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Mountain Views near Kenny Lake, Alaska
Photo Credit: ATIA, Michael DeYoung
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Kenny Lake

Kenny Lake

Kenny Lake is a small agricultural community of about 200 residents spread out between Mile 1 and Mile 20 along the Edgerton Highway in the Copper River Valley

ABOUT KENNY LAKE

The scenic location of Kenny Lake invites many visitors to take a break from the road to enjoy the view. The mighty Copper River parallels the Edgerton Highway, and 14,163-foot Mount Wrangell dominates the wilderness horizon.

THINGS TO DO

Due to its location on the Edgerton Highway, Kenny Lake is a gateway to the historic town of McCarthy and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, the largest national park in the country at 13.2 million acres. Visitors to Wrangell-St. Elias enjoy a multitude of wilderness adventures including hiking, rafting, backpacking, flightseeing, glacier trekking, hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing.

Although the town is small, visitors will find visitor services including cabins, a B&B, an RV park, groceries, and a gas station. The nearby Liberty Falls State Recreation Site is a beautiful spot for camping, with the scenic Liberty Falls and a trail that leads to great views of the waterfall and surrounding area. At Mile 12 of the Edgerton Highway is the Tonsina River Trail, a well-marked path maintained by the Bureau of Land Management that heads two miles south through the woods to a picnic area overlooking the Tonsina River.

Anglers are drawn to the area in early June with hopes of landing king and red salmon in the beautiful, fast-flowing Klutina River or the serene, slow-moving Gulkana River.

HISTORY

Kenny Lake thrived as a trading post when Kennecott Copper Mine, located in the Wrangell Mountains to the east, was humming in the early 1900s. The small hamlet was revitalized after the mines closed in 1938 thanks to its rich, fertile soil and the Alaska Homestead Act, which brought homesteaders to the area.

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