Driving from Anchorage to Fairbanks
When we visited Alaska in 1998, we rented a car and drove up from our landing spot in Anchorage to visit a friend in Fairbanks. Even though it was fall - September - we still hit a snowstorm crossing over the range in the middle!
We headed out around 10. The first section of the road was typical small town suburb - gas stations, small restaurants. And then, at the top of the Cook inlet, it all vanished. We were left with a one-lane road which led to Fairbanks through the east-west running Alaskan range. The medium mountains before this were breathtaking - in addition to the deep greens and bright yellows, now there were shorter, red brush to add more texture and color.
Along the side of the road in this front section we saw a bald eagle sitting on a tree, just watching a person who had stopped at the side of the road. Maybe wondering if she was tasty! Then a little ways on, a female moose contentedly munched on grass at the other side of the road. I thought I saw many "moose shrubs" in the distance, but I think I was mistaken. We continued onward, accompanied by a reading of Starship Troopers.
The road was hemmed in with the birch and spruce, so the mountains were hidden. Luckily tour season was pretty much over, so the terror of "stacks of RVs clogging the highway" never materialized. We got to see white swans and a light brown owl by various lakes. Several black and white magpies hopped around. The clouds gathered around the Alaskan range, so the closer we got, the cloudier the weather. They began to tower over us, and their tops were quite lost in the fog. Even what we could see of them was immense. We stopped for provisions (gatorade and crackers) at an igloo tourist trap, and were warned that the snow started in 10 miles. Denali makes its own weather. Mt McKinley, at 20,320 feet, is the highest mountain in the northern hemisphere.
Sure enough, the snow started. The Denali Highway was under snow, so we passed that by. We didn't want to attempt stopping at the park today - getting to Fairbanks would be enough of an adventure. A short way past the park entrance (with the surrounding resorts and campgrounds), the snow stopped and wilderness again surrounded us. The mountains fascinated us - some were merely patchworks of colors. Others were black and craggy, while yet others were snow-covered and fog-enshrouded. Eventually the hills eased off, back into a variety of textures and colors, dominated by dark green and bright yellow. Simply gorgeous.
Eventually near 6pm we rolled over a hill and, suddenly, into Fairbanks - a quiet, poor town with very rough edges. Houses were small, with small lots and apartment buildings. We wended our way into it, down a small side street where we found that, yes indeed, Sarah lived in a small log cabin on a 'typical street'!If you're going to make this drive, check what the weather will be beforehand, but be prepared for a change!
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