Many visitors to Alaska make Denali National
Park their major destination, and this route
takes you there quickly, as well as farther
south to Anchorage. This is the latest in the
network of Alaskan highways, having opened in
the early 1970s.
Along the Way
If you intend to make the grand
tour through Anchorage and back to the Alaska
Highway, this is the first leg on a
counter-clockwise loop drive, which begins from
the Parks Highway junction with the Alaska Highway (in Fairbanks), to Denali and
Anchorage on the George Parks and Glenn highways
(into Anchorage), through the Kenai Peninsula,
and then returning north to the Alaska Highway
(at Tok), via the Glenn Highway.
Nenana & Tenana Rivers
Leaving Fairbanks, heading south, the Parks
Highway passes through rolling hill country covered
with spruce and birch. After 53 miles (85 km),
you'll reach Nenana, at the confluence of
the Tenana and Nenana rivers. The town is home to a
sizable tug and barge fleet, which services Alaskan
villages located along the Tanana and Yukon rivers.
The docks are located to the left side of the
highway (southbound). A historic tug, the Taku
Chief, sits behind the town's information
center. The barges move down the river as soon as
the ice is gone, taking enough supplies to outfit
the villages for the next year. Moving down the
river, they travel at about 12 miles-per-hour. On
the way back, fighting the current, they slow to
about five or six m.p.h. The Nenana Ice
Classic celebrates the day each year when
enough ice disappears to move a metal tripod set
over the river, connected with a cable to a clock.
A lottery is held to determine the best guesser,
who wins close to $200,000 for the most accurate
prediction. The ice leaves sometime between
mid-April and mid-May.
Alaska Range -- North Slope
After leaving Nenana, passing the turnoff to the
small coal-mining town of Healy (Spur Road),
the route begins to climb across the Alaska Range.
Healy, only 109 miles (175 km) from Fairbanks, is
only 15 minutes north of the entrance to Denali
National Park. There are several places to stay in
the town, including the historic Healy Hotel.
Before reaching Denali, the highway crosses a deep
canyon, carved by the Nenana River. There's
a turnout on the south side of the bridge for
gorge-viewing and picture-taking.
Denali National Park
The boundary of the park is at the north end of
Crabb's Crossing Bridge, the second bridge over the
Nenana River. The highway runs through the park for
another 6.8 miles (11 km) before coming to the main
entrance road. As you get closer to the en trance
road, more lodges and restaurants are seen. The
turnoff to the main park road is 120.7 miles (194.2
km) from Fairbanks.
The park visitor center is a half-mile
along the entrance road. Campsites in the park are
allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, with
sign-up forms available at the visitor center. For
details, click on the park link at the bottom of
the page.
Past the park road, another few miles of rustic
motels, cabins, restaurants, RV parks, and assorted
tourist traps assail the traveler. Because
accommodations within the park are limited, you may
choose to stay in one of these highway places.
Broad Pass & Salmon Country
After leaving the Denali area, the Parks Highway
continues to climb, to the unsigned summit at Broad Pass, to view a beautiful mountain
valley with fine vistas. The pass is on the divide
between the Cook Inlet and Yukon River watersheds.
Rest areas with picnic tables are located at East Fork (52 miles from the park road),
where a half-mile loop road leads to the picnic
area and overnight park ing lot, and at the Hurricane Gulch Bridge, 8 miles past East
Fork. The highway then drops out of the Alaska
Range, into the broad Matanuska/Susitna
Valley. In this area are found the most
impressive salmon runs accessible by car. When the
salmon aren't in the streams, anglers set their
hooks for rainbow trout. The now well-known town of Wasilla is in this fertile valley.
For a mile-by-mile log of this
drive:
Go Here
More Online Information:
Onroute
Destinations --Denali National Park
Fairbanks
Anchorage
