Denali Highway Paxson to Cantwell (Hwy 8)

Pax­son Junc­tion (pop. 28) This small com­mu­ni­ty began when Alvin Pax­son opened the Tim­ber­line Road­house at mile 192 in 1906. His cook, Charles Meier, lat­er opened a road­house at mile 170. Pax­son built a larg­er road­house at mile 191 adding a barn with two sleep­ing rooms and a bath. Soon, a post office, store, wood­house and small ice room were added.

The Denali High­way climbs quick­ly from the Gulka­na Riv­er bot­tom land into a vast realm of brushy tun­dra with sweep­ing views of foothills, moun­tains, wet­lands and lakes. You are dwarfed by immen­si­ty and qui­et at every curve. A four-wheel­er track off a pull­out leads to a rise that over­looks Sum­mit Lake and its com­mu­ni­ty to the north. The view begs your attention.

A quar­ter-mile grav­el road leads north down­hill into an inti­mate val­ley with a serene lake and an unof­fi­cial boat ramp. Amid camp­sites, you find brush thick with blue­ber­ries in sea­son. It’s one of scores of unmarked pull­outs and access roads along the high­way that lure you into secret places.

To the north is one of the state’s great­est moun­tain ranges, the Alas­ka Range. Sev­er­al peaks in view have ele­va­tions greater than 12,000 feet. This range extends in a great arc from Cook Inlet through the Mount McKin­ley mas­sif (a prin­ci­pal moun­tain mass) and on to the Cana­da bor­der, a dis­tance of 650 miles.

The Wrangell Moun­tains are about 78 air miles to the south­east. Mount San­ford (16,237’) is the promi­nent peak on the left, Mount Drum (12,010’) is on the right. In the cen­ter is Mount Wrangell (14,163’), which occa­sion­al­ly releas­es steam. It is the north­ern­most active vol­cano on the Pacif­ic Rim. 

This trail goes north to the north­ern end of Swede Lake. It then con­tin­ues on to the Mid­dle Fork Gulka­na Branch Trail and anoth­er half mile to Alpha­bet Hills Trail. It is usu­al­ly a very wet trail so rub­ber boots are usu­al­ly rec­om­mend­ed. Both Big Swede and Lit­tle Swede Lakes offer good oppor­tu­ni­ties for fish­ing. Lake Trout are found in Lit­tle Swede. Lake trout, grayling, bur­bot, and white­fish are found in Big Swede.

There are more than 500 archae­o­log­i­cal sites in the Tan­gle Lakes Dis­trict indi­cat­ing that ancient peo­ple lived in this area for at least 10,000 years. Some of the dens­est con­cen­tra­tions of archae­o­log­i­cal resources in the North Amer­i­can sub­arc­tic can be found here and the area is list­ed on the Nation­al Reg­is­ter of His­toric Places.

This trail can be accessed via the Swede Lake Trail. It par­al­lels the Mid­dle Fork of Gulka­na Riv­er and can be extreme­ly wet. Rub­ber boots are recommended.

Locat­ed at mile 19.5 of the Denali High­way — just shy of the Tan­gle Lakes area — this foot trail can be stren­u­ous. After a wet ini­tial quar­ter-mile, the short steep route climbs 1,500 feet over a mile or so up the moun­tain to the south, deliv­er­ing stun­ning views of the Tan­gle Lakes, Amphithe­ater Mts., and Alas­ka Range. No vehi­cles on this trail!

This BLM-main­tained camp­ground sits amid the Tan­gle Lakes, a series of long, nar­row lakes. This is a des­ig­nat­ed put-in for the 30-mile-long Delta Nation­al Wild and Scenic Riv­er float trip. There are moose and cari­bou in the area, many hunters use this as a base camp dur­ing the fall hunt­ing season.

This BLM way­side is for day-use only (no camp­ing) and is equipped with a pic­nic area and toi­lets. The boat launch pro­vides access and park­ing for extend­ed wilder­ness canoe trips in the Upper Tan­gle Lakes sys­tem to the south, where numer­ous lakes of all sizes pro­vide impor­tant wildlife habitat.

The Delta Riv­er, includ­ing Tan­gle Lakes to mile 212 on the Richard­son High­way, is an out­stand­ing riv­er to float, although there is a set of falls to portage around. It offers a vari­ety of water chal­lenges: qui­et lake, fast and rocky Class I to the falls, good Class II rapids fol­low­ing the falls, Class I mean­der­ing water to Eure­ka Creek, and fast glacial water to the take­out 7 miles below Eure­ka Creek. The scenery is superb with canyon,…  ...more

Land­mark Gap is a glacial­ly scoured cut in the moun­tains that formed dur­ing an Ice Age more than 10,000 years ago. The gap was a cari­bou migra­tion route and a favorite Indi­an hunt­ing area in cen­turies past. The Nelchi­na cari­bou herd still migrates through this area.

