Denali, Alaska Half the fun going to Denali National Park and Preserve was getting there! If you are driving from Anchorage as we did majority of the drive will go along Parks Highway and you’ll see everything from rivers and forest to tundra and mountains. You’ll pass the starting point for the world longest dog sled race (Iditarod), small trading posts with history back to the 1800’s gold rush and new communities formed by today’s tourism. And don’t forget all the cute/odd small coffee shacks along the road!
Relevant: ‘Our Alaska Adventure – Denali to Kenai’
The drive from Anchorage to Denali is about 240 miles / 4 hours, but there is lots to see so expect to use a full day. We had several detours on the way, the first one was driving via Hatchers Pass, a mountain pass with mining history and a beautiful scenery! This is where State Historical Park Independence Mine is, a reconstructed gold mine from 1906. As it was raining cats and dogs we decided to not stop by the old mine, hopefully we’ll have the chance to come back later. You can access Hatcher Pass from either Willow or Palmer. The part between Willow and the pass is dirt road, but fully drivable for everyone. If you have a rental car, don’t tell the rental company you where here! Most rental companies don’t allow driving on dirt roads… (I know!! No driving on dirt roads in Alaska, is that even possible?) Despite of the heavy rain we got a few nice photos.
Our second detour was the small, rural community Talkeetna. Downtown Talkeetna is designated a National Historic Site and the village is well worth a visit. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to dedicate a separate blog post for the it: Talkeetna – at the base of Denali.
After you pass Talkeetna you soon enter Denali State Park (not to be confused with Denali National Park) and the landscape opens up. Denali State Park ranges between the Talkeetna Mountains and the Alaska Range and Parks Highway runs through it. There are two view points from the highway where you can see Mt.McKinley if weather permits. There are several camp grounds and hiking trails in the park – check out this brochure if you want to spend more time in the park. The weather cleared up and when the sun came out the fall colours sparkled and displayed the beauty of this area!
Getting closer to Denali National Park we passed Cantwell and Cantwell Trading Post. This is one of the small communities with history back to the gold rush times. I found an interesting section about Cantwell in an old document from United States Department of the Inferior from 1936.
Cantwell is a section point on the railroad, and a few men are stationed here for railroad maintenance. A roadhouse and a trading post are operated for prospectors, miners and trappers who make Cantwell their summer and winter headquarter.
Source: Valdez Creek Mining District of Alaska, 1936 by United States Department of the Inferior
After driving through this remote wilderness the circus started when we got to Denali Park Entrance! This is clearly an area created for/by tourism. The park entrance area has hotels, restaurant and adventure agencies. You can go ATV driving or rafting, there is all sorts of activities available. If you don’t mind the crowds this is one of the locations to stay the night before your visit to Denali National Park. I read somewhere that some Alaskans have given the park entrance area the nick name “Glitter Gulch.” The pizza at ‘Prospectors’ was very good though and they had an excellent selections of drafts.
One of the things you should not miss when in ‘Glitter Gulch’ is to drive up to Grande Denali Lodge. First of all the road up is very funny with amusing signs along Grande Drive and when you get to the top the view from the lodge is amazing!
We decided to move on and stay the night at a local bed and breakfast in Healy that was way cheeper than the hotels at the park entrance. The B&B was in the middle of the woods in Healy, it was nice and relaxing and had great views! They also served up a warm breakfast in the morning with eggs and sausage and that it always welcome when you have a long day ahead of you. We were set for an adventurous day in Denali National Park!
Thanks for reading and commenting! I always enjoy reading your feedback:)
Lovely. Amusing roadsigns 🙂 Looking forward to reading about the national park.
We laughed pretty good when we came across the mosquito sign:) Especially since it reminded me a bit of home. We have all sorts of jokes about how big the mosquitos are where I come from as well:) Thanks for visiting!
haha! seems that mosquitoes are unwelcome everywhere!
Just love this series, Inger. Thank you for posting it!
Thanks! It is my pleasure:) I love sharing the experience of this amazing place!
Done this trip years ago. Brings back memories. Enjoy such beautiful place.
It is definitely beautiful! Where did you go when you did the drive? Where you going to Denali or on your way to Fairbanks? We didn’t drive the section between Denali and Fairbanks so would love to hear about it if you drove it! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Very nice series. I’ve never been there before. It’s an amazing landscape!
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! We absolutely loved the landscape, we can highly recommend a trip to Alaska if you haven’t been! 🙂
so many interesting links, thanks for sharing. Looks incredible!
Thank you! My pleasure sharing stories and information from this amazing part of the world! 🙂
Do you think Alaska is becoming a more popular destination these days ?
That is the impression I got from our travels there. I guess the more accessible Alaska becomes the more people want to visit. I think the population has almost doubled the last 30 years.
I’m happy to see that you took the side trip to Hatcher’s Pass, it’s a beautiful area that most tourists miss. It has great hiking, a lovely view (when the weather is nice), fascinating old mine relics, sweet wild blueberries for the picking (in late July/early August), and an old-style lodge where you can (usually) get something to eat. It also has amazing cross-country skiing and sledding in the winter. It’s a bit of old Alaska that likely won’t stay that way for too much longer. It was one of our favorite weekend getaways when we lived in Anchorage.
We loved the side trip via Hatcher’s Pass, if there is a dirt road we can explore we’ll take it! The more ‘unbeaten’ the path the better:) As mention in the blog post, as the weather was NOT on our side (a little rain doesn’t bother me, but this was serious rain!) we didn’t get the opportunity to explore as much as we wanted. We did observe the old historic mine and the Hatcher Pass Lodge and would love to come back to stay and do some exploring in this area! Maybe we should while it still has it’s untouched charm! 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to comment! Inger
They are incredible landscapes, superb series.
Thank you for sharing.
Have a nice day.
Thanks for reading! The landscape was amazing! Had the weather co-operated we would have lots more of amazing pictures, but difficult taking pictures when the rain is coming in horizontally! Fortunately we had sunshine the last half of the road trip:)
Great photos and a fantastic journey 🙂
Thank you, and thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment! Inger
This is another destination I would so like to visit…and your journey and photos just tempt me more & more, makes my words ‘one day’ a little more closer than before 🙂
Thanks! Glad our photos can inspire you to visit this amazing place! 🙂 And we haven’t come to the best part yet – my personal favourite was our 5 days in Prince William Sound. More to come! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! Inger
I have been living in Denali for about 10 years now. I’m glad you enjoyed the drive through this quirky state.
Must be great living in Denali, it was such a wonderful place! Long distance to you closest neighbour then I guess? And I love quirky by the way:)
Great Post – Beautiful Captures – love the Mosquito sign – ha! Denali and other parts of Alaska are on my travel bucket list. Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Thanks for you nice comments! Alaska / Denali is definitely worthwhile putting in the bucket list. We loved it! I also found the mosquito sign very amusing:) Thanks for reading!
Lovely photos, the road signs are amusing 🙂 Alaska is the one state I have not been too, I’m looking forward to getting there one day.
Thanks for you comments, and thanks for reading! So many great photo opportunities in Alaska, thats why we used the whole day getting from Anchorage to Denali:) Look forward to it whenever you decide to go!
Stunning photos!
Thanks! It was a fun drive – felt like we got to see a authentic piece of Alaska!
I feel that way about places that I visit in Europe!