Wrangell-St. Elias is a place where glaciers surge and calve into the sea, rivers weave braided beds, and steam escapes from a slumbering volcano. For thousands of years, people have lived in and explored these isolated lands and coast, yet many mountains, creeks, rivers, and glaciers remain uncounted, unnamed.

Todays visitors come to explore the vast, untamed wilderness that still exists here, in a territory larger than six Yellowstones. The lyrical writing and stunning photographs in this book--one in a series about Alaska's national parks--reveal the drama of the molten lava and flowing ice that sculpted the landscape and the mighty rivers that set patterns of life here. The abundance of wildlife and plant species found here and the fascinating history of the Native peoples and miners who first called this area home are also included.

Only two gravel roads and few established trails penetrate Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, which is larger than Denmark or Costa Rica, larger even than Vermont and New Hampshire combined. Some areas are designated as park, some as preserve, but all are part of one of the largest internationally protected ecosystems on earth.