Some places just never get old/boring and the Denali Highway is one of those ever changing yet timeless with endless views of the Alaska Range (from the Cantwell side all the way to Paxson) and some 50+ miles of views later the Exit Glacier and the Chugach Mountains (on the Paxton side). Of course, you can’t help but spend some time at Maddie’s favorite stop MP 94.5.
We left the rain in Cantwell and were blown away by the riot of autumn colors that greeted us. If Denali NP was a quiet symphony, Denali Highway was the brightness of Taylor Swift. Raspberry reds gave way to glistening golden yellow as we traversed this tundra rich landscape.
We had the good fortune to strike up a conversation with a more local Denali officianado, Bill from Wasilla, who came by our spectacular campsite at 94.5 scouting for Moose on his CanAm Quad. He noticed our blaze orange caps that Dan had procured to keep us from being mistaken for large game, and gave us background on hunting on the Denali Highway. His wife, Karen from Shishmaref, later joined us on her quad with the hope of troubleshooting her new Starlink set up. It was great to meet these warm and down to earth locals.
Maddie played hide and seek with the local Pica gang while I picked late blueberries and Dan lined up beautiful shots of the epic vistas.
We had a beautiful warm fall day as we headed east and enjoyed a couple of meandering hikes before leaving the wilds of Denali Highway behind.
