Nome-Taylor Highway Scenic Drive

Spring pro­vides some of the best oppor­tu­ni­ties to see semi-domes­tic rein­deer along this sec­tion of road. In sum­mer the dri­ve pro­vides good bird watch­ing for water­fowl, gulls, terns, and tun­dra species.

The land­fill draws many scav­engers. Com­mon raven is abun­dant year round. Glau­cous, glau­cous-winged, her­ring, mew, and — occa­sion­al­ly in sum­mer — slaty-backed gulls show up as well. Red fox is also a fre­quent vis­i­tor to the facility.

Head­ing north, the Dex­ter Bypass branch­es off on the left. The road offers a scenic return to Nome in sum­mer and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of see­ing muskox. On the right are sea­son­al camps and year-round homes that make up the com­mu­ni­ty of Dexter.

King Moun­tain is the next hill­side on the west side of the val­ley where it is easy to see the mul­ti­ple cuts across its slopes for much of the year. Most cuts are man­made ditch­es that once brought water to Nome’s gold fields for hydraulic min­ing operations.

Rein­deer round-ups are held at the cor­ral once or twice a year.

Rail­road con­struc­tion began in Nome the sum­mer of 1900. By 1906 the track stretched 80 miles to the Kuz­itrin Riv­er. Like many oth­er res­i­dents, the world famous mush­er Leon­hard Sep­pala ran his dog team along t he tracks using a small rail­road car, called a ​“pup­mo­bile.”

A grav­el pit pond may con­tain local nest­ing water­fowl, mew gull, Bonaparte’s gull, and semi­palmat­ed plover. The edges with the tallest wil­lows are a good place to find black­poll war­bler. A large beaver lodge on the banks has helped to fer­til­ize this once ster­ile grav­el pit, which now sup­ports juve­nile coho salmon, Dol­ly Var­den, and Arc­tic grayling.

The Nome Riv­er is a good place to see salmon. Pink and chum salmon spawn in August, coho are usu­al­ly present in August and Sep­tem­ber. Sock­eye salmon, Arc­tic grayling, and Dol­ly Var­den may be present. Look for Arc­tic terns fish­ing, har­le­quin duck and red-breast­ed mer­ganser rid­ing swift water, spot­ted sand­piper or wan­der­ing tat­tler at water­line, and north­ern shrike in the wil­lowed riv­er edges.

This high point in the road gives you an excel­lent view across the val­ley. Three ditch lines from ear­li­er min­ing activ­i­ties are appar­ent on the far side of the val­ley, espe­cial­ly where they cross the exposed rock face of Cape Horn. The ditch­es orig­i­nate near Hud­son Creek about 12 miles upstream. Today these deep, wide gash­es on the hill­side offer cov­er and eas­i­er move­ment for wildlife — espe­cial­ly moose and griz­zly bears.

There are two turn-offs to see rap­tors as you are head­ing down Kougarok rd. The first is a rap­tor nest, and the sec­ond give you a chance to see hawks

As you con­tin­ue north, Dorothy Creek flows out of moun­tains to the left past the red cab­in on the far bank of the Nome Riv­er. About one mile up the creek is a scenic water­fall. While there is no trail, some peo­ple vis­it the water­fall by cross­ing the open tun­dra on the south side of Dorothy Creek and clam­ber­ing down the steep incline either just above or below the waterfall.

The pass at Nugget Divide sep­a­rates the Nome Riv­er water­shed from the Pil­grim Riv­er water­shed to the north. A Game Man­age­ment Unit sign at this loca­tion marks the bound­ary between two drainage-based hunt­ing areas, each with their own reg­u­la­tions. From here the road descends to the Grand Cen­tral Riv­er, a major trib­u­tary of the Pil­grim Riv­er (orig­i­nal­ly called the Kruzgamepa or Kut­sku­mi­pa) then across Broad Pass to the inter­sec­tion with the  ...more

Sock­eye salmon migrate up Pil­grim Riv­er to Salmon Lake between late July and mid-August, and some con­tin­ue up the Grand Cen­tral Riv­er as far as the bridge. Griz­zlies are fair­ly com­mon in late sum­mer when spawned-out salmon and ripe berries are abun­dant. Bird­ers watch for har­le­quin duck, red-breast­ed mer­ganser, Amer­i­can dip­per, Bluethroat, yel­low war­bler, Wilson’s war­bler, and Arc­tic warbler.

