Week 8…Manley Hot Springs to Denali

In our effort to get away from the busy summer touristy places, we decided to drive back up the Elliott Highway to Manley Hot Springs. A friend had told us that there is a road that was just completed in 2016 called Tofty Road and it goes west all the way to the Yukon River. That sounded like something we should do.

We had driven part of the Elliott Highway on our way to the Dalton Highway a few weeks ago, so we knew what parts of the road were crappy. What we didn’t know was how crappy the road all the way to Manley Hot Springs was going to be. But at this point, we’ve been on so many crappy roads we are used to it. The Elliott Highway is 150 miles and is 50% paved and 50% gravel and connects Fox to Manley Hot Springs. Manley Hot Springs is a small town with a natural hot springs, near the Tanana River.

We got to Manley Hot Springs around 10:30pm. We knew there was camping available across the street from the Manley Roadhouse. It was basically the parking area for a boat launch and it didn’t fit many RVs. There was one spot left for us thankfully. We walked to the Roadhouse to pay the fee and there were a few people in the bar. We decided to have a beer and get some info on Tofty Road.

While enjoying our first beer, we chatted with the bartender and learned that the guy across the bar worked for DOT (and didn’t appreciate me telling him how crappy the road into town was) and the guy telling funny stories used to be a Haul Road trucker. Before we could get out of there, DOT guy rang the bell, which means he bought the whole bar a round! There was only 5 of us in the bar but still it was pretty cool of him. What we didn’t know was he was going to ring the bell 3 or 4 more times. At 2:30 we left with wooden tokens in our pockets, which guaranteed that we still got the drink he bought us when we came back. He wanted us to stay for shots. Thanks, but no, we were tired!

Saturday we packed up the Jeep and drove the Tofty Road. When you first turn on the road there is a sign that says Rough Road next 50 miles. It was pretty rough but a much easier drive in the Jeep. We went through a few creek crossings and even saw a big moose! We made our way all the way to the Yukon River which is the 5th time we’ve seen it on this journey. It is really wide at this point. There is nothing at the end of Tofty Road except a boat launch and a parking lot for the residents of Tanana, which is across the river. So after a few pictures, we turned around and headed back. We learned later that this road is the most West you can drive in the United States on continuous roads.

We got back to Manley and had a quick lunch and decided to catch up on sleep. Around 10:00 pm decided we should go back in the roadhouse and use our wooden token. This was a good and bad decision. It was good because we met many new friends. A trio of gold buyers from Nome, Alaska popped in and we hit it off. Nome is now on our list of places to visit although not during this trip. Hagen & Nick are land surveyors living up here until their road project is complete. Hagen is a talented artist and photographer and a licensed drone pilot. Because of him, I now want to become a licensed drone pilot. And Yolanda works in hospitality in Denali. She had so much great advice as well and we promised to catch up with her when we were in the area. The night consisted of more bell ringing by all, stories and laughter and the night slipped away from us. Eventually, Missy, our awesome bartender nicely told us to go home. This is where our bad decision-making came in, we didn’t realize it was 4:00 am.

Sunday morning we dragged ourselves out of bed and made our way back to Fairbanks. We grabbed a bite to eat and settled back at the Chena Recreation area in Fairbanks again. We weren’t in the mood for Wal-Mart and wanted to charge everything back up.

We were setting up camp and I had Gus out when a nice gentleman walked across the road to his trailer just two spots over. He stopped to say hi to Gus and a conversation began and eventually he wanted to have the conversation over a beer. He was an interesting fellow from British Columbia with cool stories. As we sat on the picnic table, exchanging stories, laughing and drinking all his Budweiser, his wife appeared as if from nowhere and said it’s almost 3 am, time for bed. Oops. When we got up at 10:30 the next morning, we found a note written on part of the Budweiser box from our new friend, thanking us for a fun night and to call him if we get to his neck of the woods. Hopefully we didn’t get him into too much trouble.

