We camped in a glorified parking lot that the state of Alaska charges $10 for camping just below Independence mine. There’s not a lot of pull offs here for camping and it was 10 pm when we pulled in, so it worked. There’s view was impressive. The good thing is we paid for the site so when we pulled in to the state park a mile up the road, the receipt worked for parking there too.
Independence Mine was an interesting park to visit. It was small compared to the Kennecott operation in McCarthy, but it had some interesting aspects. And kudos to the entrepreneurs, engineers, and miners of almost a century ago. The extraction process for gold removed 97% of the gold from the ore, which was pretty impressive. I did a little mile or two hike up in the high valley and enjoyed walking in the spongy trails with alpine flowers. The pass is only 3800 feet, but that’s high by AK standards
We drove over Hatcher Pass and man was it crowded up there. For all of those reviews saying the road is dangerously and narrow, obviously don’t drive off road much. The road was pretty smooth, very wide, and has spectacular views. There were a couple of side shoots where a crew of Ford Broncos was going up a side road, but we decided to let them have their fun. Further down towards Willow there is tons of camping and it appears is a play land for quads and side-by-sides. Kathy and I found a neat property for sale and decided to inquire about it. We are a bit smitten with AK, especially now now having to deal with the AZ heat.
The rest of the day we drive north and found a free camp a bit outside of Healy. We settled in since it was about 7 pm. We don’t really drive all day, we just get started later, usually 10-11 am. The next few days we will be on the Dalton and the forecast is rain, so pictures may be scarce. It’s funny because as we drive north, we took tons of pictures throughout the western states, Canada, and Alaska. Everything is beautiful. We take fewer pics now, maybe because we are just enjoying the beauty up here more than being in awe of it.
here are a few more photos from today.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250809-hatcher-pass-and-independence-mine