Wrangell-St Elias river crossing

I should look this up to find out, as I've heard rumors that a bridge was planned and a paved road leading into Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska. The paved road idea might be wise, as the road when I travelled it in 1995 was a dirt / gravel road on an old railroad line and you were lucky if you only blew out one tire on the round-trip journey due to all of the rail spikes hidden below the surface. We saw many stranded 4x4 vehicles. The best part of the road, like many of this description, was the end. At the end of the road your only access to the tiny outpost of McCarthy, with lodge and all, was a hand pulley tramway as seen in the photo. Perhaps I'm overly nostalgic but after hiking for 14 miles out on glaciers near the old Kennicot copper mines, we felt we had earned our wilderness experience, just by getting there via the tramway and leaving the car on the west side of the raging river.