We made the most of our time in McCarthy, Alaska with a glacier hike, riverside camping, hanging out with the locals, and cheering on a packrafting race. (See more photos and info in our blog post: https://www.veganrv.com/glacier-hikin...)

Base Camp

We stayed at Base Camp at the end of McCarthy Road. $20/night no hook-ups but there are beautiful sites right on the river. They have a vault toilet. It’s right next to the footbridge into McCarthy.
http://www.rvparkreviews.com/regions/...

Town of McCarthy

McCarthy has less than 50 residents but the population can swell quite a bit in the summer with tourists. There are a couple of inns and lodges in McCarthy and Kennecott.

The nearest law enforcement is back in Chitina. So anything goes, kind of. The closest we saw to lawlessness was the free-range dogs.

Jökulhlaup

A jökulhlaup is when an ice dam breaks an releases the water and ice chunks. One happened the day before we arrived in McCarthy. The locals celebrate by partying on the bridge until the wee hours of the morning. This might be why the river was running so hard when we got there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B6...

Vegan options in McCarthy

The Potato

They had fries, as you might expect. They also had a hummus plate that you can leave off the tzatziki and feta. And there was a pickle plate that they make in-house. All of it was really good. https://www.theroadsidepotatohead.com/

Golden Saloon

The Golden Saloon has a vegan option for their banh mi sandwich and pho. Definitely unexpectedly good! http://wp.mccarthylodge.com/food-drin...

General Store

There’s a general store in McCarthy that has a couple of vegan staples. We saw Dave’s Killer Bread, Field Roast Sausages, and Hail Mary Tarts among other things. Come prepared but you won’t starve to death.

Hiking the Root Glacier

To get to the Root Glacier trail, you can take a van to Kennecott for $5. If you want to ride bikes or walk it’s about 5 miles. The trail starts at the end of Kennecott.

But, if you want to use crampons (https://amzn.to/2M7amer) on the glacier, bring your own or rent them in McCarthy. You can’t rent them in Kennecott.

Another option is to go with a guide. The folks at Kennecott Wilderness Guides were nice and helpful.
https://kennicottguides.com/hiking-tr...

https://www.nps.gov/wrst/planyourvisi...

Packrafting Festival and Race

Kennecott Wilderness Guides hosts a packrafting event and we just happened to be in town for it. https://kennicottguides.com/packrafti... We rode our bikes into town and cheered on the race participants. After seeing them take those inflatable Alpacka rafts through some rough rapids we really want to get our own!

VeganRV Merch

We’ve finally put up a little shop with VeganRV march! Check out our buttons, magnets, and stickers here: https://www.veganrv.com/shop/

This video was shot on an iPhone X (https://amzn.to/2sqr1BE) with a Share MV88 mic (https://amzn.to/2Nm0s90) and edited with iMovie.

Check out all the videos in our Alaska 2018 adventure here:    • Alaska 2018 - 1 [preparation]  

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