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George Parks Highway Scenic Drive

This Drive Comes From...

An image of the book: Scenic Highways and Byways

National Geographic's Guide to Scenic Highways and Byways

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Linking the state’s two largest cities—Anchorage and Fairbanks—with Denali National Park and Preserve, this highway travels through the kind of scenery that defines the Alaskan interior: tundra and muskeg, the continent’s highest peaks, glaciers, forests, wild rivers, and lonely expanses inhabited only by moose, grizzlies, foxes, wolves, and a wealth of birds. CONTINUED

(Continued From Top)

Mount McKinley, Denali National Park and Preserve

Photograph © Danny Lehman

The Parks begins at its junction with the Glenn Highway in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, 35 miles [56.3 kilometers] northeast of Anchorage. Alaska’s breadbasket, the Mat-Su stretches in a long fertile swath between the Chugach and Talkeetna Ranges.
Vintage buildings at the Old Wasilla Town Site and Visitor Center (Mile 42.2. +1 907 373 9071) testify to the isolation and self-sufficiency of the area’s old-time bush communities in the days before the highway was built. (The highway dates back only to 1971.) Wasilla’s original log community hall houses the Dorothy G. Page Museum (323 Main St. +1 907 373 9071; Adm. fee), an evocative collection of personal artifacts. The nearby Iditarod Museum (Knik Rd. +1 907 376 5155. Summer daily, fall-spring weekdays) displays pictures and videos of Alaska’s world-famous Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which covers the 1,150 miles [2,977.3 kilometers] from Anchorage to Nome. At Wasilla’s sprawling outdoor Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry (Mile 46.7 exit at Rocky Ridge Rd., follow signs. +1 907 376 1211. Mem. Day-Labor Day Mon.-Sat., rest of year Tues. Sat.; $5 adults, $4 children, $12 family), hybrid planes, trains, and other conveyances celebrate sourdough ingenuity in coping with Alaska’s weather, terrain, and size.
Leaving Wasilla, the highway soon picks up the Little Susitna River (Mile 57.1), thronged by migrating salmon in late spring and midsummer. At mile 67.2, the Nancy Lake State Recreation Area (+1 907 495 6284) also features similar wetlands, as well as several lakes and a canoe trail.
A couple of miles farther on, you will see the turbid Susitna River conveying its gritty cargo of silt rasped by glaciers sliding past Alaska Range peaks. The Willow Creek Parkway at mile 70.8 offers access to riverside wetlands flanking the Susitna’s Delta Islands. The Hatcher Pass Junction Road at mile 71.2 leads to the Willow Creek State Recreation Area (+1 907 762 2261), noted for its profusion of wildflowers.
Weather permitting, northbound views of 20,320-foot [6,193.5-meter] Mount McKinley, highest peak in North America, begin about mile 76. Also called Denali—meaning the “high one” in an Athapaskan dialect—the peak rises 15,000 feet [4,572 meters] above the surrounding terrain.
For a taste of bush-community life, exit at mile 98.7 and follow the 14.5-mile [23.3-kilometer] road to Talkeetna (population 450), at the meeting of the Susitna, Chulitna, and Talkeetna Rivers. Established as a riverboat station in 1910, Talkeetna is now a popular staging area for climbing expeditions to Mount McKinley.

Northbound from the Talkeetna turnoff, the Parks crosses the Susitna (Mile 104.3) and traverses a boggy region favored by harvesters of edible fiddlehead ferns. Some of the finest stands of white birch in Alaska can be seen for several miles on both sides of the river. About 28 miles [45.1 kilometers] beyond, you enter Denali State Park (+1 907 745 3975. Facilities closed mid-Oct.–mid-May). This primitive 324,240-acre [131.215.3-hectare] state preserve shares the natural wonders but not the crowds of the adjoining national park.
Few McKinley views match the one from the turnout at mile 135.2, where signs identify various Alaska Range landmarks. In another 20 miles [32.2 kilometers] you will be able to see the rugged Eldridge Glacier, just 6 miles [9.7 kilometers] west of the road. Turnouts along here lead to creeks, beaver ponds, and good fishing spots. Near Little Coal Creek (Mile 163.8), you see the imposing Kesugi Ridge rising steeply to the east.
At mile 174, the road crosses the bridge above 260-foot-deep [79.3-meter-deep] Hurricane Gulch, then continues north to Broad Pass (Mile 201.3), whose summit marks a watershed divide: From here, north-flowing streams drain into the Yukon River and south-flowing into Cook Inlet. Descending toward the Jack River, the highway rides the crest of a long hill running parallel with similar ridges, with Summit Lake in between. These are drumlins, carved by glaciers moving parallel to their lengths.
The Denali Highway (Closed Oct.–mid-May) intersects at sleepy Cantwell, an Alaska Railroad flag stop. North of town, the road skirts the Reindeer Hills and joins the Nenana River, popular with canoeists and kayakers. River and road cross at mile 215.7 beside 5,778-foot [1,761.1-meter] Panorama Mountain. Toward evening, sunlight and shadows on 4,476-foot [1,364.3-kilometer] < B>Mount Fellows (Mile 234) can be gorgeous.

Denali shuttle bus yielding to a grizzly

Photograph © Kim Heacox/Ken Graham Agency

Traffic builds near the entrance to Denali National Park and Preserve (Mile 237.3. +1 907 683 1266 or 683 1267 in summer; +1 907 683 2294 rest of year. Park open year-round; park services May-Sept., depending on weather; Adm. fee). Only the first 15 miles [24.1 kilometers] of the interior park road are open to private vehicles; shuttles provide further access. Reservations on the shuttle are a must. The park’s renowned beauty and wildlife attract heavy summer crowds. The Visitor Center, 0.7 mile [1.1 kilometers] from the highway, has information.
North of the park entrance, the highway negotiates the steep Nenana River Canyon. Its luminous slopes are rich in phyllite, a lustrous rock containing small particles of mica. Scan the heights above Moody Bridge (Mile 242.9) for Dall’s sheep.
This region is rich in coal, and between miles 247 and 251 dark seams stripe the eastern bluffs. The Usibelli Coal Mine, east of Healy, is Alaska’s top producer. Between Healy and the Rex Bridge (Mile 279.8), the highway follows the Nenana over boggy terrain, then veers east away from the river.
In the town of Nenana (Mile 304.5) the highway rejoins the Nenana River at its confluence with the 440-mile-long [708.1-kilometer-long] Tanana River, one of Alaska’s few commercially navigable inland waterways. The rustic downtown here is home to the State of Alaska Railroad Museum (+1 907 243 4714. May 20-Sept. 20), located in an old railroad depot.
Between Nenana and Fairbanks, far horizons suggest the scale of Alaskan terrain. The plain extending west from mile 318 includes Minto Flats State Game Refuge (+1 907 459 7213), a primordially pristine wildlife sanctuary. Look south for a wide perspective on the circuitous Tanana.
The Parks ends near downtown Fairbanks, at the junction with Rte. 2. Don’t miss the University of Alaska Museum (+1 907 474 7505. $5 adults, $3 children), the state’s premier cultural, historical, and scientific showcase. The nature walk through fields and woods at 1,800-acre [728.4-hectare] Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge (1300 College Rd. +1 907 459 7307) offers glimpses of moose, fox, and snowshoe hare.