July 23 - Day 18 - Part I - Denali Highway, Tangle Lakes

Today we woke to sunshine in the McClaren River Valley with sunrise views of McClaren Glacier and surrounding show-covered peaks. The road out of the valley led us steeply up the valley wall to McClaren Summit, elevation 4086'.

The views of the valley were indescribably beautiful. Again, no photos can do them justice -- the valley is just too wide and long to capture with anything less than video, and even then, I don't think it would be close to reality.

We drove through one pass after another, and around hairpin turns, each one revealing another wonderful vista. It was hard to take it all in, even though we were only traveling at 15 or 20 mph, due to the rough road and the steep grades.

Everywhere we looked were tundra ponds, braided rivers, glacial streams, tumbling waterfalls, jagged peaks, and massive mountains. The roadsides were filled with bright pink and purple fireweed, golden alpine arnica, and indigo monkshood. The cliffs and ledges glowed in the morning sun with golds, russets, grays, greens and every other color imaginable.

Near the end of the Denali Highway is the Tangle Lakes area. Again - impossible to describe the beauty of this place. When we passed through, the water in the several lakes was calm and blue, and the reflections of the mountains were mirror-like.

After we climbed one more long rise through tundra covered hills, we descended through a long valley with views of glacier-clad mountains (I couldn't figure out which ones - there are just too many!), we finally came to Paxson and the end of the Denali Highway.

Our guidebook for traveling throughout Alaska has been the Milepost Magazine. It said that the scenery of the Denali Highway rivals that of Denali National Park. After seeing both, I would have to agree. We didn't see the variety of wildlife we hoped for - no bears, wolves or foxes - but the terrain is just as beautiful.

At Paxson, we turned south on the Richardson Highway, headed for Valdez. Lots of gorgeous scenery along the way. I will cover Valdez in Day 18, Part II.

Later!