Photo Credit: Wrangell Mountain Air

McCarthy-Kennicott Transportation

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Drive: It takes approximately 7 hours from Anchorage and 8 hours from Fairbanks to drive to McCarthy. Most of the trip is on a paved highway. The the final 2 hours (60 miles) are on the scenic, rugged McCarthy Road. This is a gravel road, and many Alaska car rental companies don’t allow their vehicles on non-paved roads. Alaska 4x4 Rentals, and Alaska Overlander, based in Anchorage, do!

Fly: Copper Valley Air Service provides scheduled flights between Anchorage and McCarthy and Glennallen and McCarthy. An alternative is to drive approximately 6 hours from Anchorage to Chitina, and then fly into McCarthy with Wrangell Mountain Air.

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Rentals for the McCarthy Road

Season: Year Round $155+

Some of Alaska’s most allur­ing des­ti­na­tions are along its grav­el roads, through tim­ber, tun­dra and quaint towns. Alas­ka 4×4 Rental’s 4‑wheel dri­ve vehi­cles are per­fect for nav­i­gat­ing these rugged roads. Choose a new mod­el Jeep, SUV, pick­up or van for your own cus­tom road trip – and you can dri­ve all the way to the Arc­tic Circle!

Season: April to Mid-October Summer $289+ per night | Spring & Fall $199+ per night 3+ days

Com­plete with rooftop tents that set up in min­utes, camp stove, and refrig­er­a­tor, Over­lan­ders are per­fect for explor­ing Alas­ka. Explore the Denali High­way, McCarthy Road, or Dal­ton High­way just as eas­i­ly as you can zip into towns like Homer, Tal­keet­na, or Fairbanks.

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Air Taxis & Charters View All

Season: Year Round Flightseeing $350+ | Air Taxi $450+ One Way 1+ hrs

Year-round air ser­vice from Glen­nallen, Alas­ka. Short on time? Check Alaska’s largest nation­al park off your list with a flight­see­ing tour that includes a land­ing in the wilder­ness of the park. Trav­el­ing to McCarthy / Ken­ni­cott? Trav­el like the locals and hop on a mail plane flight. See how back­coun­try mail is deliv­ered and enjoy speedy trans­porta­tion to McCarthy. Or, opt for their sched­uled air ser­vice. Both have depar­tures from Anchor­age and  ...more

$300+ 30 min to 2 hrs

If you want to get a true sense of the 13 mil­lion acres with­in Wrangell-St. Elias Nation­al Park — which has a mere 100 miles of road­ways — start with an aer­i­al view. Since 1992, Wrangell Moun­tain Air has been offer­ing safe and fas­ci­nat­ing tours of this remote king­dom, which boasts North Amer­i­ca’s largest assem­blage of glac­i­ers as well as its largest col­lec­tion of peaks above 16,000 feet. Choose from three main tours. 

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