Just past the entrance to the Salmon Lake Luther­an Bible Camp, water from a near­by spring is piped to the side of road. Many res­i­dents stop here to fill their con­tain­ers with cold, clear drink­ing water. 

Head­ing north, an access road on your right leads to a lake­side camp­ground that is main­tained by the Bureau of Land Man­age­ment. It has a sandy beach, pic­nic tables, bar­beque pits, a trash bin, and a restroom that is open dur­ing snow-free months. There is no run­ning water.

Across the val­ley at the base of the far hills, you can still see the old train tres­tle span­ning Iron Creek, just above its con­flu­ence with the Pil­grim River.

At the bot­tom of Gold­en Gate Pass where the road makes a sweep­ing curve to the right, a marked turn-off to the left leads to Pil­grim Hot Springs. The road tra­vers­es pri­vate prop­er­ty and trav­el­ers must obtain per­mis­sion to access before­hand. Although this 7‑mile side trip offers excel­lent vis­tas and access to a unique and his­toric set­ting, sec­tions of the road are very rough and, if flood­ed, may be impas­si­ble. The road sum­mit, 2.5 miles from the  ...more

The Pil­grim Riv­er cross­ing brings you close to groves of cot­ton­wood that are abun­dant in this sec­tion of the val­ley. Look for spawn­ing salmon, moose, and a vari­ety of birds.

Beyond the Pil­grim Riv­er Bridge, the road con­tin­ues uphill and offers sweep­ing views of a net­work of lakes and the mean­der­ing riv­er val­ley. North of the Pil­grim Riv­er drainage is a large hill topped with a series of gran­ite rock out­crop­pings known as Hen and Chick­ens because of its resem­blance to a small flock at cer­tain angles. A cross was placed at the sum­mit in mem­o­ry of a priest who died in a bliz­zard on his way to the orphanage.

The north­ern­most lake is called Swan Lake but sev­er­al lakes in this area may hold a wide vari­ety of birds. Tun­dra swan with cygnets, Cana­da goose, sand­hill crane, north­ern shov­el­er, black scot­er, long-tailed duck, greater and less­er scaup, and can­vas­back fre­quent the ponds. Red-necked grebe build float­ing nest plat­forms. The perime­ter of mead­ow habi­tat with threads of water drainages are good places to find Pacif­ic gold­en-plover. Look for signs  ...more

The Kuz­itrin Riv­er Bridge had its ori­gins in Fair­banks. It was orig­i­nal­ly named the Cush­man Street Bridge when it was built across the Chena Riv­er in the heart of down­town Fair­banks in 1917. In the 1950s the bridge was replaced with a con­crete span and the orig­i­nal met­al bridge was dis­as­sem­bled, shipped down the Chena, Tanana, and Yukon rivers and barged up the Bering Sea coast to Nome. It was hauled in sec­tions up the Nome-Tay­lor High­way and  ...more

Sev­er­al small lakes and ponds sprin­kle the land­scape on either side of the road. Look for a small hillock just beyond the first lake. This lone pin­go ris­es above the sur­round­ing flat tun­dra mead­ow and serves as a con­ve­nient look­out for hunters such as fox­es, wolves, hawks, owls, and jaegers. The soil on the tops of pin­gos is fer­til­ized by preda­tor feces and prey remains and gen­er­al­ly sup­ports lush and diverse vegetation. 

The Quartz Creek bush airstrip, up a short dirt road to the left, pro­vides a jump­ing-off spot to min­ing claims at Ser­pen­tine Hot Springs and oth­er points beyond the road sys­tem. It is also a stag­ing area for ADF&G wildlife sur­veys. The airstrip was built dur­ing the road con­struc­tion years and is still main­tained by the state trans- por­ta­tion depart­ment. A num­ber of cab­ins in this area attract Say’s phoebe, Amer­i­can robin, and tree swallow.  ...more

Though built to accom­mo­date the road from Bunker Hill to Tay­lor in the ear­ly 1900s, the bridge is as far as you can go by high­way vehi­cle. From here a rough, unmarked, and some­times impass­able ATV trail leads to Tay­lor where fam­i­ly-owned mines still oper­ate. Look for cana­da goose and white- front­ed goose. Bluethroat can be found on shrub­by riv­er banks. Arc­tic grayling are the most like­ly fish to be seen from the bridge.