We were still moving pretty slow and content to keep it that way. We went to the Fountainhead Antique Auto museum which was fascinating. We got to see a collection of over 80 vehicles, including horseless carriages, steamers, electric cars, speedsters, cyclecars, midget racers and 30s classics. These include such rarities as an 1898 Hay Motor Vehicle, 1906 Compound, 1920 Argonne and 1921 Heine-Velox Victoria. Remarkably, all but a few of the automobiles are able to be driven. The cars are beautifully restored and time appropriate clothing were displayed all around. It was very interesting and educating to read all about the different kinds of vehicles. Craig of course loved the 1926 Fordson Snow motor. We saw a video of it actually working and it’s a pretty cool toy.

We ended up spending a fair amount of time in Fairbanks and areas north. We are really glad we took the time to go to some of the out-of-the-way places. It might not always be the easiest or most popular, but when you go places not many others go, you end up hearing and having unique stories.

We traveled south to Healy and stayed at a campground for two nights and then moved to the boondocking spot we wanted when it was available. Healy is just north of Denali National Park.

Wednesday was a nice clear day so we decided to drive the Denali Highway. The Denali Highway is 134 miles, it links Cantwell to Paxson and is 15% paved and 85% gravel. When it opened in 1957, it was the only road to the Denali National Park. As we drove East, we stopped at a turnout and looked back toward Cantwell and were able to see beautiful Denali. They say you can see it 1 out of every 3 days. We hope to see it a little better as we continue to travel south. On the highway, there are many little off shoots which look like ATV trails that Craig was dying to explore, but because we were doing a day trip in the Jeep, we opted to keep going and decide to stop on our way back if we had time, which we didn’t. The drive was beautiful! The Alaska Mountain range is spectacular and the tundra covered valleys were vast. We couldn’t get enough of the views on this road.

It was a long day but worth the drive. We wished we had taken the truck and camper and camped out for a few days. We got back to town and saw our friend Yolanda walking. She offered to set up a river rafting trip for us which we accepted happily. We continued to 49th State Brewing which was right down the road from our campsite. The bus from the movie Into the Wild is displayed outside of the brewery and you can go inside and read a timeline of Christopher McCandless’ time out there.

Thursday we cruised 15 miles into Denali National Park which is as far as you can drive without getting on a tour bus. We opted not to do that because even the shortest one would be too long to leave Gus. We were hoping for a better view of Denali but it wasn’t a clear day so no luck there. We walked a quick 2 mile loop trail at the Savage River. We were bummed to learn Gus isn’t allowed on any of the trails except the bike path which is no fun but he seemed happy to nap in the Jeep.

Yolanda had contacted us to let us know we were booked for the 6:30pm Canyon Run rafting trip at the friend and family rate she can get. Awesome! We showed up and because we were late additions, they asked if we would mind being on an oar raft instead of a paddle raft. This meant we would not have paddles in our hands and the guide would be doing all the work. We love to paddle but we appreciated them fitting us on any boat and we had a good time just the same.

It was a 2 hour river trip that begins at the entrance to Denali National Park and journeys 11 miles to Healy, AK on the Nenana River. Our guide was great and very informative. We learned a lot about the glacial formations and about the railroad that runs right alongside of it. Not sure we want to ride on that train after hearing how difficult it is to keep the tracks maintained when you have rock continually falling apart underneath. We did go over some class III rapids and enjoyed quizzing our guide. We wore full drysuits because the river is fed by glacial runoff and is 38 degrees. Our hands did get a little chilly but otherwise it was a great night to be on the river.

To thank Yolanda for setting up that cool trip, we met her at the local pizza place and chatted over pizza and beer. She’s traveled all over the country and it was fun to hear her stories. It was interesting to learn that Denali shuts down by September 20 and becomes a complete ghost town. Everything is winterized and there are only about 500 people that stay here year round.

Our next fun adventure is to drive the Stampede Road/Trail as far as we can. This is the trail that Christopher McCandless hiked when he came across the bus. We are not sure how far out we can actually drive. We were told only 8 miles but then there are Jeep tours that take you in farther. So of course we are going to find out for ourselves.

Off to Stampede Trail…