[Wrangell-St Elias National Park, Jul 31, 2025]

Hiking to and on the Root Glacier was the main attraction of this park. We had seen Root Glacier from the plane and even spotted the trail that provides access to its toe. It’s just under 3 miles on mostly flat terrain from Kennecott. It’s one of the most accessible glaciers in the world…once you make it out here.

You can bring crampons and walk on the glacier on your own, but we thought doing a guided tour would be safer and more educational. There is only one concessionaire in Kennecott, St Elias Alpine Guides, and they offered a 6-hour and 8-hour outing. We signed up for the 8-hour one, wanting to make the most of our time on the glacier. Surprisingly, we were the only ones who’d done that… everyone else was signed up for the 6-hour tour, which meant we had our own private guide!

It took about 90 minutes to make it to the glacier. It was overcast but dry, with temps in the 50s. But as soon as we got to the toe of the glacier, the katabatic winds picked up and we layered up. 

We spent about 3 hours meandering around the glacier. What you don’t see from afar is the many waterfalls and rivers that run through the glacier. In some parts the water had even carved out what looked like miniature canyons! One of them was big enough for a person to fall into, if they were unlucky. Fortunately, everything was completely frozen over. Our guide Mark, who turned out to be from Portland, said that what you see is what you get out here on the glacier. You don’t have to worry about falling in a crevasse or something.

At onepoint, we used some red vines as straws to drink glacial water. It was so delicious and cold! 

The water flow created lots of little holes where sand and rocks would collect. The sand and rocks often formed recognizable shapes.

The other fascinating thing were the large pools that had formed here and there. More adventurous types jump in them, but we were not enticed. We were happy to take a photo on the side.

Some of the most fascinating parts of the glacier were along the edges. We saw what looked like anthills on the ground on the edge of the glacier. These glacial mounds were just ice covered in rocks and dirt. Because the dirt covers the ice, the sun melts the surrounding clear ice faster, leaving these behind.

There was also a lot more water flowing here. We saw some larger canyonns carved out by the water. These looked downright dangerous, if one fell into them. The water was flowing fast and the space around it was tight! I was starting to imagine some sort of action/survival movie that would take place entirely on a glacier, and a little canyon like this would definitely make for a great part of the story!

We had lunch on the glacier. We had ordered a lunch sack from the lodge and a snack pack with our tour. Mark set up some mats for us to sit on and jet boiled some coffee and water for hot chocolate. The Stairway icefall was towering behind us. It’s the second biggest ice fall in the world, only behind the Khumbu ice fall on Everest. The Stairway icefall is 7000 feet high.

We encountered other groups. Some were climbing and some were pool jumping. But largely, we were able to go off on our own and leave the other groups behind.

It started to mist as we walked back to town. Then, it was full-on rain rest of the day. We were so lucky the weather held out and we even had a few breaks of sunshine on our glacier hike! Walking on Root glacier will remain one of the best trip experiences ever.