Beer at the End of the Road

As much as we love backpacking, we were getting a bit antsy to complete the "roughing it" portion of our honeymoon. So, we decided to hike the 6 miles out to our car after already putting in about 12 miles on our day hike to Dixie Pass. We then drove the gravel McCarthy Road for two hours and arrived at the Kennicott River footbridge - hungry and tired - around 9pm. When we walked into McCarthy at 9:30, we were incredibly thankful to find a room at Ma Johnson's and beer and fish & chips at the old saloon.

The next morning, we enjoyed exploring the old crossroads town. While Kennicott 5 miles away was a clean company town, McCarthy was the place to go for alcohol, gambling, and women. It had its biggest boom from the 1910s to late 1930s and was rediscovered for tourism in the last few decades.