Ranch House Lodge RV Campground

Don't have the skills to make it in Wrangell-St Elias, but want to see the mammoth National Park anyway? It’s 20 minutes’ drive from the site to McCarthy airport, which runs 'flightseeing' tours over the icy volcanic park. Try and spot the active Mount Wrangell during flyovers, and keep eyes peeled for Bagley icefield (the biggest outside the poles) and the world’s longest valley glacier – no easy feat, as 60% of Alaska's glaciers are right here. This is gold rush country too… Learn about everything that glitters 35 minutes from the site at the George Ashby Memorial Museum, which is full of Russian artefacts, pieces of indigenous cultural history, and exhibits on the mining of gold and copper, as well as items from Wrangell-St Elias’s Kennecott Copper Mine (five hours away). If lengthier jaunts appeal, or even just for those lucky enough to be travelling onwards on sprawling hols, it’s three hours from base to Anchorage (Alaska’s largest city) and its botanical gardens, bird sanctuary, indoor waterpark and walking trails.