Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is the largest in the United States - by far. One frequently quoted statistic is that it's 6 times the size of Yellowstone National Park. Here are few more comparisons to give you a frame of reference.

• Glacier Nat. Park - 1 million acres
• Yellowstone - 2.2 million acres
• State of Maryland - 6.3 million acres
• Switzerland (yes the country) 10.2 million acres
• Wrangell-St. Elias National Park- 13.2 million acres

You get the idea - this is a really big place. Just across the Canadian border are Kluane National Park Reserve and Tatshenshini-Alsek National Park. The entire region composed of all three parks has been designated a World Heritage site and at 24.3 million acres comprises the largest internationally protected chunk of real estate on the planet. You could spend a lifetime exploring this park so you had better get started.

Getting to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park takes a bit of doing. It's about an 8 hour drive from Anchorage and the last 60 miles is a gravel road from Chitina to McCarthy. But that remoteness is what Wrangell-St. Elias is all about. Denali has become so heavily visited that it became necessary to institute a permit system to protect the backcountry from overuse. As a result, trekkers can't make plans in advance but are at the mercy of whatever sectors of the backcountry are available when they show up at park headquarters.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park doesn't suffer from that problem. The lighter usage combined with stunning terrain make this the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park the ultimate destination for those seeking an epic experience with truly remote wilderness.