Day 13 • Denali Highway to Hatcher Pass Road • 296 mi

The Denali Highway is the KLR650's natural habitat. It's a fast, hard-packed dirt road with small sections of gravel and larger stones. There's just enough nasty potholes to trip up larger predators like the R1200GS, but the KLR slips through with ease.

If the Denali Highway is the KLR's natural habitat, though, gas and oil are its prey. I'm adding a little oil just about every day.

My newfound friends were all on enormous adventure bikes: 2 R1200GS, a KTM 990, and a Triumph Tiger.

The real danger of the Denali Highway, though, is the scenery: if you keep looking up, you'll miss the road. And the road is very important.

Kinda worth a few surprise potholes, though.

The Denali was probably my favorite highway so far—fantastic scenery for miles, good conditions (if a but dusty), and low traffic. It's about 110 miles of dirt from our campsite to Cantwell on the Parks Highway.

My helmet cam, now that I've figured it out, is capturing a few thousand images per day. It's absolutely indispensable for high-mileage days. Stopping around every bend is murder on your average speed.

Even with it, though, I can't show you all everything that's out here—it's simply too big, too much to capture in a trip or even a lifetime. You could spend weeks photographing just a single day's ride.

Plus, remember the old adage: aviate, navigate, communicate, photographate. I can control the helmet cam somewhat, but it comes second to riding the road.

Once we hit Cantwell, I had to make a decision: retrace my steps back over Denali and catch the official start of the Alaska-Canada highway in Delta Junction, or head south down the Parks Highway to catch the Glen Highway to Tok. I've heard great things about the Glen and terrible things about the Delta->Tok stretch, so let's head south and put some miles on.

I left my newfound companions in Willow. As they headed south to Anchorage, I turned off to explore the Hatcher Pass Road.

See the roads you're missing?

I'm camped a few miles east of the pass itself, near an absolutely beautiful stream. I'll try to grab some better pictures of it tomorrow. Until then, wish you were here.

Mileage: 296 mi
Trip mileage: 1,818 mi