Richardson Highway

The Richardson Highway stretches 364 miles, from Fairbanks to the ice-free port of Valdez. The first road built from Alaska's coast to the Interior, it provides travelers with fantastic mountain views and access to excellent river and lake fishing. Named after General Wilds P. Richardson, first president of the Alaska Road Commission, the highway evolved from a pack-train trail and dogsled route that mail carriers and gold seekers followed in the early 1900s to a two-lane asphalt highway in 1957. It's a four-lane, divided highway for the 23 mi from Fairbanks to Eielson Air Force Base.

Along the route from Fairbanks, you'll go through North Pole, home of the Santa Claus House gift shop, with its towering Santa silhouette, and the North Pole Coffee Roasting Company, which provides many Fairbanks-area restaurants with fresh-roasted coffee. The Richardson also links Fairbanks with Delta's farm country and the winter and summer recreation areas near Summit Lake in the Alaska Range. At Paxson, the Richardson takes travelers to the Denali Highway, a gravel road leading west through the Alaska Range to campgrounds and fishing in the Tangle Lakes area and, later, to Denali National Park and Preserve. Fifty-six miles south of the Denali Highway, the Richardson borders Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the largest U.S. national park.