Wrangell - St Elias National Park & Preserve guide · 1 min read
Where Four Mountain Ranges Meet
Four distinct mountain ranges come together in this park: the Wrangell Mountains, the Saint Elias Mountains, the Chugach Mountains and the Alaska Range.
All of the Wrangell range falls within the park, along with the western Saint Elias Mountains and the eastern Chugach. Smaller ranges sit in the gaps between them, including the Nutzotin Mountains, which continue the Alaska Range, plus the Granite Range and the Robinson Mountains. Wide rivers flow through valleys shaped by ice, and the Chitina and Nabesna rivers are among them.
Mount Saint Elias is the second-highest mountain in both the United States and Canada. Of the 20 highest peaks in North America, seven lie within the park, and every peak above 10,000 feet is covered by glacier ice. Reaching these tops usually calls for lengthy expeditions that demand technical skill, and the park advises anyone without deep climbing experience to bring a professional mountaineering guide.
Mount Wrangell is among the park's major volcanoes, and most volcanoes of the Wrangell volcanic field cluster toward the western end of the range. Many volcanoes linked to subduction erupt explosively, but the western Wrangell cones usually do not. Most are broad shield volcanoes, many with collapse calderas at the summit, and cinder cones often ring their flanks. Some peaks here are active volcanoes. On Mount Sanford, an icefield above 8,000 feet supplies a number of glaciers.
Bagley Icefield, which spreads across parts of the Saint Elias and Chugach ranges, is the largest nonpolar icefield in North America. One way to take in its scale is a flightseeing tour out of McCarthy, Alaska, which shows the peaks, glaciers and ice fields from the air, Mount Saint Elias included.
