This MILEPOST® itinerary is a 1,000-mile circle tour from Anchorage that takes a minimum of 9 days, but can be easily stretched to a couple of weeks by adding stops and side trips. The basic route takes you from Anchorage to Whittier; by ferry from Whittier to Valdez; up the Richardson Highway (with a side trip out the McCarthy Road) to Fairbanks; and return to Anchorage via the Parks Highway. Following is an account of our summer trip along this route in a camper van.
Day 1: Taking the ferry from Whittier (almost)
When we decided--less than a week before our planned departure date--to take the ferry to Valdez rather than make the 308-mile drive there from Anchorage, we weren't sure we would be able to get reservations on such short notice. But it was worth the try: We were able to reserve space for 2 passengers and a van on the ferry sailing from Whittier to Valdez. We were told to be in line at the Whittier terminal at 1:45 p.m. for the 2:45 p.m. departure.
Whittier is about an hour's drive from Anchorage. Allowing for traffic and potential hold-ups from road construction, we planned on leaving Anchorage by 11 a.m. at the latest. That was the plan. The reality saw us tearing out of Anchorage just after noon. But even given the late start, we were confident we would make the 2:45 p.m. sailing. After all, Whittier was only 59 miles away.
There was that nagging worry about the tunnel times. To reach Whittier you must drive through the 2.5-mile-long Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. Built in 1942-43, this railroad tunnel was modified to accommodate vehicle traffic and connected with the Whittier Access Road in June 2000, providing road access to Whittier for the first time. But there was a catch: The tunnel could accommodate only single-lane traffic and the tunnel was also used by the Alaska Railroad. The solution was to share the tunnel. Vehicle traffic is controlled from vehicle holding lanes at either end of the tunnel, on the Whittier side and at Bear Valley on the west side. Eastbound and westbound traffic moves through the tunnel on an alternating schedule throughout the day, with certain time periods for use by the railroad.
Although we hadn't checked the tunnel times, we were sure that the schedule must allow for eastbound ferry traffic prior to the 2:45 p.m. ferry. Nonetheless, we raced down the highway towards Whittier (which is not hard to do, as the traffic on the Seward Highway always moves at a fast clip).
We reached the Bear Valley tollbooth at 1:16 p.m. The attendant told us we'd just missed the eastbound tunnel opening and the next one would be at 2:30 p.m. Would that give us enough time to get on the 2:45 p.m. ferry sailing? The toll booth attendant wouldn't give us odds on the success of that plan, nor could anyone at the Bear Valley toll booth explain why no more generous time periods were allowed for eastbound traffic, given that the Alaska state ferry departed from Whittier daily at 2:45 p.m.
A quick call to the Alaska Marine Highway office in Anchorage assured us we could get on the next day's ferry. Since we live in Anchorage and had no reservations waiting for us in Valdez, the change in plans was not a hardship. But for Outside visitors on a schedule, miscalculating the tunnel times and missing the ferry could be a real headache.
We arrive in plenty of time to make the 10:30 a.m. Bear Valley to Whittier tunnel opening. There are 8 lanes at the Bear Valley staging area, each controlled by a traffic light; we are directed to park in Lane 1. We finally get the green light and drive through the tunnel at 25 mph to emerge at the Whittier end 6.5 minutes later. After checking in at the ferry terminal, we park in the ferry loading lanes and pass the time reading and listening to tapes. It's raining hard in Whittier, hard enough to prevent us from trying the local hiking trails as we'd planned. But during breaks in the rain, we walk around the corner to explore the shops located on the Harbor Triangle.
The ferry finally arrives, and after it unloads westbound passengers and vehicles we get the signal to drive onto the ferry.
We spend the almost 7-hour (3-hours via fast ferry) crossing time reading, listening to the onboard naturalist, and taking short strolls on deck, where it's cold and windy. We've crossed the Sound by ferry before when it was so hot and sunny it felt like a tropical cruise, but today there's a low cloud cover and temperatures are cool.
Unloading in Valdez about 10 p.m., we find a campsite near the harbor and turn in for the night.
Day 2 & 3--Exploring Valdez
After breakfast the next day, we make arrangements for an afternoon sea kayak tour at the Small Boat Harbor, then walk up the hill to the Valdez Convention and Civic Center. Across from the Civic Center parking lot is the Overlook Trail. We follow the short trail to a viewpoint and get some good photos of downtown Valdez and the waterfront, before walking down the hill to the Valdez Museum Annex.
