Exceeding Expectations on the Denali Highway

 

Post by Corrine

“Hope you brought your sunglasses!”

Erica’s text got us excited. Eric, Nikki, and I were driving south out of Delta Junction heading toward Paxson. Above us the skies were cloudy. And the forecast for the Denali Highway, our destination, had been for clouds today and partly cloudy the rest of the weekend. Not horrible but not great. Sunny skies would be amazing and better than what we expected for our weekend trip. 

And that describes our whole weekend. Our expectations were exceeded over and over. 

Summer Highway, Winter Trail

The Denali Highway isn’t plowed in the winter but is used by mushers and snowmachiners and occasionally fatbikers and skiers as a wide and long trail. It stretches 135 miles from Paxson on the Richardson Highway to Cantwell on the Parks Highway (though the Cantwell side is plowed a few miles in). For years, a couple of lodges, Alpine Creek Lodge and Maclaren River Lodge, have been open in winter. But to stay at those lodges requires either a 40-mile trip from Paxson or a 60-mile trip from Cantwell. Those distances are fine for snowmachiners or dog mushers, but that’s a long way for most human-powered modes of transportation. 

A few months ago, I saw on Facebook that the Tangle Lakes Lodge on the east end of the highway would be open this spring. It is just 22 miles in from Paxson, a reasonable distance to ski or fat bike in a day. Add in that the locals have started grooming the road regularly, and I was ready to book a cabin. Eric and I had done a day ride up the Jack River on the western end of the highway a few years ago. It had been a gorgeous, fun day. Ever since then I’ve wanted to do another spring Denali Highway trip. And what better way to celebrate my March retirement. After checking with Eric, who was game, I made a reservation for two nights.

This would not be like most cabin trips that we have done. The Tangle Lakes Lodge is a full-service lodge. The cabins it has are dry (no running water), but each has electricity and propane heat and wi-fi. There are heated bathrooms with flush toilets and showers just a short walk away. So, like on our cabin trips, you still must walk to the bathrooms, but instead of freezing your butt out there, you get a nice warm break. And no need to bring sleeping bags, stoves, or even much food. Or cut firewood. Or heat up cold cabins. Or melt snow for water. This is definite glamping! And all at a decent price.

We decided to ask our friend Nikki and her husband Mike if they wanted to join us. Mike had a work trip so was unable to get away, but Nikki was all in. And she asked another of our friends, Erica, who also wanted to come along. Eric, Nikki, and I were planning to fatbike. Erica had already fatbiked the entire Denali Highway in the past (which ended up finishing in a harrowing blizzard), so she decided to ski in this time instead. Knowing skiing would be slower, Erica left Fairbanks about an hour earlier than we did. That’s why she knew it was sunny down on the Denali Highway and texted us the good news.

Glamping Accommodations at a Reasonable Distance

Tangle Lakes Lodge exceeded our expectations. The owners, Dave and Tawnia, along with their son, Trek, are gracious hosts willing to do whatever it takes for your stay to be a success. They live in Delta Junction and bought the lodge in 2022. For the first couple of years, they were open only when the road was plowed (usually mid-May through late September). This year they were expanding to spring and had just opened the week before our trip. Next year they plan to open around Valentine's Day.

Dave, Tawnia, and their son Trek

Tangle Lakes Lodge has two cabins, each with one double and two twin beds, a duplex with each side sleeping 6, and a bunkhouse with eight private rooms that can each sleep two. All the rooms are dry, but they have shared bathrooms and showers in a separate building. 

Our cozy cabin that sleeps four

The lodge serves meals from 8 AM to 7 PM. All our meals were tasty with plenty of food (in fact, we ended up overeating more than once!) And they will even try to accommodate special requests, such as the wonderful chocolate cake that Nikki and Erica had made for me to celebrate my retirement! (Dave and Tawnia try to accommodate other special requests, too. You can talk to them about getting gear hauled or even figuring out some sort of shuttle service. And they will try to accommodate special diets if they can.)

The amazing chocolate cherry cake that Tawnia made for me to celebrate retirement

It was such a delight to have a warm cabin and flush toilets. We were happy to see outlets in our cabin to be able to charge up all our electronics, too. And wi-fi so we could update Strava and send photos to envious friends and family! I could get used to being spoiled like this! 

Exceedingly Good Weather

As for the weather, you never know on the Denali Highway. It can be windy with blowing snow. But as our reservation dates got closer, the forecast continued to be good. Cloudy to partly sunny with highs in the mid 20s Fahrenheit and winds up to just 10 mph. Just an inch or so of new snow was forecast. That would slow things a little on our bikes, but not much. Really it couldn’t be any better. 

