A New Highway

Saturday, July 20, 2018 Denali Highway to Denali North Overlook

We'd not been on the Denali Highway, the original road to Denali Park, during our last trip.   We were going to skip it this trip and then Mike said, let's give it a try and so we drove from Valdez to Paxson and took the Denali Highway about 150 miles west.  It's a different view of Alaska than what we've been seeing.  Surrounded by the Alaskan Range, which included the Denali Peak, are broad expanses of shrub and grasses, intertwined by glacier rivers and lakes. 

Denali highway

lake on Denali highway

To my chagrin, it was also the worst rode we've had the RV on the whole trip.  It was dusty, a fine silt that got everywhere inside the RV

  

Denali highway silt

We're glad to cross that road off, not to be visited again!

When we came out on the western side it was after 5:00 pm so we drove south toward Anchorage and stopped for the night at the Denali North Overlook.  From the parking lot, this was the view of Denali the next morning, about 40 miles away

5:00 AM Mike's pic of Denali from DNO

Denali from DNO about 8am

It's truly breathtaking.  Everywhere we go, the scenery is spectacular.  My eyes are full of the images.  We're hanging out in Anchorage the rest of the week until Friday when I'm taking the train to Denali and Mike is driving up.