Nome-Teller Highway Scenic Drive

Open only in sum­mer, the five-mile long Dex­ter Bypass Road links Teller Road and Kougarok Road and offers addi­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for muskox view­ing. Access to Anvil Moun­tain is on the left, about a mile from the Teller Road.

“Nome­henge,” as some of the locals call the four tow­er­ing anten­nas on Anvil Moun­tain above Nome, oper­at­ed dur­ing the height of the Cold War to link remote parts of Alas­ka with the rest of the coun­try. These are the last of 71 White Alice struc­tures, and serve as impor­tant his­toric and geo­graph­ic land­marks in Nome.

This approx­i­mate­ly five-mile, grav­el, side loop pass­es through some pop­u­lar blue­ber­ry pick­ing spots and is often a good area to view muskox. The road over­looks the Anvil Creek min­ing area before join­ing up with the New Glac­i­er Creek Road at Glac­i­er Creek.

Teller Road cross­es Anvil Creek one mile below the site of the 1898 gold dis­cov­ery that trig­gered the Nome gold rush. From here you can view the wind tur­bines that form the start of Nome’s efforts to har­vest wind as an alter­na­tive ener­gy source.

Glac­i­er Creek Road runs approx­i­mate­ly 30 miles up the east side of the Snake Riv­er. It becomes a rough four-wheel-dri­ve road after it pass­es the Rock Creek Mine site three miles in and is not main­tained in win­ter. If you look north up the val­ley from Teller Road, you will see the pyra­mid-shaped peak of Mount Osborn, the tallest peak on the Seward Penin­su­la. Look for birds nest­ing in the small lakes on either side of the road.

The Snake Riv­er has a rel­a­tive­ly short drainage that flows out of the south side of the Kiglu­aik Moun­tains. Prime moose, bird­ing, and salmon view­ing habitat. 

On the left as you head north are rem­nants of an aban­doned rein­deer cor­ral that was first con­struct­ed by the Bureau of Indi­an Affairs in the 1970s for a rein­deer herd­ing demon­stra­tion project. The local Sit­na­suak Native Cor­po­ra­tion took over the cor­ral in the ear­ly 1980s and ran a herd of about 750 ani­mals for sev­er­al years. The cor­ral fell into dis­use after Sit­na­suak got out of the busi­ness and dis­trib­uted the rein­deer to oth­er herders.

Sev­en miles off the coast, Sledge Island is vis­i­ble on clear days from this sec­tion of Teller Road. Orig­i­nal­ly named Ayak, the island was home to about 50 Ayak­mi­ut, who pri­mar­i­ly hunt­ed seals but also wal­rus when those ani­mals migrat­ed close to shore.

The bridge cross­ing gives a good view of birdlife, spawn­ing salmon, and moose. Red-breast­ed mer­ganser and har­le­quin duck like the swift-flow­ing water.

Dri­ving north, the rocky out­crop on your right may host a nest­ing or perch­ing site for rough-legged hawk, gyr­fal­con, and com­mon raven. Look to your left into the creek bot­tom to see an active beaver lodge with sev­er­al dams and ponds.

House Rock and Cab­in Rock are local names for the obvi­ous rock for­ma­tion on the right. Look for Arc­tic ground squir­rel on the dry, upper slopes and for Musk ox on the wind­blown sum­mits. This is also a great bird­ing area.

This grav­el pit opens up onto a ridge that over­looks Arc­tic Creek and the hills to the north. It’s a great spot to pull off the road and look for musk ox, moose, or bear in the brush across the valley.

The steep road grade on either side of Crip­ple Riv­er gives a good overview of the thin thread-like riv­er that runs through the val­ley. Gold min­ing activ­i­ties occurred in the upper trib­u­taries, as evi­denced by the road and hor­i­zon­tal ditch lines. Look for har­le­quin ducks pad­dling swift riv­er cur­rents in late August or Sep­tem­ber, and Pink Salmon swim­ming upstream to spawn.

