Valdez to Fairbanks (Richardson Highway)

The muse­um por­trays the com­mu­ni­ty’s unique and col­or­ful his­to­ry from Euro­pean explo­ration in the 1700s to con­tem­po­rary oil trans­porta­tion. Per­ma­nent exhibits are accent­ed by tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions of arts and crafts. Major arti­facts include a 19^th cen­tu­ry Fres­nel Light­house Lens, a beau­ti­ful­ly restored 1907 Ahrens ​“Con­ti­nen­tal” steam fire engine and a com­pan­ion 1880s Glea­son & Bai­ley hand-pumped fire engine, salt­wa­ter aquar­i­ums with the…  ...more

This fam­i­ly-run com­pa­ny oper­at­ing out of Valdez will show you the best glac­i­ers, with great cus­tomer ser­vice along the way. On any giv­en day trip you’ll like­ly see huge rafts of sea otters, horned and tuft­ed puffins, cor­morants, hump­back whales, or even bald eagles. Stan Stephens offers two dai­ly tours, one of which fea­tures Colum­bia Glac­i­er, the largest tide­wa­ter glac­i­er in South­cen­tral Alaska.

Oper­at­ed by the U.S. For­est Ser­vice and open only in sum­mer­time, it’s staffed by guides who can help you under­stand the area. There’s also a stream that runs thick with pink and chum salmon when they return each sum­mer to spawn. Thanks to a foot­bridge over the stream and the clear Alaskan water, it’s easy to see the fish. (The best view­ing is from mid-July through Octo­ber.) You may also see black bears, who come to feast on the fish.

This was the orig­i­nal port and city of Valdez. The city was moved to its cur­rent loca­tion 4 miles down the road after it was dev­as­tat­ed by the 1964 Good Fri­day Earthquake.

If you’ve yet to set eyes on an ice­berg, this is your chance: Gor­geous Valdez Glac­i­er Lake is often home to large chunks of float­ing ice that have calved off from the Valdez Glac­i­er. Appre­ci­ate the chunks of ice from shore, or join a guid­ed kayak expe­di­tion to pad­dle around the ice

This pic­turesque fall is fed by snow and ice melt and emp­ties into the Lowe Riv­er after flow­ing under the road. There is a road­side pull­out next to the water­fall that pro­vides easy view­ing of the falls.

Bridal Veil Falls and the Valdez Goat Trail: This two-mile-long hike is a restored sec­tion of the Trans-Alas­ka Mil­i­tary Pack-train Trail that was the first glac­i­er-free route from Valdez to the inte­ri­or of Alas­ka. There’s a fan­tas­tic over­look about a mile down the trail.

Alpine tun­dra often brings unim­ped­ed views, easy walk­ing, and an inde­scrib­able light­ness of being. It also usu­al­ly requires sev­er­al hours of hik­ing to reach. But what if you could skip the exhaust­ing hike and just dri­ve there? The Thomp­son Pass is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty, rain or shine, to take advan­tage of easy access to this spe­cial envi­ron­ment — make the time for a stop. There are spots to pull over on either side of the road-cut that marks the…  ...more

This one cab­in is all that’s left of the old Tiekal Moun­tain Road­house (not to be con­fused with the Tiekal Lodge a few miles north.)

Pump Sta­tion No. 12. This is the last of 11 pump sta­tions locat­ed along the Trans-Alas­ka Pipeline. There is no Pump Sta­tion No. 11. Only 6 pump sta­tions are used to move oil today. These pumps move the oil through the 800 mile-long pipeline from Prud­hoe Bay to Valdez. Most sta­tions have three gas-tur­bine-dri­ven main­line pumps. Each pump can move 22,000 gal­lons of oil a minute, that’s 754,000 bar­rels a day.

The moun­tain range you see at this point is over 50 miles away. Mt. Drum (12,010 ft.) is the near­est peak; Mt. Wrangell (14,163 ft.) is a semi-active vol­cano to the east; Mt. San­ford (16,237 ft.) is part­ly hid­den and Mt. Black­burn (16,390 ft) is the tallest of the four major peaks. The Wrangell Range is over 5,000 square miles, and has 12 peaks above 10,000 ft. This is a great pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty on a clear day, the moun­tain range reflects off…  ...more

Trav­el­ing the Richard­son High­way south of Glen­nallen, you will pass Wil­low Lake with spec­tac­u­lar views of the lake and the Wrangell Moun­tain vol­ca­noes in the dis­tance. Read about how ancient Lake Atna once filled the area you’re dri­ving through and shaped the Cop­per Riv­er valley.

