Road Trip on the Elliott Hwy

We enjoy doing road trips — both in the RV and the toad. Get on the road and see where it leads. In this case, the road was the Elliott Highway — 150 miles ... connecting Fox with Manley Springs ... 50% paved (but with a lot of frost heaves) and 50% gravel (in very good condition).

We especially like doing road trips that are scenic and have a reward at the end. On this trip, the latter was food at the Manley Roadhouse, which dates back to 1903.

We’d done the front 73 miles of this road to get to the Dalton Highway in 2001. One of our fond memories from that trip was the stop at the Arctic Circle Trading Post in Joy. We were looking forward to re-visiting the place before continuing further up the Elliott into what would be unexplored terrain for us. Alas, the place was locked up tight. Even the sign I was hoping to take a photo of was gone — “Not a single mosquito at Joy ... they are all married with large families.” No one around to ask if the closure is permanent or not.

The scenic bits along the rest of the highway were few and far between. Nice enough spots for a photo here and there, but nothing that excited us much or made us wish that we’d brought the motorhome along for a boondock.

After we ran out of road on the banks of the Tanana River and returned to Manley Hot Springs, which I had read was a “pocket of “Pioneer Alaska,” we found that there would be no reward. The Roadhouse was locked up tight. No one around to ask why, but I am guessing this is another place that did not survive the pandemic. As for the hot springs? If there are any, we could not find them ... and no one around to ask for directions.

A 300-mile+ road trip ... pleasant enough, but not one I would do again or recommend to others. At least the gravel portions of the road were well maintained ... and except for all the frost heaves on the paved portions, the drive was a decent one, with Mui able to maintain speeds of 40-55 mph ... except in the curvy bits where the posted limit was 35 mph.

This outing falls into the “you win some, you lose some” category. But hey, we would have always wondered if we missed anything had we not driven the Elliott. Now we know!Read more