to the truck. 

As Roxanne snored softly in the backseat, we returned back down the Nabesna Road, past our last night’s camp.  We decided to stay in one of the camping pullouts nearer the entrance for an early morning start to Tok since we had several errands to finish before leaving Alaska.  It was a beautiful campsite, overlooking Rock Lake and Mt. Wrangell.  Because it was a bit buggy in the sun, we put up the screened tent to ward off those nasty gnats.

Evening began to settle in, and the mountain range had only wisps of clouds surrounding it, promising a glorious morning.  Suddenly a car pulled into the camp and two men barreled out.  They didn’t bother saying anything to us, just went to a high spot and began to peer over the lake.  David met them.  They said, “Oh, sorry to bother you, we’re hunters.”

Seems that it was the first day of moose season for subsistence hunters in the area.  A large bull moose had his territory around Rock Lake, and these fellows were trying to locate him.  By the end of the evening, no less than seven vehicles stopped to look for this same moose.  (Obviously our choice of campsites was the envy of everyone.)  David would get out of the camper and explain to each one that we hadn’t seen the moose.  All of the hunters seemed nice, but it was still quite disconcerting to have so many pull into our one-spot camp.  We were grateful when night fell but knew that morning would bring a similar parade of vehicles.

Sunset on Mt. Wrangell

It was as if the Spirit nudged me the next morning.  Most of you know that I am not an early riser.  But I woke and rolled to look at Wrangell Mountain.  I quickly grabbed my glasses to make certain that what I thought I saw was what I saw… the mountain bathed in red.  As I slid out of bed, a bewildered David asked, “What are you doing?”

“Look at the mountain,” I said.  “I’m taking photos.”

Sunrise on Mt. Wrangell

He, too, scrambled out of bed.  We spent the next hour in the morning chill, drinking in the beauty before us.  Wow!

With even the lower mountains dusted in snow and fall colors showing more and more each day, we knew what we needed to do.  Our battle cry now seems to be, “We’ve got to get up the Dempster!” 

We broke camp, drove to Tok, then on to Chicken.  After taking showers, we traveled on to Walker Creek Campground on the Taylor Highway.  Tomorrow we return to Eagle, then will leave Alaska for our final northern goal… Canada’s Dempster Highway.