His­toric Cop­per Cen­ter is one of the old­est non-native com­mu­ni­ties in Alaska’s Inte­ri­or. Found­ed as a gov­ern­ment agri­cul­tur­al exper­i­men­tal sta­tion, it lat­er served as a trans­porta­tion cen­ter for gold rush prospec­tors. Also find the inter­pre­tive sign where you’ll learn about the local fish species that make their home in dif­fer­ent habi­tat nich­es of Cop­per Riv­er water­shed creeks and rivers.

This inti­mate, 85-room lodge with amaz­ing views is the per­fect place to stay on the way to Amer­i­ca’s largest nation­al park, Wrangell-St. Elias. Look out your win­dow to the junc­tion of the Kluti­na and Cop­per Rivers, 200 acres of wilder­ness, and the park’s awe-inspir­ing mountains.

Just out­side Glen­nallen you’ll find some great views of the Cop­per Riv­er and the Wrangell Moun­tains, as well as the chance to take some pho­tos that don’t include any roads or build­ings. Mt. Drum will be straight in front of you, with Mt. San­ford on the left side, and Mt. Wrangell— a mas­sive shield vol­cano — on the right. Cloud cov­er is the only way you’ll miss this dra­mat­ic scene. And these moun­tains are def­i­nite­ly dra­mat­ic. The western…  ...more

It’s dis­ori­ent­ing to dri­ve through mile after mile of wilder­ness only to sud­den­ly arrive in a small town. You might ask, ​“Why in the world would any­one live out here?“Glennallen may seem like it’s in the mid­dle of nowhere, but its ori­gins make sense. And about 500 peo­ple call it home. They work in sev­er­al indus­tries, main­ly tourism, gov­ern­ment ser­vices, edu­ca­tion, and health­care. There are also a few small farms in the area.

Year-round air ser­vice from Glen­nallen, Alas­ka. Short on time? Check Alaska’s largest nation­al park off your list with a flight­see­ing tour that includes a land­ing in the wilder­ness of the park. Trav­el­ing to McCarthy / Ken­ni­cott? Trav­el like the locals and hop on a mail plane flight. See how back­coun­try mail is deliv­ered and enjoy speedy trans­porta­tion to McCarthy. Or, opt for their sched­uled air ser­vice. Both have depar­tures from Anchor­age and  ...more

Set at the end of the Alas­ka High­way in Delta Junc­tion, the Tro­phy Lodge is the per­fect place to stay if you’re dri­ving between Alas­ka and Cana­da. Since it’s the only place in town that’s a hotel, restau­rant, and bar all in one, Tro­phy Lodge is ide­al for relax­ing after a long day on the road, offer­ing val­ue and com­fort in addi­tion to convenience.

Look for the old out­build­ings of the Sour­dough Road­house on the banks of Sour­dough creek.

BLM camp­ground at mile 175 of the Richard­son Hwy. Lake fish­ing avail­able for rain­bow trout, grayling, bur­bot and whitefish. 

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.

This high­way is named for the for­mer Alas­ka road com­mis­sion direc­tor, Cap­tain Wilds P. Richard­son. In 1903 Richard­son pre­sent­ed the need for Alas­ka roads. He impressed Con­gress with his knowl­edge of Alas­ka and his abil­i­ties as an engi­neer. The mon­u­ment here hon­ors Richard­son’s con­tri­bu­tion as the Alaska’s first great road builder.

Dall sheep are easy to see on this post­card-wor­thy ridge that par­al­lels the Richard­son High­way about 150 miles south of Fair­banks. With bands of rust-col­ored rock alter­nat­ing with talus fin­gers and tun­dra, the ter­rain is almost per­fect for show­ing off the white dots of graz­ing sheep.

Denali Fault/​Pipeline view. Notice how the Trans-Alas­ka Pipeline is built in a zigzag pat­tern? This allows the pipeline to expand and con­tract due to extreme tem­per­a­ture change or earth­quakes. The pipeline has an earth­quake detec­tion sys­tem that mea­sures ground move­ment. Com­put­ers can iden­ti­fy areas that should be checked after a large earthquake.

Just 2.5 Hours from Fair­banks on the Richard­son High­way, The Lodge at Black Rapids is an undis­cov­ered gem.The peaks of the Alas­ka Range, trout-filled lakes, swift rivers, and alpine tun­dra sur­round the lodge, which is named for the Black Rapids glac­i­er. The own­ers built the Lodge over near­ly 10 years, design­ing it to fit into the land­scape. There are six rooms in addi­tion to the bunkhouse, with queen beds and pri­vate baths. Large windows  ...more

Set at the end of the Alas­ka High­way in Delta Junc­tion, the Tro­phy Lodge is the per­fect place to stay if you’re dri­ving between Alas­ka and Cana­da. Since it’s the only place in town that’s a hotel, restau­rant, and bar all in one, Tro­phy Lodge is ide­al for relax­ing after a long day on the road, offer­ing val­ue and com­fort in addi­tion to convenience.

