During the first week of September, we decided to take a trip to the state we’ve traveled to the least: Alaska. Alaska does not have counties. Instead, it has 30 boroughs and census areas. Only 14 of these 30 are reachable by car. Of those 14, only 9 are reasonably reachable by car. The other 5 require a crazy amount of driving. So, we used this trip to get the “easy” driving ones, which still took a lot of time.
We flew out on Tuesday, traveled all day, and arrived in
Anchorage late at night. As we touched down, we found ourselves in the
Anchorage Borough, our first county equivalent of the trip. We picked up our
2026 Chevy Trailblazer, checked into the Hyatt Place Anchorage-Midtown, and
went to sleep.
On Wednesday, we started our drive to Fairbanks. We drove
north out of Anchorage for about 40 minutes, until we crossed into the
Matanuska-Susitna Borough. We then got onto HWY 3 and drove another 3.5 hours
to Denali National Park. Along the way, we also crossed into the Denali
Borough. The park suffered a landslide five years previously, so bus tours only
travel to mile marker 43 until next season. The park road is open to the public
for only the first 15 miles. We drove as far as we could, took some pictures,
then continued on our way. We will return when the road reopens.
After leaving Denali, we kept driving north and eventually
crossed into the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. We went even farther, crossing into
the Fairbanks North Star Borough and, finally, the city of Fairbanks. We
stopped for dinner at the Thai House before retiring to our hotel, the Hyatt
Place Fairbanks.
On Thursday, we began the long drive back to Anchorage. The
main highway system through middle Alaska is basically a circle between
Anchorage and Fairbanks. This time we drove the other half of the circle.
Before leaving the Fairbanks area, we drove a little north to see the Alaskan
Pipeline. We were the only ones who stopped to visit at that time. Once we'd
had our fill, we headed east out of town and briefly stopped in North Pole to
take a few photos. We then continued driving east and south on HWY 2, thus
crossing into the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area. We drove all the way to
Delta Junction, where we stopped to pick up subs from Subway. From there, we
got on the Richardson Highway (HWY 4) and headed south. This part of the drive
periodically hugged the Alaskan Pipeline. It also gave us one of the most
spectacular drives we’ve ever taken. Pictures do not do it justice. We even saw
a bald eagle relaxing near the side of the road.
Continuing south on the highway, we crossed into the Copper
River Census Area before finally reaching HWY 1 again. But instead of turning
onto it to head back to Anchorage, we kept going, since we were only a few
miles from the entrance to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. We spent very
little time there, though, since there are virtually no paved roads once you
get to the visitors’ center. We walked around a bit and took in what we could.
After leaving the national park, we got back onto HWY 1 and
headed straight for Anchorage. After checking into our hotel, the Hyatt Place
Anchorage-Midtown, we walked across the street and had dinner at the Bear Paw
Bar and Grill. The fish was tasty!
We spent Friday hanging around our hotel before transferring
to our new hotel, The Wild Birch. On Saturday, we got up early and drove south
to Seward. In the process, we entered the Kenai Peninsula Borough. When we got
to Seward, we boarded the Orca for an all-day boat cruise into Kenai Fjords
National Park. We saw sea lions and porpoises, along with numerous birds and
jellyfish, but the highlight was the trip into the Northwestern Lagoon for very
close-up views of glaciers. They even fished a chunk of ice out of the water
and made me a margarita using it. When we got back to our car, we drove a
short distance to the park's welcome sign for a photo.
On Sunday, we drove to the city of Whittier, which is a
disembarking spot for cruise ships. The only way to reach the city by car is
through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, which cars and trains share.
Halfway through the tunnel is the border for the Chugach Census Area. Since it
was raining, we couldn't do much. So, after a brief drive through the small
town, we turned around, went back through the tunnel, and returned to our
hotel. That evening, we took a red-eye flight back home.
Our trip netted us nine new boroughs and census areas. As
mentioned above, we got the “easy” areas in Alaska. It’ll take a lot of return
trips to finish the state, but that’s what we’ll do. In fact, we’re coming back
for a cruise in May. In the meantime, we're heading to Missouri and Arkansas,
so stay tuned!
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