Alaska/Canada 2017-6: Denali Highway

    Two weeks after leaving Bellingham on the ferry, we were leaving the Eielson Air Force Base campground a little south of Fairbanks, when Doug said, “Look!” 

    I assumed he was pointing at aircraft and said, “Which one?” 

    “No!” he said. "There!"

    Off in the distance was a ginormous white mountain and further back an even higher peak—Denali? 

Denali on right from Eielson Air Force Base south of Fairbanks.

    Continuing our clockwise trek around the small interior portion of Alaska that can be reached by road, we drove south on Richardson Highway. We stopped at numerous turnouts, still looking at the peaks and still wondering, Could it be? There are many high peaks in the Alaska Range that could block the view of Denali, but those peaks were south of us and Denali was southwest. It had to be Denali.
    And it was the last we would see of the 20,310-foot mountain, the highest peak in North America.

Our trek from Eilsen AFP & across Denali Highway.

Salcha, a few miles south of Eilsen AFB.

    The Tanana River (surely you remember the Nenana Ice Classic in Part 3 of our Alaska blog?) runs along much of the Richardson Highway, flowing northwest and eventually joining the Yukon River. Like so many of Alaska's rivers that we’ve seen, it’s a fast-moving braided river, brown with silt. 

Braided Tanana River and Mounts Deborah, Hess, Hayes from Salcha, along Richardson Highway.

The braiding comes from the water constantly creating new channels, leaving old channels to become sand bars. Channels and gravel and sand bars weave together, and voilà, nature's braiding.
    As the road turned east for awhile, we had many views of the snow-covered peaks of Mounts Deborah, Hess, and Hayes to the south. Hayes is the tallest of the three at 13,832 feet.
    At Big Delta, we crossed the Tanana on a bridge paralleling the elevated Trans-Alaska Pipeline. 

Bridge for Trans-Alaska Pipeline parallels bridge we are crossing over Tanana River. 

Alaska Pipeline heading over the hills toward Valdez

    Further south, at Delta Junction, Alaska 2, the Alaska Highway, veers off southeast toward British Columbia. We continued south on Alaska 4, soon summiting Isabel Pass, at 3,280 feet the 6th highest highway pass in Alaska. We still have to remind ourselves that in Alaska it is not the elevation but the latitude that brings the cold climate, whereas at home, the cold and heavy snow largely occur above 5,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada. A high pass to us would be say 9,000 feet. 

Views south of Delta Junction.

View from south of Delta Junction 

    At Paxson, we turned west on Denali Highway, Highway 8, which is paved for 21 miles on the west end and 3 miles on the east, with 122 miles of gravel road in between. From its opening in 1957 until the Parks Highway opened in 1972, the Denali Highway was the only road access to Denali (McKinley) National Park, and then only in summer. 

Glaciers of the Alaska Range.

    The vast area along the Denali Highway is famed for its wilderness and views of Denali. We were beginning three days of breathtaking scenery.

Denali Hwy along Gulkana River.

Along Denali Hwy west of Paxson.

    We stopped for the night 21 miles in at the BLM campground in the Tangle Lakes Archeologic District. Evidence shows that the area has been inhabited for over 100,000 years. 

Top popped, awning & chairs out, relaxing for the evening 

at Tangle Lakes BLM Campground on Denali Highway. 

    Doug brought our camp stove for cooking fish once we reach the Kenai Peninsula, but in the mild weather at Tangle Lakes, he enjoyed cooking dinner. 

Dinner, courtesy of Chef Doug.

    Then to further display his talents, he scrambled up some eggs for breakfast before we started our second day on the Denali Highway.

And breakfast the next day, also courtesy of Chef Doug!

Yum!

    Back on the now-gravel highway, our heads were on a spindle at the incredible scenery for mile after mile.

Denali Hwy is more dirt than gravel at times.

The views went on forever into the distance.

Kettle ponds created by glacial scarring. 

    We stopped at a couple of lodges and crossed over Maclaren Summit, the 2nd highest highway pass in Alaska, at 4,086 feet. 

Hard for those of us who live in the shadow of the Sierra Nevadas to believe that 4,086 feet is the 2nd highest highway pass in Alaska. But then, there aren't many highways in Alaska....

    Always buy gas in Alaska when it's available.

Gas Alaska frontier style.

    Mostly we just tried to take in all the incredible beauty.

A better section of road—it had clearly had more recent maintenance.

    We crossed many streams and rivers on wood bridges.

Typical wood bridge.

    The highway is built on top of eskers at times. An esker is a ridge of silt, sand, and water carried by a stream within a glacier and left behind when the glacier recedes. 

Driving on top of an esker.

Winding down off the esker.

Tree with a hoop skirt—a Sitka spruce I think.

    Maintenance on the Denali Hwy is a constant—some areas were better than others when we drove it. But the scenery was always awesome.

Potholes on Denali Highway are plentiful.

Crossing the Susitna River on a wood bridge.

Susitna River—we'd boondocked on it further north early in our trip.

A hardy couple biking through Alaska.

    At mile 88, we pulled into a gravel turnout on a ridge and decided that the stunning view across the valley to the glaciated mountains and peaks made it the perfect campsite. 

West Fork & Susitna Glaciers

Plus, the big blue sky and puffy white clouds were reminiscent of our beloved Georgia O’Keeffe Country, but with glaciers and hues of green rather than buttes and muted desert tones. 

At times we glimpsed Mts Deborah, Hess, Hays.

Denali Highway Milepost 88 camp in gravel turnout above a wide valley & across from Alaska Range glaciers and peaks.

It was a grand view for an Alaska afternoon.

Our Traverse poptop is so comfortable!

    It rained during the night, so we were up and out early. Fortunately, the gravel gave us a firm footing to exit the turnout. 

Maintenance along Denali Hwy.

    It took us a couple of hours to traverse the last 50 miles of the Denali Highway. Despite the rain, the views continued to astound. 

Nenana River.

A rare oncoming vehicle in the distance.

    The views of Denali from mile 124 of the Denali Highway are supposed to be spectacular. It was too overcast for us to see it. 

There was no Denali sighting from Denali Hwy mile 124.

    Denali remained invisible to us, yet there was so much amazing scenery everywhere we looked, it was still too much to really be able to take it all in. 

 

    We and our brownish van arrived at Cantwell at the west end of the Denali Highway, where we had breakfast and took showers. 

Old Blue in Cantwell after traversing the Denali Hwy.

    Unfortunately for Old Blue—as Doug calls our van—the wet road left a brown ring around her from the door handles down and all the way to the top of the rear doors.

Doug always wanted a brown van...

Will Old Blue ever be blue again?

    From Cantwell we drove north about 40 miles to Denali National Park where we would spend 3 days camped at Teklanika Campground, 30 miles into the park

Up next: 3 days in Denali National Park