Count­less paths mean­der into the tun­dra foothills above the lake. If you fol­low these tracks, you climb up ridges and final­ly reach dra­mat­ic promi­nences — clear­ings with good rock under foot and sweep­ing views beyond.

This trail extends approx­i­mate­ly 3 miles to the south end of Land­mark Gap Lake. The trail is rocky and dry with one marshy spot. Except after heavy rain­fall, you can side­step the marshy area with­out get­ting your feet wet. This is one of the eas­i­est and most pop­u­lar hikes in the Tan­gle Lakes vicinity. 

At the begin­ning of this trail there is a mud­dy area. This trail trav­els south then branch­es into two. The south­east trail goes about 5 miles to a view­point of the upper Tan­gle Lakes and the south­west branch goes on 8 miles to Osar lake. Water cross­ings may be dif­fi­cult after heavy rain.

If you’re hik­ing this trail to the glac­i­er across the val­ley, it’s high­ly rec­om­mend­ed that you not only take repel­lent for all kinds of crit­ters, but that you also have a mos­qui­to net with you. (And fol­low the high road where the trail splits.) Well worth the effort, it’s been described as ​“Tolkien’s Misty Mountains.”

You are now at an ele­va­tion of about 4,000 feet, just a short dis­tance from Maclaren Sum­mit (4,086’), the sec­ond high­est high­way sum­mit in Alas­ka. Stop and enjoy the panoram­ic view of the Alas­ka Range and the Maclaren Riv­er. Mount Hayes (13,832’) and the Maclaren Riv­er and Glac­i­er are dom­i­nant fea­tures, but Auro­ra Peak, Mount Shand and Mount Geist may also be seen. 

The trail starts in Maclaren Sum­mit and trav­els south to the north­west shore of Osar Lake. It cross­es glacial eskers and is fair­ly dry. The grav­el trail­head area offers park­ing with space to bivouac for the night away from the highway. 

This 9.5 mile trail con­tin­ues almost flat to the west end of Sev­en­teen mile Lake, a water body tucked into the foothills. Because this trail is in the Depart­ment of Fish and Game’s Con­trolled Use Area, you must stay on the trails pro­vid­ed and not con­tin­ue on where the trail ends. It is kid friend­ly, suit­able for bik­ing and running.

The sum­mit area is a must stop attrac­tion, a place unique even in Alas­ka for its stun­ning views and easy access to alpine tun­dra. Sev­er­al pull­outs offer room to safe­ly park in a long the shoul­der, but you’ll find off-road park­ing at the Osar and Maclaren Sum­mit trail­heads on either side of the high­way just before it begins its descent. What might you do?

An ice age land­form haunts the val­ley bot­tom. Con­struc­tion of the high­way in 1957 stripped the insu­lat­ing cov­er from the ice-and-peat core of a par­tial­ly col­lapsed pal­sa, and this road side exam­ple of a com­mon sub­arc­tic phe­nom­e­non has been dete­ri­o­rat­ing ever since.

The low­land approach­ing the Maclaren Riv­er con­tains sev­er­al geo­graph­ic fea­tures with glacial and ice age ori­gins. Look to the north side of the road for what appears to be a steep pit with a con­i­cal shape. This is an exam­ple of thermokarst.

Sev­er­al small lakes and depres­sions in this area were formed when chunks of ice broke off retreat­ing glac­i­ers and were buried in the glacial debris. The ice even­tu­al­ly melt­ed, leav­ing cir­cu­lar-shaped depres­sions called kettles.

This old lodge and road­house has served hunters, trap­pers, and prospec­tors for half a cen­tu­ry. It’s still open today — and is the last lodge on this high­way open all win­ter — and still serves out­doors peo­ple of all kinds. Wifi avail­able now!

View Maclaren Glac­i­er 16 miles south.

Melt­ing glac­i­ers can leave behind ridges of grav­el and sand that snake across the land­scape with such per­fect form that they almost seem man­u­fac­tured. A grav­el road lead­ing south just before the road begins climb­ing into the Crazy Notch gives easy access to one of these ice-age remnants.

This notable geo­log­ic fea­ture was formed by the Maclaren Glac­i­er, which once flowed through this val­ley. The glac­i­er deposit­ed a buildup of rocks on either side cre­at­ing a lat­er­al moraine. A glac­i­er stream cut through the moraine cre­at­ing Crazy Notch. 

MP 46.9 Denali Hwy. North Side of Road, Lake & out­let excel­lent for large grayling.

