16 – Cantwell to McCarthy – Phil and Carolynn's travel adventures

This blog is written off the back of a week that was mostly wet and cloudy. But the reality is you cannot do anything about the weather.

Snow on the north side of Mt McKinley aka Denali from the road south. Brr..

I thought that I’d become acclimated to rain, wind and cold having grown up in the Hudson Valley and then lived the last 30 some years in the UK. Recent summers in Scotland have been memorable for the gales and dampness, and I didn’t mind the weather there too much. However this experience in Alaska hadn’t prepared me or Carolynn for an August on an off year like this when winter looks to be coming early. For the best part of a week been it has rained, and not lightly. Until Denali that was manageable, but up in the National Park at Teklanika campground we were above 4k feet in altitude and the overnight temperature dips left snow at elevations not much above us.

The day we drove out of Teklanika, we woke to a perfect morning with sunshine. Sods law as they say. With more rain forecasted, we pivoted from our original plan of driving the unpaved, but scenic Denali Highway, to undertaking a drive from Cantwell to Glenallen via the longer route of the Parks and Glenn Highways. The ultimate destination was McCarthy and the famous Kennicott mine. The distance is over 450 miles but here in Alaska people always talk about time to travel rather than distance. We expected this to be about a nine hour drive but of course it turned out to be longer than that.

Overnight in Cantwell

Our stay at Cantwell RV Park was uneventful. The place was clean and well maintained and had a good laundry facility and showers. Important for some, like us amateur RVers but perhaps not for others. We chose Cantwell for the first night out of Denali because it gave us three options.

North to Fairbanks where it may have been only slightly warmer but then the distance back to Anchorage would have been much further. If the forecast was for continued rain we may have done this.
East along the old Denali Highway which might have given us peeks of the mountain tops through the low lying cloud but we would have missed the long valley vistas.
With the weather set to improve, not that it could have been much worse, we chose the safe option through Glenallen to Kennicott and McCarthy

From Cantwell to Glenallen

The weather improved after Wasilla so here are some pics from this part of the journey. The Glenn Highway has more of the jaw dropping vistas and views that we have come to expect from Alaska.

Off the cruise ship and onto a train. After a night in a hotel onto a bus. That’s how most people see Alaska.

Ranch House Lodge Roadhouse near Glenallen

Ranch House Lodge Roadhouse on the Glenn Highway 12 miles west of Glenallen is an absolute gem. Karen and Andy bought the place 14 years ago when it was completely neglected and have put their hearts and souls into turning it into an exceptional RV park. Why do I say exceptional? Well they have a bar made out of a single tree that’s now 70 years old and they boast the best chilli in Tolsana! We can’t vouch for that, not having tried it…..The electrics,septic field, concrete plinths and picnic tables are all new and built by Andy.

Carolynn with Andy the owner. Its rare to find an RV park with such a bar

The interior of the lodge is a time warp. They have done a great job preserving the history of the place and telling the stories of old Alaska. The pitch we had overlooked a lovely stream that offered good fishing and was far enough away from the road to not be disturbed by thundering lorries in the dead of night.

the sun re-appeared making for an idyllic setting for breakfast

Lots of old stuff from its days as a road house back in the 50s

Chitina – Almost a ghost town

The last stop before the 62 mile long road to McCarthy is Chitina which is a place that time has forgotten. All three of the largest buildings on Main Street were for sale. This place was proper creepy. When the Kennecot Copper Mine closed in 1938, and therefore the railroad that ran from the mine through Chitina to the port of Cordova stopped running, the town no longer had a purpose.

This is an ancient building looking at the joints on the corner. Totally unloved.

Hotel Chitina on the left with Spirit Mountain art gallery. those two along with the adjacent mercantile/emporium are all for sale. anyone want to own a town????

Although we saw ancient vehicles rusting away in a few towns Chitina wins the award for the most scrap

This moose came flying through the middle of Chitna as if the place wasn’t strange enough

Chitina to McCarthy – 60 miles of rough road

Note McCarthy sign has been shotgunned. Almost every road sign in remote areas of Alaska we visited had been blasted.

We did wonder what we were getting into….

We had several warnings about the road to McCarthy being 60 miles of rough nastiness. In the end it wasn’t so bad driving in, given the beast of a vehicle we are driving, although the funny thing about ‘washboard’ type erosion on roadways is that its much smoother at 45 miles and hour than it is at 25. Fortunately the road had been graded recently and there hadn’t been any heavy rain since. We did suffer a puncture on the way back out but let’s save that story for the next post.

Abandoned vehicle on the side of the road 15 miles outside of McCarthy sets the tone for this quirky place

Scary, ancient, single lane wooden plank bridge on the road between Chitina and McCarthy. Was originally the rail bridge.

The road is unpaved for 60 miles and suffers potholes, is not level in places due to permafrost and is dusty gravel, It takes about 2.5 hours to drive as top speed is about 25 mph and the ride is bone -jarring. Regardless, what it lacks in comfort it makes up for with its scenery.