The Denali Highway

The next morning we set out for Denali National Park via the Denali Highway. They Denali Highway is 132 miles long, of which only the first 20 miles are paved. The rest is gravel road. The rental car agreement we signed said ABSOLUTLY, DO NOT drive your rental car on the Denali Highway, but we went for it! We picked up a little guide by mile marker book and spotted a myriad of geological formations. The area had been carved by many glaciers from the ice age, so it was very gravelly and all of the rivers contained glacial silt, which means no fish. Glacial silt rivers have a very chalky look. Some look a little blue, some a little gray and some like chocolate milk! It was so pretty and we saw so many gorgeous views. It took us about 6 hours to get from Black Rapids to Denali National Park. We didn’t see much wildlife besides swans, but we did cross the Continental Divide! We were sad they did not have it marked with a sign. It was so weird to see all of the rivers flowing North instead of South. We were very happy to be back on paved roads again!
Below are some photos from the Denali Highway:


Gorgeous Scenery!

Gorgeous

Some mountains and kettle ponds.

AJ going to check out a hiking trail. We were disappointed because
most trails along the Denali Highway were ATV only.

Looking for some swans!

All of this gravel is piled here from glacial movements.
The glaciers are so heavy, they grind all stones into gravel.

Nenana River- After passing the Continental Divide,
it was weird to see a river flowing North!

Nenana River Bridge

Checking out some volcano's.

Checking out some volcano's.

The view on the road!

Finally made it back to pavement!!