"Wrangell-St. Elias National Park 13,200,000 Acres" Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve by George_Close

Wrangell-St. Elias was proclaimed a national monument on December 1, 1978, and established as a national park and preserve on December 2, 1980, with 13,200,000 acres. Incredible! You have to see Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve to believe it - and even then you are not to sure. The number and scale of everything is enormous. Peaks upon peaks. Glaciers after glaciers. If you follow any of the braided rivers and streams to their source, you will find either a receding glacier, an advancing glacier, or a tidewater glacier. Four major mountain ranges converge here, and the park includes 9 of the 16 highest peaks in the United States. The total acreage makes this the largest U.S. national park, the size of six Yellowstones. The Wrangells huddle in the northern interior; the Chugach Mountains guard the southern coast; the St. Elias Mountains rise abrubtly from the Gulf of Alaska thrusting northward past the Chugach and on towards the Wrangells; and the eastern end of the Alaskan Range. The Wrangells are volcanic in origin but, only Mount Wrangell remains active with vents of steam near the summit. The last reported eruption was in 1990. There are so many peaks that you quickly abandon the urge to learn their names and just settle back and appreciate their beauty, their size, and their ruggedness. Amid the splendid isolation comes a feeling of discovery, a feeling that you might be the first human being to see such spectacular sights.

This picture was taken in early October, 1995 inside Wrangell-St. Elias right before sunset as I reluctantly left for the outskirts of the park to make camp for the night.