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  • North to Alaska By RV 2021
    1
    Day 41

    Denali Hwy: Part I ... Mountains Galore

    June 12, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 55 °F

    Denali Highway is a 134-mile road that connects Paxson, on the Richardson Highway, with Cantwell, on the Parks Highway.

    When we first began planning our road trip, we intended to leave Anchorage and drive up to Paxson via the Glenn and Richardson highways ... then turn east and drive the length of the Denali Highway to join the Parks Highway. And head north to Denali National Park from there.

    We didn’t do that. Why? Denali Highway doesn’t open for the season until 15 May or thereabouts. Our departure from Anchorage on the 19th was just a tad too early then to be on that road ... a road that is only 15% paved ... and one that is described as giving visitors a true wilderness experience.

    So, we jiggled our plans, did about 8 miles of the road from Cantwell ... to boondock at Joe Lake. And left the rest of the driving for this part of our trip.

    Remember how this drive was supposed to be just for the purpose of checking out the Tangle Lakes Campground and some boondock sites?

    Well, while the campground is nice, it didn’t ring our bell. Nor did the primitive camping sites mentioned in the Milepost. We should have turned back at that point to do our glacier hike as planned. Instead, we kept going on the Denali Highway. After all, we’d already driven 25 miles of the road. Why not move up our exploration of Denali Highway to today? Why not indeed?

    We had no idea how far we’d be driving. If the gravel/chipseal portion was as good later as it was at the beginning, we might even go all the way to the other end and back. That didn’t turn out to be the case, however. Around the 50-mile mark, the gravel became rough, with lots of potholes. Add to that the slushy rain we got along the way and the gathering storm clouds. Nope, not going to drive all the way. In the end, we did 70 miles before turning back.

    The scenery along much of the road was as spectacular as we’d been told, and the frequent stops to take photos made for a long day ... but we didn’t know then that it was going to become even longer.    Read more