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ABQ to Alaska an overland summer adventure of many miles, animals and unending daylight
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Overwhelming scenery. Overwhelming distances. Overwhelming daylight.
Overwhelming adventure.
That word — overwhelming — describes the more than 1,400-mile Alaska-Canadian Highway (ALCAN) that links Canada to the United States’ largest and second-newest member, Alaska. The highway acts as a gateway from the lower 48 to The Last Frontier.
To get from Albuquerque to Delta Junction, Alaska, the ALCAN’s ending point, one-way, is at least 3,446 miles.
Our overland adventure included Alaska highlights such as Denali National Park and Preserve, Fairbanks and Seward. The trip offered a lifetime of adventure, barely lived in 26 days and 25 nights. We took the trip backward on the Great Northern Circle road that follows the Stewart-Cassiar Highway farther west. This path, according to locals, is more wild and scenic. In late spring 2024, it was the only route we could take as wildfires led to evacuations in Fort Nelson, British Columbia.
In June, the daylight stretches from 3:45 a.m. until nearly midnight. The long days allow animals to thrive, plants to grow to giant proportions and, according to the National Park Service, change to take place at an accelerated rate.
Pointy tipped, snow-topped mountains fast fade into valleys as far as you can see, filled with rapidly flowing rivers. It wasn’t as expected, large stretches of treeless tundra as far as the eye could see. Instead, a new mountain greeted most every turn.
It easily required seven days to cover the distance from Albuquerque to Denali National Park and Preserve by campervan.
The ALCAN is a paved two-track: scattered potholes and gravel slow your pace to an average that’s never more than 62 mph — which is equal to the 100 kph speed limit that covers most of Canada. An old-timer at a campground said when he drove it, it was all gravel. Now, any vehicle can make the trip even without an extra spare.
After finding our passports, boarding our pets and vetting a van held together with duct tape, bailing wire and a prayer, we departed.
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Why Alaska, why now?
The average American born after 1962 tries to work until 67 now to receive full-share U.S. Social Security benefits, according to the Motley Fool financial site.
But should they?
Or should they step back from work, home and political pressures and take long adventures?
Financial experts and their answers differ, but they do agree on one thing: time, not money, is the only nonrenewable resource.
If you have turned 62, you are eligible for many discounts such as half-price campgrounds, and the $80 lifetime America the Beautiful National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass.
Discounts aren’t needed for some of the best sites along this route like one Downtown Fairbanks attraction — its museum and information center — “open year-round and always free.”
The last frontier
We found some connections to the lower 48 states: Houston, a town in Alaska not named after Sam Houston; the Dena’ina of the Northwest and their relationship to the Diné, or Navajo, in our native Southwest — and many of the staple American fast food joints that follows one anywhere in North America.
Walking in the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center in Fairbanks, a UNM, yes, University of New Mexico logo, jumped out from a wall. The cultural center featured dioramas showing interior Alaska’s people, including those who speak the Athabaskan language. This traveling exhibition was titled “Archaeology on Ice.”
A wallboard by UNM’s Maxwell Museum, located at the Morris Thompson Center, highlighted anthropological work done in connection with researchers in Alaska that tied the Diné with people who are still in Alaska.
At the Explore Fairbanks Visitor Center and in ranger-led talks at National Parks, connections to New Mexico and Southwest appeared. The word “Dena’ina” kept coming up in conversations and on wallboards. Displays highlight people that speak Athabaskan-root languages.
On the road again
Soon, back on the highway, more animals skirted the road.
Three bears. Four. A grizzly. Two porcupines, one dead. Caribou, elk, two moose. A fox. An eagle.
No wolves.
It’s overwhelming to keep count of the animals, but in the vastness of Alaska the count goes slowly.
The wilderness all around lacks the abundance of a packed-in park like Yellowstone. The tundra wasn’t the endless, treeless area we were expecting.
As the ranger at the Denali visitor center said: “We can’t guarantee you’ll see anything.”
This epic 26-day (more or less) saga, fueled by wanderlust, delivered unforgettable landscapes and wildlife encounters. It was a bucket list adventure, fortuitously taken when Canadians still loved Americans and our dollars.
You can’t put a tariff on adventure.
ABQ to Alaska: Animals
ABQ to Alaska: the Roads
ABQ to Alaska: Unreal scenery you can see from the road
This is the first in a quarterly bucket list adventure series published in Journal Outside. Share your adventure. Share your bucket list trip to outside@abqjournal.com
