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 Alaska
rafting, Alaska glacier, Alaska hiking, and Alaska wildlife tours at their
finest. Alaska adventure travel tours are among the most spectacular and
rewarding in the world. In addition to the Grand Alaska Adventure described on
this page, we invite you to check out our Copper River
Expedition, Discover Alaska,
Source to the Sea
Expedition, and Lake Creek Fishing and Rafting
Adventure as well!
The largest
protected wilderness areas in the world await! Wrangell-St. Elias National
Park, America's largest national park, and Canada's Kluane National Park
together form the most expansive backcountry area on earth and are designated
to remain forever preserved. In fact, Wrangell-St. Elias is over six times as
large as Yellowstone National Park and hosts six of North America's ten highest
peaks! Destination Wilderness offers several unparalleled opportunities to
explore the heart of the great Wrangell-St. Elias and experience first-rate
Alaska rafting, glaciers, hiking and wildlife adventures. These trips are run
by our Alaska affiliate outfitter, Copper Oar. Copper Oar is partially owned by
and trips led in part by guides who worked for Destination Wilderness when it
operated trips in Alaska directly.
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Additional
Grand Alaska Information |
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Our multi-day features wilderness flight-seeing,
glaciering, and Alaska rafting. This journey ventures deep into the park and
provides an awesome array of scenery and adventure. This trip can be combined
with our Copper River Expedition for an unforgettable eleven-day Alaska rafting
and wilderness journey.
Trip Overview
(for
additional details such as a daily itinerary, rendezvous information, etc.,
please click here.)
After a rendezvous in
Valdez we go by van up the scenic Richardson Highway to the little town of
Chitina. Here, we hop aboard a bush plane for an sightseeing flight to the
quaint Alaskan town of McCarthy. This scenic and breathtaking air excursion
allows us to witness the power and grace of the glaciers and rivers and soar
around the high mountains of remote Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.
 After the flight, we spend the next day and a
half in the McCarthy area, hiking up to and around Root Glacier and the
historic Kennicott Mine. Built in 1911 near the base of two glaciers, this
copper mine served up over 400 tons of ore and minerals a day before closing in
1938, after producing more than one billion pounds of copper. We spend the
night in rustic and friendly McCarthy.
In the afternoon of day two, we
board the rafts and float the Kennicott river, the first of three Class II-III
rivers we will travel on this Alaska rafting trip portion of the Grand Alaska
Adventure. Soon, we join the Nizina, a glacial river with three times the
volume of the Kennicott. A highlight of this stretch is Nizina Canyon, a
high-walled slot with fun and exciting current. We camp in Nizina Canyon, at or
above the confluence of the Nizina and Chitina rivers. On the third day of our
adventure in the Wrangell-St. Elias we join and float the Chitina River. Here,
as perhaps above, we might see some of the abundant wildlife of this region,
including brown bear, Dall sheep, and moose, as they roam the shores and side
creeks.
Our views are filled with the immensity and grandeur of this
wild place, and can include jagged, snow-capped mountains reaching over 16,000
feet. We also pass the remnants of an incredible avalanche that nearly choked
the Chitina in 1994. The last nights' camps are along the Chitina, in the
absolute quiet of this premier wilderness area. We take out near the town of
Chitina.
 Those interested in a longer
journey in this rugged and incomparable country may choose to continue the
adventure by rafting the Copper River, described on the Copper River Expedition
page. Please note that the combo trip stops for the night in Chitina before
continuing on down the Copper.
For additional details such as a daily itinerary,
rendezvous information, etc., please
click
here. For images of the beautiful Wrangell St. Elias National Park
and our trips please visit the Alaska
Adventures Photo Gallery. |
Grand
Alaska: Alaska rafting, hiking and glaciers in the heart of the Last
Frontier June through
August
