New Photos Added: Along the Denali Highway

New photos have been added to the site from the Denali Highway.

About the Denali Highway
Denali Highway (Alaska Route 8) is a lightly-traveled, mostly gravel highway in the U.S. state of Alaska. It leads from Paxson on the Richardson Highway to Cantwell on the Parks Highway. Opened in 1957, it was the first road access to Denali National Park (then known as Mount McKinley National Park). Since 1971, primary park access has been via the Parks Highway, which incorporated a section of the Denali Highway from Cantwell to the present-day park entrance. The Denali Highway is 135 miles (217 km) in length.

The highway is now little used and poorly maintained, and closed to all traffic from October to mid-May each year. Only the easternmost 21.3 miles and westernmost 2.6 miles are paved; whether the remainder should be paved as well is a continual source of debate.

Travelling west, the Denali Highway leaves the Richardson Highway (Alaska Route 4) at Paxson, and climbs steeply up into the foothills of the central Alaska Range. The first 21 miles, to Tangle Lakes, are paved. Along its length, the highway passes through three of the principal river drainages in Interior Alaska: the Copper River drainage, the Tanana/Yukon drainage and the Susitna drainage. Along the way, in good weather, there are stunning views of the peaks and glaciers of the central Alaska Range, including Mount Hayes (13,700 feet), Mount Hess (11,940 feet) and Mount Deborah (12,688). At MP 15, from the pullout on the south side of the road, in clear weather you can see the Wrangell Mountains, the Chugach Mountains and the Alaska Range.

The first 45 miles winds through the Amphitheater Mountains, cresting at Maclaren Summit, at 4,086 feet the second highest road in Alaska. The road then drops down to the Maclaren River Valley with fine views north to Maclaren Glacier. After crossing the Maclaren River, the road winds through the geologically mysterious Crazy Notch and then along the toe of the Denali Clearwater Mountains to the Susitna River. After crossing the Susitna River the road extends across the glaciers-outwash plains to the Nenana River, and then down the Nenana River to Cantwell on the George Parks Highway (Alaska #3).

The rough gravel surface makes driving slow, but the scenery is truly extradordinary, in some ways nicer than the extension of the Denali Highway into Denali National Park.