wrangell-st. elias national park & preserve visitor center

The visitor center is new and huge. You will be able to get all the info needed and see good exhibits, a good movie, and a wonderful view from the short nature trail. I highly recommend Wrangell-St. Elias National Park - you must go to McCarthy and take a flightseeing tour to really appreciate the vastness of this park. The gravel road to get there is a long drive, but we took it with a rental car and had no problems at all.

There are many hiking trails. Lodges that are remote.Really enjoyed the friendly people here and the solitude. Fished in several spots for Pike. Really enjoyed my visit.

Has a lot of information for you when you go in the main building! The visitor center[s] are huge! there are five buildings - the bathroom (is clean, flush toilets), the exhibit, the agricultural center, the theater, and the main building. I promise you will get all the information you need here. The visitor center also hosts great views of mount Drum, a 12,000 foot dormant volcano.

This is a good informative visitor centre and well worth stopping at. The staff are friendly and the exhibits are good. Take time to watch the short movie about the park and then enjoy the short trails around the woods nearby.

This should be your first stop when visiting Wrangell St Elias NP and Preserve. There is a movie to watch which is very informative. There are exhibits and displays, too. Make sure to ask the rangers about activities to do, for example, the McCarthy Road or flying with Wrangell Mountain Air to get to Kennicott.

Wish we had made it earlier in the day so that we could take advantage of some of the ranger presentations. We were grateful for the clean bathrooms and running water. There was a nice half-mile paved pathway through the woods and another half-mile gravel path along a bluff with views of a nearby river. A movie about the park is shown ever hour on the hour, introduced by a park ranger. Our son did the junior ranger badge while we looked at the animal pelts and skulls and maps of the Edgerton Highway. There is a fantastic 3-D map of the park that gives you a sense of the scale and the mountains in the park. There is a separate building with exhibits about wildlife in the park. In another separate building is the Ahtna Cultural Center. This facility appears to be operated and staffed by the Ahtna Heritage Foundation. I was so glad to see that there was an opportunity to learn about the people of the area. A timeline on the wall was interesting, as were interpretive displays about native foods and potlatches. A staff member was on hand to answer questions, but she was reserved and waited for visitors to approach her. A wonderful Ahtna alphabet poster was on the wall, but was not available for purchase. The staff member did give me a bookmark with the alphabet (thank you!), but I would have been interested in buying the poster if it had been available. They did have a case of bead work and other artwork available for purchase. It would be great for this area to have more hands on exhibits that might engage young visitors. This part of the center has such potential.

Lots of information about the 13.2 million acre park and a lot about Alaska in General. Rangers were very helpful and can give you information about places to go and things to do based on your personal level of adventurousness. Neat exhibits and information on the mountain ranges and animals in the area.

We stopped at the Nabesna station and let the kids do the Jr. Ranger program. The staff was very attentive to our kids and helped them through the book. She was friendly and knowledgeable about the area.

We stopped here for a couple of hours on our way through the area. Unfortunately, due to our schedule, we were not able to visit the interior of the park. We decided to stop here to get an overview though. It was very enjoyable and interesting. There were three buildings with exhibits, one of which highlighted the history of the Native culture in the area. We will plan several days to visit this National Park on our next trip to Alaska.

Alaska has some great Nat'l Park visitor centers and this is no exception. Definitely worth a stop if your visiting the Nat'l Park or just passing through. Wrangell St. Elias is the largest NP, but also the most forgotten. You cannot enter the park from this visitor center. There are only 2 roads leading into the park. One is on the Valdez Hwy (4) near the town of Chitina and the other is on the Tok Cut Hwy (1) near Slana. This visitor center is located about 10 miles south of Glennallen. Stop in for some good information, videos and pick something up from the gift shop. My kids favorite displays were the skulls and the scat samples!

Knew little about the park , even that it existed, the displays are informative about land, animals and forest inside the park, easy to spend 2 hours looking at the displays

We have been visiting Wrangell St. Elias National Park for 25 years, and highly recommend the visitor's Center.Seems like most folks/tourists know about Denali, but not so much Wrangell St. Elias National Park. 25 years ago, we knew Wrangell St. Elias National Park was on the way to Valdez, and we wanted to see the pipeline and Tour Prince William Sound.It quite a distance from the main highway to Wrangell St. Elias National Park and be prepared for the drive.Denali is 20,000'+ Wrangell is 14,000'+, but without all of the tourists.In many respects, Wrangell is more inviting. First there is the image and the view from 120 miles away.25 years ago, the Wrangell area was like the wild west; today, the NP (establish in 1980) is a bit more civilized.We recommend 2 days on your schedule.The park includes a large portion of the Saint Elias Mountains, which include most of the highest peaks in the United States and Canada, yet are within 10 miles (16 km) of tidewater, one of the highest reliefs in the world. Wrangell-St. Elias borders on Canada's Kluane National Park and Reserve.

Indian culture center next door. full size fish trap outside. Across the walkway 2 young men were building an elevated storage building with an village elder supervising. they let me ask about how they would build with logs and how to chalk(moss) and how to keep bears from raiding (bear grease on poles that elevate storage- deter other bears and animals). They also explained how the large outside fish trap works (scoopers with a incline ending in hole on scooper that slide fish into basket on side) Inside was a fish trap built by one of the young men's his grandmother. (fish can go in but not get out)Attendant was a member of tribe and very willing to answer questions and fill in information about the native life in the area. No charge.Rangers in main building with exhibitsAlso in yet another building exhibits about the natural history of the area- done very nicely.Nice bathroom facilities.Not take long to visit all

Our stop at the visitor center was enjoyable. The buildings and facilities were very nicely done. The displays were informative and well laid out. We particularly enjoyed the building dedicated to the Native Americans. The views from the walking trails of the mountains were spectacular. It is definitely a great stop if you were traveling the Richardson Highway. That said the day we were there the staff looked to be doing some training and had limited availability for interacting with guests. Also the two young ladies in the native American building were very informative when approached but we had to approach them first. The last thing is I hope people don't get the impression that the visitor center is the best way to see the park. You get to see the real park if you travel to McCarthy and Kennicott which we did later after visiting the Center.

This is in four new buildings. The presentations are well presented. We especially liked the Cultural Center with the local natives telling us many details. The movie is spectacular, but it could have had more information beside pretty pictures. The center does give a very complete education,The staff us unusually friendly and helpful. A wealth of information about the area what a person needs to do. The real, authentic salmon wheel is great to studyTo do this properly, you need more than an hour The free coffee and tea are nice additions. Be sure to leave a donation,