Traveling the Denali Highway

The Denali Highway is a 130 mile long, mostly gravel, road through the interior of Alaska that was the original road into Denali National Park. It goes along the Alaska range and the views are truly breathtaking. The drive getting there from Fairbanks is really pretty too! Here's a shot through the windshield. I bet that motorcyclist is really enjoying this gorgeous day where temps were in the 70's and may have hit low 80's.

I've always loved crossing the Tanana River and seeing the pipeline crossing along side the car bridge.

The first 20 miles of the Denali Highway is paved and we stopped to camp overnight just beyond the end of the paved road at Tangle Lakes Campground.

We were camped along side the river, this was our view and our dinner cooking. I use a lot of throw away foil when camping as it is difficult to wash dishes in the RV, I am afraid I'll clog up the system. Ha ha, the dogs are the first line of defense, i. e. they lick the plates clean before we wash. 😁

The weather ever since we arrived in Alaska has been beyond spectacular. WOW we never had weather this nice when we lived here. It has been in the 70's and low 80's the whole time we've been here with an occasional rain shower that didn't last long.

The next morning was beautiful and the views beyond description! This is what I'm seeing out my window all along the highway to the north.

Here's a short video clip I made while at the Maclaren Summit, the 2nd highest road summit in Alaska. The elevation is just 4086' which isn't all that high but you are into permanent snow and glaciers when you get much higher than that.

This is a beaver lodge, lots of these along the road.

This is a nice view of a beaver made dam. One time when we lived here, we stopped at a campground beside a creek that we had not been to before. So we set up our camper, (we had a truck camper back in those days), set up our lawn chairs and "cocktail" table, poured ourselves a drink, and sat down to enjoy the evening. We gazed out at the creek and WOW there were beavers there right in front of us just beginning construction of a new dam. We watched then for the longest time and were so amazed at how they lodged tree branches into the creek bottom and packed the dam with mud. It was really a sight to see. We returned to this spot several time to check the progress over time and as I recall the dam eventually was at least 2' high.

This was a really cool sight, a bald eagle just sitting on top of a beaver lodge.

The 2nd night we stopped near the other end of the Denali Highway at a favorite campground that was also beside a creek but OMG, the mosquitos were beyond terrible. No way could we stay outside without being eaten alive! We had planned to stay there 2 nights but promptly ditched that idea and headed to Denali National Park.

We got a quick glimpse of Denali (formerly known as Mt. McKinley) before the clouds closed in and was no longer in view. It is said that only about 15 - 25% (depends on who you are talking to) of all visitors to Alaska actually see the mountain. Denali has its own weather system and while it may be clear and beautiful all around the mountain, Denali will be weathered in. Denali is an Athabaskan word for The Great One.

We only spent a few hours at Denali NP as we spent 6 weeks there in 2010 campground hosting. But we were treated to a very close view of this moose along the side of the road into the park. Sorry for the poor photo, shooting thru a very dirty windshield!

A fond memory - Another time when were were at Denali, this moose was walking down the middle of the road and not moving for anyone. There was a long string of buses and cars behind her but she sure didn't care!

That night we stopped at another campground, this time beside the Nenana River. We cooked out, shared a bottle of champagne and enjoyed to glorious weather and view.