Alaska 2024: Roll 15 - Kennecott Mines and McCarthy
I knew that today was going to be a multi-roll day as this was one of the major things that we would be doing on our trip. When I was planning the itinerary for the trip I booked this stay first and then built the trip around it.
It was challenging to find a place to stay in this remote part of Alaska that would fit four people and would also allow us to have our dogs with us. Additionally, if we wanted to have access to our vehicle that meant we needed to try and stay on the far side of the pedestrian bridge that takes you to McCarthy. Needless to say, making sure you have your place booked well ahead of schedule is a necessity.
Back to the multi-roll day, I decided that my second roll would be a Ilford HP5 because I was still saving my color rolls for later in the trip. I only started with ten rolls of color film so I had to be a bit sparing with it. I did like how these black and white images turned out though.
![Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark] (https://s3.amazonaws.com/vphill/photo/mp_2093/mp_2093_005.jpg)
We had known that there was going to be a chance for rain starting about noon so we made the most of the clear time we had in the morning to continue our exploring.
On our way back to the pickup point for the shuttle we decided to take a different route that would take us closer to the edge of the cliffs that the mine buildings sat on.
Below these cliffs you could see the pieces of equipment that had been pushed over and left to rust in the weather.
Some of the larger pieces of equipment were still up on the cliff and you could get close to them and try to figure out what role they played in the processing of the ore that was pulled out of the ground.
You can see the piles of old metal at the bottom of this frame.
More arrested decay can be seen throughout the area.
Sometimes the buildings looked like they were just tired and they had a bit of a lean to them. They just had a bit of a sag.
Earlier in the year when I was visiting colleagues in Fort Collins it was suggested, strongly, that we have to eat at the Potato when we were in McCarthy.
We had a great veggie wrap and yummy bowl of curly fries. The Potato was quite good and we learned that they also had a location in Valdez where we would be staying the following night.
I keep talking about the "town" of McCarthy and I think I might be overselling it a bit. There were about a dozen buildings that were on the main road and then there were probably another 100 or so residents scattered throughout the area. Everyone that lives out here really works hard and many will go home in early fall because it gets way too cold over the winter.
After lunch it started to rain and didn't really let up the rest of the day. We went back to our cabins and everyone sat around reading and snuggling under the blankets. I had downloaded the chapters of Travels with Samantha by Philip Greenspun which I hadn't read in a few years. Being in Alaska and reading about his roadtrip was fun. Overall, it was pretty cozy and rustic.