Don't let the warehouse exterior of the Valdez Museum Annex fool you. This facility has a wonderful scale model of Valdez as it existed prior to the 1964 earthquake and several other Old Valdez exhibits as well. We watch live footage from the 1964 earthquake and finish touring the exhibits before walking back to the Small Boat Harbor for lunch.
Our afternoon sea kayaking trip includes our guide, 4 adults and one 10-year-old divided among three 2-person kayaks. (In a no-confidence vote, my daughter elects to share a kayak with the guide.) Most of us are novice sea kayakers, and after a short dockside lesson we set off through the harbor and around the point. We hug the shoreline, paddling past small rocky islands inhabited by oystercatchers. The tour lasts only a couple of hours, but it gives us a new perspective of Prince William Sound and proves an easy introduction to sea kayaking for those of us new to the sport.
Our second day in Valdez we drive out to Prince William Sound Community College to take a look at the "video tour" of Alaska's petroleum industry. Since the pipeline terminal is closed to public tours for security reasons, the college has stepped in with a film series for tourists. We watch a half-hour film on the pipeline and a half-hour film on double-hulled tankers. Inquire locally about the film showings before driving out to the college. Sugar & Spice, a local retailer, has continuous, free showings of the 1964 Earthquake and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline videos in their gift shop in summer.
We purchased a "double pass" at the college, which includes admission to both the films and to the Maxine and Jesse Whitney Eskimo Museum Collection, located at Valdez Airport, so we head out the Richardson Highway to the airport. The museum, which adjoins the airport terminal, features Alaskan trophy animal mounts, Native dolls, an Eskimo kayak, prehistoric artifacts, and a unique collection of Native carved ivory. It's well worth a visit.
From the airport turnoff at Mile 3.4 on the Richardson Highway, we drive out the highway another 3.5 miles to the Dayville Road turnoff. This 5.7-mile side road leads to Allison Point, a popular destination for pink and silver salmon fishing in season, and offers great scenic views of Port Valdez, the 13-mile-long estuary at the head of Valdez Arm.
Day 4 & 5 Thompson Pass & McCarthy Road
We luck out on the weather and enjoy clear skies and the resulting fabulous views while driving the Richardson Highway out of Valdez, through Keystone Canyon and up over Thompson Pass.
At 2,678 feet, Thompson Pass is more than 2,000 feet lower than Alaska's highest highway pass--4,800-foot Atigun Pass on the Dalton Highway--but since we begin the drive at sea level, it seems just as high. The real climb begins about 20 miles outside of Valdez and lasts 7.5 miles. We stop at Thompson Lake to stretch our legs and walk the dogs. Once we reach the pass, it's another 7.5-mile grade down to the Tsaina River. We stop at the pass for photos and then again a few miles farther on at Worthington Glacier State Recreation Site. This day-use only park, the most visited site in the Copper River Basin, showcases Worthington Glacier with interpretive displays, paved paths and glacier viewpoints. Well worth pulling off the road to see the glacier from this site.
At Milepost V 82.5, the Richardson Highway junctions with Alaska Route 10, the Edgerton Highway. We turn down this paved road and drive 33 miles to Chitina and the start of the McCarthy Road.
The McCarthy Road deserves all the press it gets, both as a wonderful destination and as a memorable driving experience. It begins at Chitina and ends 59.5 miles later at the Kennicott River pedestrian bridge. In between it is--for the most part--a narrow, winding, dirt and gravel road. It has a few roller-coaster sections, very few precipitous drops, and a lot of blind corners. As it's built on an old railway line, it is not unusual to see pieces of railway tie sticking up through the dirt. We blow a tire about halfway in and put on the spare with help from a passing motorist. Tire repair is available in Chitina, and from various businesses near the Kennicott bridge, but my blown tire is beyond repair. The McCarthy Road has chewed up and spit out a $180 6-ply tire.
We eat dinner and spend the night at Glacier View Campground near the end of the McCarthy Road. Another good camping choice is Wrangell View RV Park in Chitina and Kenny Lake Mercantile at Mile 7.2 Edgerton Highway. (An option for RVers who don't want to drive the McCarthy Road: take a fly-in day trip from Chitina with Wrangell Mountain Air.)
The next day dawns hot and sunny. We leave our dogs chained up in the shade at our campsite and walk the mile into McCarthy. We've visited McCarthy and Kennicott before with pets, once with a dog and once with a rooster (that's another story), both times without incident. But when we consider the likelihood of meeting local dogs with the 2 we own now, we decide to leave them back at the van.
