2005/07 Alaska and Back Again - Denali Highway |
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Saturday July 24th
The forecast promised showers but we had a bright start for driving the “Denali Highway”, a gravel road through the mountains that connects the Parks and Richardson Highways. This was to be a picnic day, and we were just going to drive the hundred miles or so to a bridge that has a view of the McClaren Glacier.
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Denali Road |
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Denali Road (2.25) |  |
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The road has some grand Alaskan scenery, wide valleys of green backed by great ranges of 
snow-capped mountains, with glaciers flowing down to the Nenana river. It’s a popular hunting area, so the animals aren’t as numerous as on Denali, but we did see a cow moose and calf and lots of birds, including some swans. There are no towns at all on this road, just the occasional lodge.
We stopped at the Gracious House for some pie and coffee. Despite its fancy name, this is a café built from an old Quonsett hut, left by the military. The English would call it a Nissen hut. By now, storms were rolling in across the valley and we could only just see the glaciers as we drove the bridge over the Susitna River. From there on the road ran along the top of glacial eskers and kames, surrounded by kettle ponds, with loads of birds including some rare trumpeter swans.
When we reached the bridge there was too much cloud to see the glacier! We turned around 
anyway as it was getting late. The road was muddy, potholed, and slippery, and the mud was flying over the roof. For compensation though we had a beautiful sky, with dark rain clouds, sunbeams, and rainbows. At one point we had sunbeams at one angle and rain streaks at another. It looked like the sunshine was hitting the ground and bouncing back up. We were back in camp by 10 pm, now bathed in late sunshine.