DENALI HIGHWAY

Last weekend our Carlo Creek backpacking plans were thwarted by the rainy weather.  So we gassed up the Ford and headed east on the Denali Highway.  The 134-mile-long Denali Highway links Paxson on the Richardson Highway to Cantwell on the Parks Highway. Winter snow closes the highway to through traffic from about October to mid-May.  The first 21 miles of the Denali Highway from Paxson and the first 3 miles from Cantwell are paved. Maclaren Summit, the second highest highway pass in the state, represents the only significant grade on the highway.  When the Denali Highway opened in 1957, it was the only road link to Denali National Park and Preserve (then Mount McKinley National Park) until the completion of the Parks Highway in 1972. (Prior to 1957, the national park had been accessible only by railroad.)

Camping is allowed pretty much anywhere along the road but as the day was rainy we were in no particular hurry to stop and set up.  Instead we contented ourselves with driving all the way to Paxson, and then turning around.  We made many stops along the way, visiting with the loons and other birds that return to the area every year.  We saw a Moose with a new calf, a fox, swans, gulls, ducks in addition to our favorite, loons.
Camp was a pullout about 30 miles from Cantwell.  The rain stopped long enough to set up the tent and eat, then it was bedtime.  Ptarmigan serenaded us as we fell asleep, happy to be out of our cabin and out in the wild Alaska countryside.  An intermittent rain drumming against the tent soon worked its magic, sending all of us to a restful slumber