Alaska is a HUGE state (I know… thanks Captain Obvious!)! But for as massive as it is, there are relatively few paved/tended gravel roads. We’ve been doing our best this summer to try to drive them all and this past week we spent a few days traveling the Richardson Highway from Fairbanks to Valdez.
The first thing we learned about the Richardson Highway is that no one here calls it by its Route number (Alaska 4) – it’s the Richardson. All of the major roads have names in Alaska (The Dalton, The Top of the World, The Alaska, The Denali) and it has taken a while to get our heads around which road takes you to which place!
The second thing we have learned is that in Alaska, the term “highway” is relative – a “highway” can be 4-6 paved lanes headed North out of Anchorage, or it can be a single-wide gravel trail through the mountains depending on where you are headed.
The Richardson Highway was the first major road built in Alaska, and the Alaska Oil Pipeline runs adjacent to the highway all of the way from Fairbanks to Valdez.
Just outside of Fairbanks the highway passes through North Pole, Alaska… SANTA!!!!!
One thing you can always count on in Alaska is road construction…
But the scenery kind of makes up for it, don’t you think?
We are headed back out this weekend to check another highway off the list this weekend! Homer here we come!
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