One of the national parks we visited during our Alaska motorcycle trip was Wrangell-St. Elias National Park – the largest national park in the United States at 13.2 million acres.

Primarily backcountry with only two unpaved roads that enter the park, Wrangell-St. Elias can be challenging to visit without pre-planning to ensure you have the right information, vehicle, gear, and permits for the activities you want to pursue.

We decided to make Copper Center the homebase for our experience, beginning at the main visitor center. This complex has several buildings that include a nice museum, film auditorium, gift shop, and restrooms.

After exploring the facilities and speaking with the rangers, we set out on the hiking trail behind the buildings, stopping at a couple observation decks for views of the Wrangell Mountains before making our way through the woods. It was a short hike and a quiet afternoon – our only animal spotting was a fierce squirrel that was not happy to be photographed enjoying its lunch!

We stayed at nearby Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge, which is affiliated with the Princess cruise line that brings passengers to Alaska and its properties.

While this lodge was ideally located for our time in the park and had terrific views and trails, the eateries and service were underwhelming at best. In fact, our meal was so disappointing the first night that we walked nearly six miles roundtrip to eat at the next closest restaurant the following night for dinner. (Shoutout to the Old Town Copper Center Inn and Restaurant – definitely worth the walk!)

In addition to spending time at the visitor center and hiking in that area, we originally hoped to spend a day taking a bus tour into the park to explore the Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark. Unfortunately we learned upon arrival that a landslide had just occurred, completely blocking the road and causing havoc for those already inside that section of the park.

We quickly researched a backup plan, and Brian found a nearby “flightseeing” tour of the park that still had seats available.

Our pilot was great. Originally from Colorado, he has spent several years flying these tours and was friendly and knowledgeable, getting us much closer to the 18,000-foot peaks than I would have thought possible. He also let Brian ride our bike on the tarmac for a photo op with our little plane.

The park is massive, and it was interesting to watch the terrain change as we got closer to the peaks. The area near the airport is wetlands, and we could see lakes as well as the elevated Alaska pipeline from overhead.

As we got closer, the mountains took shape, rugged and rocky with some residual snow. Our pilot pointed out a few clear areas where they have permission to land in order to drop off people who have permits to backcountry hike and camp for several days prior to their plane pickup.

The largest peaks were still completely covered in deep snow with thick glaciers crawling down their sides. The temperature got much cooler in our aircraft, and our pilot took us right up to the snowy cliffs for several turns before eventually heading back toward home base.

While I was disappointed we weren’t able to travel into the park for the mine experience, I have no regrets about how things ultimately worked out. Our flightseeing tour was an incredible way to experience the scope of the park, and I would highly recommend that option if you’re planning to visit Wrangell-St. Eias.

I would also make sure to start at the Copper Center visitor center – the museum and film helped us learn more about this park and what makes it unique, and the rangers were able to provide resources for planning our time based on our interests and vehicular capabilities.

Wrangell-St. Elias was another incredible national park experience!