If your schedule permits, consider taking a shuttle van from McCarthy out to Kennicott and touring the mill complex with one of the local guide services. Another popular activity in Kennicott is to hike out to Root Glacier, a 3-mile round trip. Also check out the summer programs offered at the Jurick Building, located across from Kennicott Lodge. These include slide presentations and talks by National Park Service staff and others.
Kennicott Lodge offers accommodations and meals. Overnight accommodations are available in McCarthy at Ma Johnson's Hotel and Lancaster's Backpacker Hotel, with meals at the McCarthy Lodge.
We spend half the day exploring, then head back out the McCarthy Road in the late afternoon. Because we have no spare tire now, we drive very slowly. So slowly, we manage to pick up a half-dozen old railroad spikes from the Copper River & Northwestern Railway. We won't find a replacement tire until we get to Fairbanks. We could drive back to Anchorage-- it's only 314 miles--but decide to trust to luck and continue our trip without a spare.
It's late June, just past summer solstice, so the days are long. We stop in Chitina for a snack, then drive back out the Edgerton Highway to the Richardson Highway, where we turn north once again. At Milepost V 100.2 we turn off onto the Old Richardson Highway to do the Copper Center Loop: an easy side trip through the historic community of Copper Center. The Copper Center Lodge/Roadhouse, an historic landmark, and the Copper Rail Depot Saloon, with its large-scale model of Kennecott and its model CR&NW railroad, are 2 favorite stops. The Klutina River at Copper Center is a popular salmon fishing spot.
We reach Glennallen about 10 p.m. and find a campsite at one of the town's RV parks. It's been a long day, although we've only driven 130 miles.
Day 6 Along the Richardson Highway
From Glennallen, at the junction of the Richardson and Glenn highways, it is 247 miles to Fairbanks via the Richardson. We make the drive in one day, but there are plenty of places to stop and we recommend overnighting along the way for first-time visitors. This stretch of the Richardson Highway offers public fishing access to the Gulkana River, Paxson Lake (also a launch site for floating the Gulkana River to Sourdough), Quartz Lake, Birch Lake, Chena Lakes, and dozens of smaller stocked lakes. At Paxson, take a raft trip on the Gulkana River with Denali Highway Cabins.
It's also a very scenic drive, with views of Mount Sanford, Mount Wrangell and Mount Drum in the rearview mirror and the Alaska Range in the front window. We stop for lunch at Meier's Lake Roadhouse, which also has a campground and offers lodging at Atwater's Chateau Motel.
Back on the road, we cross Isabel Pass, elevation 3,280, about a half-hour north of Meier's Lake. Although higher than Thompson Pass, there's no sense of climbing up and over the mountains at Isabel Pass. A monument here commemorates Gen. Wilds P. Richardson, for whom the highway is named.
There are good views of the Trans-Alaska pipeline along the Richardson Highway. We stop at the pipeline viewpoint at Milepost V 243.5 for a photo. Public tours of Pump Station No. 9 are no longer offered, but we do stop and read the interpretive sign at the pump station entrance.
At Delta Junction Visitor Information Center, Milepost V 266 on the Richardson Highway, there's an outdoor pipeline display. There's also an "End of the Alaska Highway" monument here, because Delta Junction--not Fairbanks--is the official end of the Alaska Highway. You wouldn't know it from the highway signs. The Richardson Highway, Alaska Route 4 between Valdez and Delta Junction, becomes Alaska Route 2 from Delta Junction to Fairbanks, the same route number as the Alaska Highway.
We stop at a rest area on Birch Lake, 57 miles outside Fairbanks. Just off the highway, Birch Lake State Recreation Site offers overnight parking sites for RVers, lakeside picnic tables, a beach and boat launch.
Another half-hour on the road brings us to The Knotty Shop, with its collection of burl sculptures out in front. We stop for ice cream here before heading on to Fairbanks.
Day 7 & 8 Fairbanks
There's a lot to do in Fairbanks and a wide range of accommodations. We camp at one of the private parks along the Chena River and spend the morning at Pioneer Park.
For families with kids, Pioneer Park is a good choice: it has a playground, a train ride, miniature golf and lots of fun small shops and places to eat. Try gold panning; explore the largest stern-wheeler ever built west of the Mississippi; and visit the Pioneer Air Museum. Admission to the park is free, with minimal charges for some of the individual attractions in the park.
In the afternoon we stretch our legs at Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge on College Road, where we see plenty of sandhill cranes and other birds. Driving out Farmers Loop Road, we turnoff for the Large Animal Research Station and a close-up look at musk-oxen.
