I won’t say much about the historic old town of McCarthy and the ghost mining town Kennicott as it is described in many places. Although it’s been “discovered”, I will say it is well worth the stop. Two days minimum – one day to hike on Root Glacier and one day to do the mill tour (if you are at all interested in the mining that went on there). If you love to hike steep terrain you can also hike up to one of the mines.
The runway is gravel but is relatively smooth and you can camp under your wing. If there is an airport in Canada or Alaska that needs a flight service person for traffic advisories this is it. There isn’t one. There are quite a few tour planes plus private traffic in and out so be alert. Runway one appears to be the calm wind runway.
From the airport walk out the road to the southeast and you’ll soon hit a T. There are buses that charge $5-20 that go between McCarthy (to the left at the T) and Kennicott (to the right at the T). Wait at the T and a bus will pull over for you. From there you are on your own.
I have to mention that Betsy and I first visited here in the 80’s on our honeymoon. It wasn’t a park yet and we had to take a hand-over-hand cable tram across the river with our camping stuff and mountain bikes slung below us in order to ride our bikes to Kennicott. Kennicott was a raw ghost town with medical records still in the clinic, ledger forms on the floor of the store and old raingear hung up on pegs.
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