Alaska Trip 2018 - Road to Manley Hot Springs

Minto Lakes Valley

stream across from our camp spot

Camping near Minto

Unusual clouds

Manley Hot Springs Roadhouse

Roadhouse

Manley Campground

Bridge in Manley Hot Springs

 Eighty-four miles north of Fairbanks where the Dalton Highway begins, the Elliott Highway turns west and runs 77 miles to Manley Hot Springs. It’s an out-and-back- side trip, one we decided to do before continuing south to Fairbanks. After about 35 miles on the Elliott Highway to Manley Hot Springs, an intersecting road goes south to the First Nations village of Minto. Those 35 miles were by far the worst stretch of road we experienced in Alaska. Yes, we knew it was going to be gravel, but we’d driven a number of gravel roads, none of which were worse to drive than the northern paved roads.  The Milepost described the drive as “narrow and winding, following the ridges and hills and providing a top of the world view of hundreds of square miles in all directions.” Who wouldn’t want to see that?? Unless you’re so busy trying to miss potholes, you miss the scenery. One way to look at it is that, with all the practice he got on this road, Michael rose to the rank of Expert Pothole Dodger.

With relief, we turned onto the 10 mile stretch of nicely graveled road that took us to Minto, an Athabaskan Tanana Band’s village. It’s built above Minto Lakes, a gorgeous valley of lakes widened from the Tanana River. We drove around town, past little log cabins built up off the ground, down a steep hill to the water where a couple of men were fishing, and two boys were thinking about jumping off an old pontoon platform into the water. On our way back to the road of many potholes, we found a turnout that we thought looked like a nice place to park for the night. It was. Quiet. Remote. Off the beaten path.

The next morning, we drove the 43 miles to the town of Manley Hot Springs. Now that stretch of road was under construction, but, even though parts of it were graded off down to rock to eventually be resurfaced, it wasn’t nearly as bumpy as our ride the day before!

Manley Hot Springs: 50 year-round houses. Population: 127. We didn’t soak in the town’s cement tubs of naturally warm water, but we did have a good breakfast at the Manley Roadhouse. It is the town’s other big attraction. It’s an old wooden structure dating back to 1907.  The front door opens to a homey, wood paneled dining room and sitting area with stairs leading to a second story. Behind the dining room is a large bar room and kitchen. 

In Manley there’s a little campground across from the Roadhouse, right by the river, which we thought we might want to stay and relax in – take the-day-off-kind-of-thing. However, the mosquitoes were THICK, even at noon time.  The outhouse was the old, wooden bench style, and stinky, with the door hanging open. We decided to move on.

On our return trip across the #1 Pothole Road of Alaska, we suddenly heard again the unmistakable sound of air escaping: p-sh-sh-sh-sh-t! Yep! The same tire as our last experience by the Mississippi River, and the same scenario – lost wheel cover (even with all those tie straps,) valve stem pulled out and a flat tire. This time we blamed the extreme roughness of the road. After pulling off on a turn-out and replacing the flat with a spare, we drove slowly back a mile or more, looking for the missing wheel cover, but had no luck finding it. The thick shrubbery along that part of the road plus sharp drop offs in several places could easily have claimed it.

That night was spent in solitude – again. Just us and the mosquitoes (and a river otter I happened to see scurrying from the woods to the water) at a turnout by a bridge over the Tolovana River north of Fairbanks.