In the late 1960s, a company with land rights ordered that the abandoned Kennecott Mine, located near McCarthy, Alaska, and the surrounding town site be destroyed because of the hazard of its deteriorating buildings. Some structures were destroyed but most of the job was left undone and many structures remained, tempting nearby residents and visitors to pillage what they could find of old relics and artefacts from the area.
Kennecott Mine, McCarthy Alaska. Photo: Dave Sears
Some items were returned and the area has since turned into an interesting destination for those hearty enough to travel the 90-mile dead-end McCarthy road into McCarthy, Alaska. Kennecott was a copper mine and is located northeast of Valdez, Ak. The mine has been abandoned since the mid-1950s and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
Kennecott Mine, McCarthy Alaska. Photo: Dave Sears
I’m very glad Dave and I made the trip into McCarthy and Kennecott on our bikes. The place is magical, from its 14-storey high mine buildings to the beautiful valley in which the charming little town of McCarthy sits.
We’d left our friends Kim, Joseph, Ronetta, Frank and Kate the morning of Sept. 9 as they were heading along a route that would eventually bring them to Whitehorse, Yukon. Dave and I had a grey day riding along the Edgerton Highway to the fairly unmaintained gravel McCarthy Road but that didn’t deter much from photo ops. Along the way we passed the Copper River, famously known in certain circles for its production of some of the best Sockeye salmon in the world.
A stellar view of the Copper River area along the McCarthy Road. Photo: Dave Sears
We rode down onto the river bed, feeling quite lucky we’d shared some of this mouth-watering salmon with our friends Ed and Jill back in Fairbanks, AK after Ed and his son, Tomas, had caught 21 Sockeye in one weekend. We’d eaten something that in some restaurants costs about $40 per plate.
McCarthy Road ends at the Kennicott River (not a spelling error—it’s Kennecott Mine but Kennicott River and Glacier) and is replaced with a footbridge to allow visitors access to the town site of McCarthy. From McCarthy, it is about 7 km (4 mi) to Kennecott mine and shuttles are available.
We parked our bikes in a big gravel lot about a kilometre down the road. There is pay-parking right at the bridge for those who don’t want to walk so far.
We walked across the bridge and into town taking photos on the way. McCarthy is so quiet with hardly any tourists or locals but there’s enough of a buzz to suggest things are happening around town.
Photo: Heather Lea
McCarthy townsite. Photo: Heather Lea
McCarthy townsite. Photo: Heather Lea
McCarthy townsite. Photo: Heather Lea
When you need to go… Photo: Dave Sears
Photo: Dave Sears
Photo: Dave Sears
We were under the impression vehicles were not allowed in town but once we started walking around, we noticed cars and trucks parked along the streets and in people’s driveways. We figured there must be another road and were left with our curiosity for the moment. For now, we had to solve an immediate problem of hunger. We found The Potato and tucked into a late lunch around 4:00 p.m. then caught a shuttle up to the mine around 5:00 p.m. We were the only two people in the van and I asked the driver how people get their cars over the river. He said resident’s pay about $300/year and get a key that accesses a trunk road bridge downriver. He then said, “But if it fits, you can bring it across the foot bridge.”
Hold up now… so we could ride our bikes across the bridge?
“Sure,” he said, “so long as you can get by the barriers, you can get’em up here.”
Dah! Not only had we paid $20 for the shuttle but we were killing our chances of getting some sweet shots of the bikes at the mine.
We decided to spend the hour before the shuttle would return to McCarthy taking photos around the mine buildings then we’d go back and grab our bikes to hopefully come back up before dark for some shots with the bikes.
Exploring Kennecott Mine. Photo: Heather Lea
Exploring Kennecott Mine. Photo: Heather Lea
Exploring Kennecott Mine. Photo: Heather Lea
Exploring Kennecott Mine. Photo: Heather Lea
Exploring Kennecott Mine. Photo: Heather Lea
Exploring Kennecott Mine. Photo: Heather Lea
Exploring Kennecott Mine. Photo: Heather Lea
Exploring Kennecott Mine. Photo: Heather Lea
Photo: Dave Sears
Kennecott Mine. Photo: Dave Sears
Kennecott Mine. Photo: Dave Sears
Exploring around heritage buildings isn’t really my thing but Dave had been to McCarthy before and missed a chance at getting up to the mine, so I acquiesced. I was enjoying it, however. The mine is in an incredible location right beside Kennicott Glacier. The valley of moraine and ice that spills from the glacier’s tongue is grandiose and foreboding. It creates a very ominous but exciting feel for the area.
Dave photographing the Kennecott Glacier valley. Photo: Heather Lea
The Kennecott Glacier valley. Photo: Heather Lea
After taking the shuttle back into town, we walked quickly back to our bikes and got aboard to see if we could squeeze them past the barriers on the footbridge.
We did and were on our way up to the mine for round two, this time with props. It was almost 9:00 p.m. by the time we got the bikes situated on the wooden deck of another passenger bridge over a waterfall near the mine. By then we were seemingly the only people up there.
