Fairbanks to Anchorage: The Denali Star Train, the Parks Highway and Road Conditions

Somewhere around the second cup of coffee in a Fairbanks hotel, the question comes up: how do you get down to Anchorage, and do you want the road or the rails? The answer is that two routes link the cities, the Denali Star Train and the George Parks Highway, and they trace much the same line through the Interior and the Alaska Range.

How do you get from Fairbanks to Anchorage?

You travel between the two cities by train on the Alaska Railroad’s Denali Star or by road on the George Parks Highway, and both pass through the Denali region on the way. The two routes are close cousins in spirit, since they thread the same country, and the real choice is whether you want to watch it from a train window or from behind the wheel.

The highway is the long-established road link. It was completed in 1971 and given its current name in 1975. It runs 323 miles from the Glenn Highway, 35 miles from Anchorage, to Fairbanks in the Alaska Interior. It carries two numbers, Interstate A-4 and Alaska Route 3, so you may see either on maps and signs.

By train on the Denali Star

The Denali Star runs between Anchorage and Fairbanks, covering 356 miles in 12 hours. Along the way it stops in Wasilla, Talkeetna and Denali National Park, so the ride doubles as a string of small arrivals in places you may want to see anyway. For tickets and questions, the Alaska Railroad Depot in Anchorage is at 411 West 1st Ave and answers at +1 907 265-2494.

What you get from the window is the point. On a clear day the train gives you a look at Denali, the tallest mountain in North America. You spend most of a day in the car with the mountains moving past, which suits people who would rather look than navigate.

By road on the George Parks Highway

The Parks Highway is the principal access to Denali National Park and Preserve and to Denali State Park, so a drive between the cities is also a drive past the front doors of both. It crosses the Denali Highway (Alaska Route 8) in Cantwell, a junction that matters if your plans stretch beyond the main road.

Two stretches are built to freeway standards, one near the Glenn Highway in Palmer and the other the Robert J. Mitchell Expressway in Fairbanks. Mileposts begin at Mile 35, continuing the numbering of the Glenn Highway, so a marker near Fairbanks reads much higher than you might expect for a road that starts at the city’s own edge.

Which options are there?

Each gives you a different kind of day, and the scenery along the two lines overlaps more than you might guess.

What the train shows you

Heading toward Anchorage, the train gives you a run of named landmarks. North of Denali National Park it follows Healy Canyon along the Nenana River. Just south of the park, Broad Pass opens views of the Alaska Range in all directions, a stretch where the whole horizon seems made of mountains.

North of Talkeetna, the train crosses Hurricane Gulch on a 296-foot bridge and passes through the roadless Hurricane area. Just south of Talkeetna, Denali may rise above the Susitna River on a clear day. Between Anchorage and Talkeetna, the line crosses the Knik River with the Chugach Mountains in the background. Those are the scenes that make the long ride feel short.

What the road offers

The highway lets you set your own rhythm. Because it is the main way into Denali National Park and Preserve and Denali State Park, you can decide on the spot where to pause. Cantwell, where the Denali Highway meets the road, is one named junction along the way, and Palmer marks the Anchorage end of the freeway section.

Roads in Alaska change with conditions, and the state publishes them. Alaska 511 lists road conditions in categories from Good and Fair through Difficult, Very Difficult and Hazardous, along with Road Closure and No Winter Maintenance. That vocabulary is worth knowing before you set out.

Flying from Fairbanks

Fairbanks lists air transportation among its options for travel to and around the area. Anchorage’s Ted Stevens International Airport sits 5 miles southwest of downtown, and Route #40 of the People Mover bus serves its North and South terminals, connecting to the downtown Transit Center. For a visitor who ends up there, that is the simplest link into the city.

What should you know before you travel from Fairbanks to Anchorage?

Know which way you are going, how long it takes, and what the road is doing that day. The train covers its 356 miles in 12 hours, so it fills a whole day, and the highway is a long drive of 323 miles through country with few places to be rushed.

Checking the road with Alaska 511

If you drive, Alaska 511 is the state’s traffic and road conditions site. The Alaska Department of Transportation has partnered with Waze to publish Waze-reported incidents and closures on it, so you see reports from drivers as well as official ones. The map includes cameras, which let you look at a stretch of road before you commit to it.

You can add a camera to My Cameras by clicking a camera icon on the map, then the My Cameras button in the popup. On the camera page, the My Cameras option sits behind the three dots icon below the image. Creating an account lets you save routes, and you must log in to save them for later viewing.

Route alerts on your phone

Alaska 511 route notifications go out by SMS, by default on weekdays from 6 AM to 6 PM. That suits a commute better than a one-off trip, but a saved Fairbanks to Anchorage route gives you a quick glance whenever you reopen the site.

Planning help and arrival

In Fairbanks, Explore Fairbanks can be reached at (907) 456-5774, and it offers visitor guide requests, an e-newsletter and a blog for trip planning. Fairbanks also lists travel agents and trip planners among its visitor services, along with banks and ATMs.

On arrival, Anchorage’s best season runs from May to early September, when daytime highs average around 68°F and lows around 55°F. Summer sunlight reaches up to 19½ hours, with the sun setting just before midnight, which leaves plenty of daylight at the end of a long travel day.

Good to know before you go

Fairbanks has banks and ATMs among its visitor services, which is handy before a long day on the road or the rails. The Anchorage depot, at 411 West 1st Ave, is the place to start if you are arriving by train, and the airport’s non-stop flights from cities such as Seattle/Tacoma, Denver and Chicago O’Hare run in summer for those who fly in to start the trip the other way around.