Activities we've enjoyed on previous trips to Fairbanks include: taking a scenic cruise on the Chena River with one of the local tour boats; driving out to Ester Gold Camp for the show at the Malemute Saloon; exploring gold rush history with a trip out to Gold Dredge No. 8 and El Dorado Gold Mine; and driving out Chena Hot Springs Road.
Fairbanks is also the jump-off point for various Interior and Arctic adventures, from fly-in fishing to sightseeing trips to Barrow and Prudhoe Bay.
Our second day in Fairbanks we tour the University of Alaska Museum of the North and visit Georgeson Botanical Garden before heading south on the Parks Highway towards Anchorage.
Day 8 & 9 Parks Highway
It is a 362-mile drive from Fairbanks to Anchorage via the Parks Highway. Certainly, you can do it in a day; we have. But if you've come to see Alaska, plan to take your time traveling between these 2 cities: there are many places to stay, sights to see and streams to fish. It is also on this leg of the journey that most visitors pencil in a stay at Denali National Park.
The entrance to Denali National Park and Preserve is just 125 miles south of Fairbanks and 237 miles north of Anchorage, but businesses serving Park visitors stretch from Healy to Cantwell. These include RV parks, campgrounds, lodges, trail rides, rafting, Mt. McKinley flights and other adventure tours. The log of the Parks Highway in The MILEPOST® details all these stops.
We decide to overnight at Riley Creek campground at Denali National Park. This is the park's largest campground (with 142 sites) and also the campground nearest the park entrance (the turnoff is just 0.2 mile from the Parks Highway). We do not have advance reservations, but upon arriving at the park we check campground status at the Visitor Center and find that space is available at Riley Creek. (This is something that travelers cannot always rely on: park campsites are often full in summer).
Riley Creek Mercantile is a short walk from our campsite and we buy firewood, chocolate and marshmallows there, then drive a mile back up the Parks Highway to the commercial area that serves many of the Park's visitors. Although this 2-mile strip of businesses at the head of Nenana Canyon is referred to derogatorily as "Glitter Gulch," there's no denying that this commercial area offers many valuable services. This is where we found the crucial ingredient for tonight's dessert: the graham crackers.
The Glitter Gulch/Nenana Canyon area is also where many of the big hotels are located, as well as the gas station with its convenience store, the general store (with our graham crackers), rafting outfitters, the Black Bear Coffee House with its Internet cafe, and RV parks with hookups (there are no hookups at the national park campsites). There's also entertainment. We've been to the Alaska Cabin Nite Dinner Theatre at McKinley Chalet Resort, where for one price you get both an all-you-can-eat family-style meal and an entertaining show combining local history, original songs and a young and talented cast.
Before heading out the next day, we catch the free shuttle bus at 9:30 a.m. from the park visitor center for the free 10 a.m. sled dog demonstration at Park Kennels. This is an easy and entertaining activity in the park, suitable for all ages. A brief bus ride then a short walk takes us to the Park Kennels, where working sled dogs spend their time when they're not exercising on the Park Road in the summer to keep in shape for pulling sleds while patrolling the park in winter. These are the only sled dogs in the U.S. that help protect a national park.
After meeting the dogs (about 30 are housed in pens or tied to kennels and all of them have names), the ranger in charge talks about the Park's sled dog program before hitching up 5 dogs to a wheeled sled for a brief run around a gravel track. There's more time for photos before we are loaded back on the bus for the return ride to the visitor center.
We take off for Anchorage, only to stop for lunch 13 miles later at McKinley Creekside Cafe, one of a cluster of businesses around Carlo Creek at Milepost A 224 that includes Carlo Creek Lodge, Denali Mountain Morning Hostel and Lodge, and another well-known eatery, The Perch. (Both McKinley Creekside and The Perch also offer cabin accommodations.)
It's a clear day and we have views of Mt. McKinley/Denali from Broad Pass all the way back to Anchorage. We take a break at the Alaska Veterans Memorial/POW-MIA Rest Area at Milepost A 147.2. This is a popular rest area, with large parking areas, a visitor information center, toilets, water, viewing scopes and garbage containers. The Alaskan Veterans Memorial, adjacent the rest area, is well worth a stop.
You can walk down to Byers Lake by trail from the rest area, or you can drive to the lake by turning off the highway at Milepost A 147 and continuing east about a half-mile to the car-top boat launch parking area. It's a hot day so we drive to Byers Lake to cool our feet before hitting the road again.
We arrive back in Anchorage in the early evening. Traffic gets a bit heavy through Wasilla, although most of the cars are headed in the opposite direction from us: commuters returning to the Valley from Anchorage.
