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Alaska Highways

Alaska Highway Map Parks Highway Glenn Highway Slana Tok Cutoff Richardson Highway Alcan Highway Seward Highway

I love our highways. They give us access to portions of this wild and beautiful land. They’ve got mountain passes (my personal favorites!) and scenery galore. No “treadmill driving” (where you can’t be sure you’re advancing because the scenery never changes) and very little “green tunnel” (mile after mile where all you see is tree-lined roadway).

Unlike many places in the U.S., Alaska is not crisscrossed with highways -- we’ve only got about a dozen. We call them by name, like the friends that they are. Someone in the Department of Highways has numbered them, but you won’t see a lot of highway number road signs. Navigation is simple, because there’s generally only one route from any Point A to any Point B. So come along for a tour, and I’ll introduce you to my friends.

What to Expect

I’m old enough to remember when the Alcan (Alaska-Canada) Highway had 1,500 miles of unpaved road and was enough of an adventure that most people who drove it proudly displayed an “I Drove the Alcan Highway” bumper sticker to advertise the accomplishment. Things are a lot more civilized on most of Alaska’s highways nowadays.

The main highways have been upgraded to gentle curves you don’t have to slow down for and nice wide shoulders, but we still have some older sections with narrow shoulders, steep hills, and tight curves. We have many miles of highway that are unpaved. Slower speeds are prudent on these roads to avoid flat tires and ditch diving. It’s pretty easy to skate right off the road on a washboard curve. Plan on averaging 20 mph -- you do want to enjoy the scenery, don’t you?

Alaska’s climate is hard on highways, so you’ll notice more bumps. Potholes can appear like magic, especially during spring thaws. Then there’s our north country specialty: the frost heave. Like the soda can that explodes when forgotten in the freezer, moisture in the ground expands as it freezes and buckles the road surface. Sometimes you may feel you’ve taken a detour on a roller coaster.

That said, if you’ve got a decent vehicle and normal driving skills, you should feel fairly comfortable driving most of Alaska’s highways. What may make you uncomfortable is the lack of services:

  • While the coverage improves every year, cell phone service is still hit or miss, particularly away from populated areas and in rugged terrain (which is most of Alaska!). Don’t count on being able to use your phone.
  • Gas stations and restaurants may be farther apart than you’re accustomed to. Watch your gas gauge, know where you can fill up next, and don’t cut it too close.
  • Likewise for food, though your stomach can probably manage for a while unlike your car’s engine.

If you do have trouble on the road, there are usually helpful drivers who will stop to assist.

RVs

Driving Alaska’s highways in an RV is a great way to see the country. As long as your vehicle is capable of climbing hills, you shouldn’t have any trouble on our main highways. I personally have driven a motorhome or towed a travel trailer over all the main highways.

However, you’ll need to do some soul searching before taking an RV on one of the wild highways. The main issue is the beating it will inflict on your RV. I drove my travel trailer across the Denali Highway, and while it was loads of fun, I found the furnace cover and three screws on the floor when we stopped. I never did figure out where one of those screws came from. If the weather’s dry, dust will get into every opening. If it’s wet, your RV will be covered with mud. Other cars may throw rocks at you. Only you can decide if RVing on the wild highways is for you.

Mileposts

Most Alaskan highways have mileposts, metal signs in the ditch with a number telling you how many miles you are from Mile 0, the start of the highway. Since there aren’t a lot of towns, the mileposts help you keep track of where you are and -- if you know the milepost of your destination -- how far you have left to travel.

When I’ve driven highways Outside (Alaskan word meaning outside of Alaska), I used a map to navigate. Maps show the intersecting network of highways and where cities and towns are located. In Alaska, these features are so few and far between that maps are not that useful.

By far the most helpful tool is a publication called The Milepost. Every highway is listed with mile by mile descriptions. So if you need to pull over, The Milepost will tell you there’s a double-ended gravel pull out at mile 86. You can also read interesting historical information. Even though I have driven most Alaskan Highways many times, I buy a new edition of The Milepost every few years and bring it along for road trips.

Our Cast of Characters (The Highways)

Our highways fall into three categories:

  • The main, paved highways connect larger population centers.
  • The wild, unpaved highways through the areas of low population.
  • Back country roads that missed out on the official highway designation.

I'm going to tell you about the first two categories.

Main Highways

Sterling and Seward Highways

The Sterling and Seward Highways connect the Kenai Peninsula to Anchorage. The Sterling Highway goes down the west side of the peninsula through Sterling, Soldotna - Kenai, Clam Gulch, Ninilchik, Anchor Point, and Homer. The Seward Highway goes down the east side of the peninsula through Girdwood, Turnagain Pass, Moose Pass, and Seward.

Parks Highway

The Parks Highway connects Fairbanks and Anchorage, passing through Wasilla, Huston, Willow, Trapper Creek, Denali State Park, Broad Pass, Cantwell, Denali National Park, Windy Pass, Healy, and Nenana.

Richardson Highway

The Richardson Highway connects Valdez and Fairbanks, passing through North Pole, Salcha, Big Delta, Isabel Pass, Paxon, Gakona, Glennallen, and Thompson Pass.

Glenn Highway

The Glenn Highway connects Anchorage to the Richardson Highway and Glennallen, passing through Palmer, Sutton, Sheep Mountain Pass, Eureka Summit, and Nelchina.

Slana-Tok Cutoff

The Slana-Tok cutoff connects the Richardson Highway to the Alcan Highway and Tok, passing through Slana and Mentasta.

Alcan Highway (also called the Alaska Highway)

The Alcan Highway connects Fairbanks to Canada. It runs with the Richardson to Big Delta, then goes east to Tok and the border.

Wild Highways

Denali Highway

The Denali Highway runs from Paxon on the Richardson Highway to Cantwell on the Parks Highway and was formerly the only way to drive into Denali National Park. Maclaren Summit, about 39 miles in from Paxon, is the second highest highway pass in Alaska at 4,086’.

Steese Highway

The Steese Highway runs north from Fairbanks to Circle on the Yukon River. At Central, a side road goes to Circle Hot Springs.

Elliot Highway

The Elliot Highway takes off the Steese Highway just out of Fairbanks and goes to Manley Hot Springs on the Tanana River.

Dalton Highway

The Dalton Highway takes off the Elliot Highway and goes to Deadhorse on the Arctic Ocean. The Dalton was built to serve the oil fields on the North Slope (Alaskan for the area north of the Brooks Range) and the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Known as the “Haul Road,” this was a private road for years but later opened to the public. This is the longest and most northerly highway in Alaska.

Taylor Highway

The Taylor Highway takes off the Alcan betwee Tok and the border. It goes north to Eagle on the Yukon River.

Top of the World Highway

The Top of the World or Yukon highway takes off the Taylor Highway and crosses the border to Dawson City in Canada.