The Wagon Road & Toe of the Kennicott Glacier

This is one of Alaska's great introductory wilderness walks — a flat, gravelly old wagon road that threads through boreal forest from the McCarthy footbridge toward the historic Kennecott Mill Town, with a spur trail branching off to the toe of the Kennicott Glacier. The walking is easy and the terrain is forgiving, but the scenery is absolutely outrageous: you're hemmed in by some of the biggest mountains on the continent, with the glacier's rubble-covered snout creeping into view as you approach. The glacier toe itself is a strange, otherworldly landscape of ice caves, meltwater streams, and rock-covered ice that looks more like a moonscape than a frozen river. The mill town spur delivers you to one of the best-preserved mining ghost towns in America, its red buildings stacked against the mountainside like a vertical village. This trail is perfect for anyone who wants a big Alaska experience without a big Alaska sufferfest.