This is one of the states most scenic camp­grounds offer­ing views of some of the tallest peaks in the Alas­ka Range. Twelve camp­sites are sit­u­at­ed along a loop road; the grounds are equipped with water, toi­lets, fire pits and hik­ing trail. The Delta bison herd can often be seen from the camp­ground and near­by viewpoints. 

The Sul­li­van Road­house His­tor­i­cal Muse­um is housed in the old­est road­house in the inte­ri­or of Alas­ka and is locat­ed in the heart of Delta Junc­tion at the End of the Alas­ka High­way. Built in 1905 by John and Flo­rence Sul­li­van, the log lodge now hous­es a muse­um that focus­es on the Valdez-Fair­banks Trail and the road­hous­es that oper­at­ed along its route. Beau­ti­ful­ly recre­at­ed rooms, as well as inter­pre­tive exhibits give our vis­i­tors a real feel…  ...more

Expe­ri­ence the thrill of flight­see­ing in areas that most tours can’t reach. Go with Gold­en Eagle Out­fit­ters and enjoy ful­ly cus­tomized flight­see­ing tours from Kotze­bue or Delta Junc­tion — or take advan­tage of their air-taxi drop-off and pick­up ser­vice to access some of the most beau­ti­ful and remote parts of Alaska.

Home of the Delta His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety Muse­um, Rika’s Road­house at Big Delta State His­tor­i­cal Park is in a ten-acre state park on the shores of the Tanana Riv­er. The Valdez-to-Fair­banks Trail ran through here and con­tin­ued across the riv­er, aid­ed by a fer­ry. The road­house was built to accom­mo­date the trav­el­ers and is a Nation­al His­toric Site. The muse­um is a sep­a­rate build­ing behind the road­house and has dis­plays of arti­facts from the Alaskan  ...more

Pop­u­lar camp­ing, fish­ing, and out­door recre­ation spot just an hour south of Fair­banks along the Richard­son High­way. There are 19 camp­sites and 5 walk-in sites. In sum­mer, the area is pop­u­lar with boaters, fish­er­men, and jet-skiers / water skiers. The lake is stocked with Rain­bow trout, grayling, and Arc­tic char, as well as salmon. It’s also a pop­u­lar ice fish­ing spot in win­ter. You can even reserve an ice fish­ing hut!

Pop­u­lar fish­ing and camp­ing spot halfway between Fair­banks and Delta Junc­tion (about an hour in either direc­tion). There’s a boat launch, and fish­er­man can fish for trout, arc­tic char, and burbot.

Take a break here, and you’ll be reward­ed with an amaz­ing panoram­ic view of the Delta Riv­er, the Alas­ka Range, and if you’re sharp eyed, moose and bear and cari­bou and buf­fa­lo down on the riverbed.

It’s Christ­mas year-round in North Pole, Alas­ka at the San­ta Claus House, just 20 min­utes from Fair­banks. The San­ta Claus House is a fron­tier gen­er­al store and post office turned hol­i­day shop. The postal tra­di­tion lives on — offi­cial let­ters from San­ta are post­marked from the North Pole and stamped with an offi­cial San­ta seal. The store also has live rein­deer, a cof­fee shop, hol­i­day gift items, the world’s largest San­ta stat­ue and, in summer  ...more

If you’re a camper, you’re famil­iar with the famous KOA brand. And the Fairbanks/​Chena Riv­er KOA — America’s north­ern­most KOA camp­ground — offers a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to camp along the shim­mer­ing Chena Riv­er, sur­round­ed by the lush Alaskan land­scape. Choose from 150 full hookup RV sites and 4 tent sites.

Alaska’s road to mod­ern­iza­tion a cen­tu­ry ago was a dra­mat­ic jour­ney, and the Foun­tain­head Antique Auto Muse­um explores that jour­ney in fun, vivid detail. On the grounds of Wedge­wood Resort — a mem­ber of the city’s pre­mier, local­ly owned hotel group — the muse­um show­cas­es dozens of his­tor­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant pre-World War II auto­mo­biles, and offers vis­i­tors a trip back to Alaska’s rugged and excit­ing for­ma­tive years.