We catch up to Erica who started an hour before us

But it was! We had three days of sunny skies and spectacular views. We had almost no wind except when Nikki and I biked up to MacLaren Summit on day two. It was cloudy up there, too, but as soon as we dropped down from the high point we were out of the wind and back into the sun. At the lodge, the temps were below zero at night, but once the sun came up, the temperature warmed to the mid 20s each day and felt even warmer. I biked in my light windbreaker most of the time and often had my bare hands outside of my pogies. Perfect spring conditions in the interior. The weather far exceeded any expectations we may have had. We definitely timed this trip right!

We biked a lot of the time with bare hands outside our pogies

Good to Awesomely Good Trail

As for the trail, we knew it might be slow-going if there was snow, wind or lots of snowmachines with paddle tracks. But we knew it was only 22 miles, and we had hours of daylight to get there. We checked the Denali Highway Trail Club Facebook page and saw that the locals were grooming with a PistenBully at least once a week and had groomed a couple of days before our trip. 

When we started, the trail was a little soft due to all the snowmachine traffic, but it was better than I thought it might be. We kept weaving back and forth across the road, finding the best line (usually near the shoulder where the snowmachiners had traveled less or not at all). Sometimes it was hard work and in places a little squirrelly, but we never had to air down our tires. Eric loves challenging conditions like this; me, not so much. I don’t like to concentrate on the trail all the time, I enjoy looking around and daydreaming instead. Overall, the trail was fine. I really didn’t have any complaints.

Better biking and skiing along the edge of the road where the snowmachiners hadn't been

But I was happy to hear that Dave planned to groom from Maclaren River Lodge to Paxson on our second day there. Nikki and I had already decided to head further west on the road towards MacLaren Summit for a 30-mile day, but we weren’t sure we would make it that far. It would depend on the trail and how our legs felt. As we started out, conditions were similar to the previous day with a mostly decent trail, soft in spots, chunky in other spots and weaving over the road to find the best line. But about 10 miles into our ride, I looked up to see Dave driving the PistenBully toward us. Hooray! At least, I hoped hooray. I wasn’t sure if the trail would be too soft right after being groomed. I tentatively got back on my bike after the groomer passed and was delighted to find the trail firm and smooth. So much easier to ride! Nikki and I were able to make it all the way to the summit, then we bombed back to the lodge on fast and fun trail!

Yay for the PistenBully!

So happy for newly groomed trail and fresh corduroy!

While Nikki and I were on our trip, Eric decided to do a short day since he had plans to ski the 25-mile Tanana River Challenge the following weekend. He saw that some snowmachiners had started on Landmark Gap Trail toward Landmark Gap Lake, just a couple of miles from the lodge. He followed the snowmachine tracks, but they were too soft to ride and then veered off the trail a short way later, so he turned around and rode a couple miles farther up the highway before turning around. Erica had planned to hike on our second day. She went down the highway to Tangle Lakes Campground and back for a 10-mile hike. 

It was a no go for Eric on the Landmark Gap Trail

Dave groomed the highway all the way to Paxson and back, getting back around 9pm. A long day for him, but that meant we had fresh corduroy the next morning! 

Due to Dave’s grooming, the trails were still in great shape our last morning. We were faster than on our way in, so we made better time. We thought there would be more descending on our way back out. There was but not much. That end has a lot of hills no matter which direction you are going! (You climb 1,900 feet going in and 1,700 feet going out.) 

Superb Views and Wildlife

Although our moving speed was faster, it still took us just as long to make it back to our truck because we kept stopping. With the Alaska Range out in all its glory, we just had to take another photo. And another. And another. 

And we had to stop for the wildlife, too. On our way to the lodge on Saturday we had passed a huge herd of caribou off to the south. They were a bit far from the road, but it was still awesome to see them. So, imagine our delight, when on the way back, the same herd was right next to the road! We stopped to take photos and tried to bike slowly as to not scare them. They were skittish and kept trotting away from us, but it was still truly magical. When do you have the chance to bike through a huge herd of caribou? 

Getting The Word Out

Dave and Tawnia are trying hard to get the word out about the lodge being open in winter. They are happy to have snowmachiners, but are wanting to cater to skiers and fatbikers, too. Dave and Tawnia are skiers and bikers themselves and next winter Dave is planning to groom some side trails off the highway near the lodge. That would open new possibilities. And he's planning to explore the crust skiing opportunities as the weather warms. 

Their efforts to get the word out appears to be working, at least on the weekends. The lodge was busy on Saturday night. There was another group of bikers, a group of skiers from snow-starved Anchorage, a musher and skijorer, along with several groups of snowmachiners. Sunday night was quieter, but they were expecting the Glennallen Nordic ski team, who were coming in with snowmachine support. Tawnia was really happy about that because she grew up in Glennallen. We met the team making the climb out of Paxson just as we were finishing up. 

The more people find out Tangle Lakes Lodge is open in winter, the more they will be booked up. Don’t wait too long to make your reservation if you want to go. And I hope all your expectations are met and exceeded just like ours were.