Interior Alaska

The vast interior, home to North America's highest peak, Denali, and the Fairbanks aurora, where tundra, river valleys and wilderness highways make up Alaska's most typical continental landscape.

Scope: This plan uses the "Interior" region of the Alaska tourism office's five regions, whose administrative units are the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the Denali Borough and the unorganized area. The unorganized area spans the whole state with no sub-units, so under the largest-area rule it is assigned to this region as a whole. As a result, the data here also includes areas such as Yukon–Koyukuk and the Copper River region, as well as places not yet separately classified, such as Nome, Valdez and the western Aleutian Islands; Glacier Bay is the exception, reassigned to the Southeast. Highlights: Denali National Park is known for North America's highest peak, at 6,190 m, and for wildlife such as grizzly bears, moose and caribou; most visitors go deep into the park by park bus, and on clear days you can see Denali in the distance. Fairbanks lies under the auroral oval, where the aurora appears frequently in winter, with Chena Hot Springs, the University of Alaska Museum of the North and gold-rush-era mining relics nearby. In the southeast, Wrangell–St. Elias is the largest national park in the US, and the McCarthy Road leads to the Kennecott copper mine ruins; the Dalton Highway heads north from here across the Arctic Circle. Things to do: The Anchorage–Denali–Fairbanks route takes about 5–7 days; a winter aurora trip to Fairbanks is typically 3–5 nights. Getting there: Fairbanks International Airport is the gateway, the Alaska Railroad connects Anchorage, Denali and Fairbanks in summer, and the Parks Highway and Richardson Highway are the main driving routes. Notes: Distances in the interior are huge and services scarce; winter driving requires winter tires and cold-weather gear, and in summer mosquitoes are plentiful, so bring insect repellent.

Destinations

Itineraries