The bikes make it up to Kennecott. Photo: Heather Lea
Dave and I spent some time rolling the bikes into position for their photo shoot. We set the timers on our cameras, then rode toward them. My camera was set on time lapse as the most my camera would time was 10 seconds, which wasn’t enough to straddle a bike and get it rolling unless I wanted time lapse shots of me falling off my bike. Dave was able to remotely set his Canon from his phone. While we were playing around at the mine thinking we were the only two people up there, we noticed a guy standing patiently waiting for us to get over ourselves and leave the scene so he could get his own photos. We apologized and got off the bridge but the guy came over and offered to take some photos for us. Dave got him all set up with his Canon on the guys’ tripod. Sankar, a pro-photographer, we found out, got some great shots of us. Thanks Sankar! (Check him out here).
Photo: Sankar Salvady
Photo: Sankar Salvady
Photo: Sankar Salvady
It was almost dark now so Dave and I rode back down to town and across the footbridge, rolling along the McCarthy road until we found a place to camp off the road by some cabins, which looked to be uninhabited. Nevertheless, we set up our tent well out of ear and eyeshot from them, made dinner and went to bed exhausted after a long day.
In the morning we were lucky to see an amazing nature moment; we started hearing something a little like a dull axe hitting chunks of wood off in the distance. As we ate breakfast we noticed the sound coming closer. I was kind of ignorant of it until Dave grabbed my shoulder and whisper-yelled, Heather, look!
Travelling through the trees mere metres from us was a huge bull moose, awkwardly negotiating tree trunks with his ginormous rack.
Bull moose near our camp. Photo: Dave Sears
Bull moose near our camp. Photo: Dave Sears
I hadn’t seen many moose on our trip throughout the Yukon and Alaska, maybe two, so seeing this male so close up, I was spellbound. It was gigantic. Thoughts went through my head like moose could be more volatile than a grizzly. But something about this one suggested it was just trying to get by us peacefully.
Dave grabbed his camera and screwed on his zoom lense while walking parallel to the four-legged beast, a few thin trees between him and it. I ran quietly along behind, filming. I could hear Dave’s camera clicking away and he was now out on the road, having lost the moose in the trees. He walked to position himself where he thought the moose would emerge from the forest then got a big surprise when the moose came out nearly at his elbow from the trees.
Another thought that flashed through my mind: this is how my boyfriend meets his demise. And I’ll have it all on camera.
Ever the doting girlfriend, I ran back toward the safety of a nearby outhouse, ready to duck inside should there be any blood and gore or the moose decide to come after me.
Amazingly, the moose walked right past Dave. I couldn’t believe how close he was. Dave snapped away and got some great shots. This was almost as great as the fact we’d woken up to a completely blue sky.
Bull Moose from Heather on Vimeo.
Still high on our moose experience, Dave and I packed up the bikes and rode back toward McCarthy’s footbridge to take advantage of the weather for shots of the Kennicott glacier up-valley. We hiked toward a tarn nearby and I found some bear tracks in the sand, quite close to the campground located right beside the footbridge.
Bear prints near McCarthy. Photo: Dave Sears
Kennicott Glacier from the footbridge near McCarthy, Alaska. Photo: Dave Sears
Kennicott Glacier from the footbridge near McCarthy, Alaska. Photo: Dave Sears
Kennicott Glacier from the footbridge near McCarthy, Alaska. Photo: Dave Sears
On our ride out we passed three other riders heading in. We stopped and talked with them for a while. They were really nice guys from the area and we got a photo with them to add to our collection of great people we’ve met on the road.
Other riders we passed heading into McCarthy. That’s the Alaska state flag.
Dave and I spent the rest of the day utilizing the dry weather to our advantage to get a few miles under our wheels. We made it to about 60 miles before Tok and fell asleep talking about our friends Kim, Joseph, Frank and Kate and how we probably wouldn’t see Kate and Frank again as they were in go-mode for trying to get down to Jasper, Alberta before the snow. Kim and Joseph we’d planned to meet up with a few weeks later to do some off-road riding in Northern B.C.
Little did we know we’d see them all again the very next day.
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Great post and amazing pictures! You were so close to that Moose!
Love the black and white’s of the mining town.
Thanks for sharing.
Very artistic photos, Heather. You sure do have your dad’s great photographer’s eye. (And Dave’s shots were pretty special too.)
That mine site looks like a fabulous place to explore.
Thanks Dave but it’s pretty easy to take good shots on this trip 😉
Thankfully the weather was amazing.
How did you guys like it, Keith?
Heather and Dave. Great segment here. Loved the photos. About this time of year, bull moose can get “cranky” as they have the ladies on their minds. Happy this one was cooperative. The bear tracks are grizzly tracks as denoted by the claw marks well in front of the pad. Keep up the good work. Love to you both, Neil and Linda
Those grizzly tracks were pretty close to a couple of tents.
Love old mines and really enjoyed both your’s and Dave’s photos of the area. So much cool stuff lying around so one can speculate about what the heck they were used for. Lucky the moose was in a laid back mood. Pretty special to see one so close.