This string of lakes along the high­way serves as a sum­mer home for a great vari­ety of water­fowl. Some, like the trum­peter swan, stay until the lake is freez­ing up. Sev­er­al pull outs and wide spots along the shoul­der allow safe park­ing, with many trails lead­ing down to lakeshores. Watch for cari­bou cross­ing the high­way in stretch­es with gaps between lakes.

Prob­a­bly the best free camp­site along the Denali High­way. With a large park­ing area next to a main­tained pit toi­let on the south­side of the high­way, and an infor­mal park­ing area on the north, you can install an RV or set up a tent in many loca­tions with a bit of pri­va­cy and then be ser­e­nad­ed by the melody of rush­ing water all night long.

The high­way mounts the spine of an esker, and fol­lows it for a few miles — veer­ing and curv­ing with undu­lat­ing coils of a land­form deposit­ed eons ago inside the bow­els of a thou­sand-foot-deep glac­i­er. It’s ser­pen­tine and a bit weird, so styl­ized and con­sis­tent that you might won­der if it could be the arti­fact of a human civilization.

The high­way twines with count­less feed­er trails and pull­outs — many pio­neered and kept open by fall hunters using ATVs. But out­side hunt­ing sea­son, these access points beg for explo­ration and overnight stays.

Immerse your pri­vate group in this lux­u­ry year-round lodge, sur­round­ed by the beau­ty of the Alaskan wilder­ness just south­east of Denali Nation­al Park. Sit­ting on a pri­vate 75-acre plot on Yogi Lake, it offers the remote feel­ing of a fly-in lodge — even though it’s acces­si­ble by road in sum­mer. Hire pri­vate guides for cus­tom adven­tures, like hik­ing, pack raft­ing, canoe­ing, flight­see­ing, fish­ing, and bird watch­ing. Or in win­ter, go cross-country  ...more

Pull off on the north side of the road as you approach the east side of the bridge, where a path leads to the shore. It’s a young riv­er here, roil­ing with whirlpools and bulges. It hiss­es as it surges past. It’s dis­con­cert­ing to real­ize this pow­er­ful cur­rent descends toward some of the most dan­ger­ous and chal­leng­ing riv­er rapids in the world.

Look east across the Susit­na Riv­er and you’ll see the old Valdez Creek gold mine in the foothills of the Clear­wa­ter Moun­tains. The mine was start­ed by the Peter Mon­a­han Par­ty in 1903, trig­ger­ing a small gold rush and an out­post set­tle­ment known as Denali. The orig­i­nal dig­gings and set­tle­ment are long gone.

As the high­way climbs into the hills from the Susit­na Riv­er Val­ley on its way east, it cross­es from one of Alaska’s great water­sheds into anoth­er. There’s no easy way to pin­point exact­ly where the road cross­es the divide — it’s not marked and it’s not obvious.

An unmarked side road leads down a grav­el lane to a large park­ing area with an inter­pre­tive sign that’s a bit worse for wear. This old grav­el pull­out fea­tures one of the most spec­tac­u­lar panora­mas in the state, with the Alas­ka Range dom­i­nat­ing the north­ern hori­zon on clear days like a colos­sal snow-crowned palisade.

The old, well-appoint­ed camp­ground on the west bank of Brushkana Creek is very pop­u­lar among sea­soned Denali High­way trav­el­ers. The 22 camp­sites are well laid out, offer­ing a mod­icum of pri­va­cy, with excel­lent access to the wide grav­el bars along the clear-run­ning creek and its famous grayling.

A trail beck­ons from the brushy expanse south of the high­way, call­ing for a spon­ta­neous hike or bike into unsigned wild coun­try in search of cari­bou and berries and oth­er wild crit­ters. But only a few yards away, is an unex­pect­ed road­side dis­play — two trees adorned with orna­ments and beer cans and Mar­di Gras beads, with flags and play mon­ey and busi­ness cards.

There are sev­er­al spots along this stretch of the road where you can take in beau­ti­ful views look­ing down at the Nenana Riv­er. The road also comes right down to the riv­er in a few spots. We like to stop here, pull out a camp chair, and cool off our tired feet in the chilly water.

Dur­ing clear weath­er, there are excel­lent views of North America‘s high­est peak on this six-mile sec­tion of the Denali High­way. Approx­i­mate­ly 80 per­cent of its 20,320’ ele­va­tion ris­es above the sur­round­ing land­scape, mak­ing its base-to-sum­mit rise greater than that of Mount Everest.

12-room, local­ly owned lodge 30 min­utes south of Denali Nation­al Park at the inter­sec­tion of the Parks and Denali High­ways. This year-round accom­mo­da­tion pro­vides sim­ple but well-appoint­ed rooms away from the main activ­i­ty of the park entrance.