Head­ing north, there are two turn-offs for tun­dra ridge hik­ing with great views of the sur­round­ing area

The Sinuk Riv­er is the largest riv­er cross­ing on the Teller Road, and the mag­ni­tude of the val­ley, riv­er chan­nels, crag­gy moun­tains, and rolling tun­dra — all in one panoram­ic vista — is an impres­sive sight. The bridge is a reli­able spot to see salmon on their return upriv­er. Birdlife tends to be those species attract­ed to flow­ing water and grav­el bars, islands, and thick veg­e­ta­tion clus­tered in some sec­tions of the river. 

The crest of the hill north of the Sinuk Riv­er offers a spec­tac­u­lar view of the Kiglu­aik Moun­tains on a clear day.

Just south of Liv­ingston Creek, the tun­dra next to the road has sloughed away and exposed the per­mafrost beneath the sur­face lay­er of tun­dra plants and soil.

The Feath­er Riv­er is a noisy, rocky, boul­der-strewn riv­er with a steep gra­di­ent, fast flow, and lit­tle veg­e­ta­tion. The land­scape seems more bar­ren, prob­a­bly result­ing from the impact of con­stant wind, long win­ters, and poor soil. Muskox and rein­deer may be seen here, but oth­er wildlife sight­ings are less fre­quent in this drainage.

The next sev­er­al miles of road offer views of King Island in clear weath­er. The island is ide­al­ly sit­u­at­ed for har­vest­ing the many seals and wal­rus­es that pass through the Bering Strait.

This creek at mile 40 is adja­cent to the turnoff to the Wool­ley Lagoon fish­ing camps. A quick right turn from the turnoff puts you at a favorite water col­lec­tion point by locals who believe the creek, as well as hav­ing the best tast­ing water around, also has heal­ing powers.

This 100-foot-wide road is a pub­lic right-of-way that tra­vers­es lands pri­vate­ly owned by the King Island Native Cor­po­ra­tion. It runs eight miles to tra­di­tion­al sum­mer fish­ing camps at Wool­ley Lagoon. Please stay with­in 50 feet of either side of the road. Do not pho­to­graph or trav­el close to lagoon or camps. A pull-off to the right offers views of Moon Moun­tains, a win­ter­ing spot for muskox. Also watch for red fox and black-bel­lied plovers.  ...more

As you approach the Tisuk Riv­er, scan down­stream and across the riv­er for a large nest of sticks on an orange lichen-cov­ered rock out­crop. Built by gold­en eagles, it may be used by gyr­fal­con when not occu­pied by eagles.

The Tisuk Riv­er val­ley near the bridge is sub­ject to huge ice build-ups that extend over the grav­el bars and river­banks and are slow to melt in the spring. Because of the ice, this area is poor fish habi­tat and wil­low growth is sparse along the riverbanks.

The road par­al­lels a some­what nar­row creek val­ley, mak­ing it easy to see water and shore­birds asso­ci­at­ed with flow­ing water as well as the wide vari­ety of song­birds, such as thrush­es, war­blers, and spar­rows that hang out in dense shrubs clus­tered at creek’s edge. Arc­tic grayling, and some­times pink salmon, are found here.

Min­ers worked this dredge up and down the Blue­stone Riv­er and Gold Run Creek in the ear­ly 1900s. Now it serves as a nest­ing and perch­ing site for com­mon raven.

Once a bustling min­ing camp and sup­ply cen­ter, Sul­li­van City sprang up down­riv­er from the dredge. Sev­er­al small-scale min­ing oper­a­tions con­tin­ue today. This is pri­vate­ly- owned prop­er­ty and tres­pass­ing is forbidden.

The Blue­stone Riv­er is unlike oth­er riv­er cross­ings along the Teller Road because it flows north­ward to Imu­ruk Basin rather than south to Nor­ton Sound. The riv­er is deeply incised as it cuts through steep moun­tains, cre­at­ing steep, rocky slopes and cliffs. Rough-legged hawk, gold­en eagle, gyr­fal­con, and com­mon raven may nest on near­by rock cliffs

At Teller the road returns to sea-lev­el where the envi­ron­ment is dom­i­nat­ed by marine waters. Look for spot­ted seals on calm days, their heads pop­ping up inquis­i­tive­ly at the tip of the spit. Pelag­ic cor­morant, pigeon guille­mot, horned puf­fin, com­mon eider, and black scot­ers are seen here.