Public land: who holds it, and how little of it has a road
Alaska’s 222.4 million federal acres are split among five agencies: the Fish and Wildlife Service with 76,653,680 acres, the BLM with 71,105,178, the National Park Service with 52,456,775, the Forest Service with 22,132,738 and the Department of Defense with 25,570. That order is the opposite of most western states, and it matters to a driver, because refuge and park land is where the road network thins out first.
The Service manages 16 national wildlife refuges here. The Park Service’s Alaska holdings include Wrangell-St. Elias at 13.2 million acres, which it says equals Yellowstone, Yosemite and Switzerland combined, and Denali at 6 million. The Forest Service works in two forests only: the Tongass, which it calls the largest national forest in the United States at nearly 17 million acres, and the Chugach at 5.4 million, the northernmost and westernmost national forest in the country.
BLM Alaska describes 70 million acres of mountains, wetlands and tundra, run from a state office and three district offices at Anchorage, Fairbanks and the Arctic. Two BLM units sit on the road system north of Fairbanks: the 1.2 million acre Steese National Conservation Area, whose summer and winter routes the bureau says are unmaintained and unmarked outside the Pinnell Mountain trail, and the one million acre White Mountains National Recreation Area with three campgrounds, 13 public use cabins and 250 miles of groomed winter trail. Our sum of the BLM’s national route layer finds 1,097 miles of road and trail managed for public motorized use in the whole state, which is a floor rather than a full count.
The state is the other landlord. Alaska State Parks runs 156 units and about 3 million acres, by far the most acreage of any state park system in the country. Elsewhere on state land the Department of Natural Resources publishes a list of generally allowed uses that lets you camp and drive without asking, inside limits set out below. Those rules do not cover state parks, or land held by the University of Alaska, the Mental Health Trust, the transport department or the railroad.
- 01Fish and Wildlife Service: 76,653,680 acres, in 16 national wildlife refuges
- 02Bureau of Land Management: 71,105,178 acres, which the bureau itself rounds to 70 million
- 03National Park Service: 52,456,775 acres, including Wrangell-St. Elias and Denali
- 04Forest Service: 22,132,738 acres, in the Tongass and the Chugach
- 05Department of Defense: 25,570 acres
Source 1
Seasons: what the agencies close, and when
Four state highways stop being maintained in autumn and are left alone until spring: the Denali Highway on October 1, the Taylor Highway on October 15, the McCarthy Road on October 1 and the Eureka to Rampart road on October 1. The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities says plainly that it does not maintain these highways through the winter and that travel on a road it no longer plows is extremely risky. On the Denali Highway the BLM puts the open window at mid-May to October 1 and warns against trying it at any other time because snowdrifts can block the way, while the state describes maintenance running mid-May to mid-September.
The Taylor Highway opens in April and stays accessible to mid-October, with crews starting in early March to clear snow and thaw culverts. The Denali Park Road is open to vehicles from late April until the first snow in the fall, and private vehicles may go as far as Mile 15 at Savage River, where the pavement ends. Farther west the road has been shut at Mile 43 since the Pretty Rocks landslide forced the Park Service to close it in August 2021; a 475-foot bridge now spans the slide and the Park Service expects bus service to the west end to resume for the 2027 season.
The Dalton Highway is the exception. It is maintained year round, and the state runs seven year-round maintenance camps along the corridor, but the BLM says that in winter services of any kind exist only at Coldfoot, milepost 175, and Deadhorse, milepost 414, and that drivers face whiteouts and windchills to 70 degrees below zero. Even in summer you may meet snow and ice north of Coldfoot in any month, and storms drop snow on Atigun Pass in June and July.
The climate spread across the state is wider than in any other. NOAA gives annual average temperatures from the mid-40s in the south, where the ocean moderates things, down to about 13 to 20 degrees in the Arctic north of the Brooks Range. Annual precipitation runs from more than 200 inches in the southeastern Panhandle to 60 inches south of the Alaska Range, 12 inches in the Interior and less than 6 inches on the North Slope. Much of the Interior sits on discontinuous permafrost and everything north of the Brooks Range on continuous permafrost, which is why so many of these roads move under you.
Source 36
What Alaska asks of a vehicle
The BLM’s Dalton Highway guide is the clearest statement any agency in the country makes about preparing a vehicle. Before Fairbanks: inspect the tires and check every fluid, replace worn hoses and belts. To carry: at least two full-size spare tires mounted on rims, a jack and the tools to use it, emergency flares, extra gasoline, motor oil and wiper fluid, and a CB radio. The reason is arithmetic. Limited tire and repair service exists at only two places across the 500 miles between Fairbanks and Deadhorse, and there are no public medical facilities on that stretch at all.
Gravel manners are written down here too. Big trucks have the right of way. Slow down when passing so you do not throw rocks through someone’s windscreen. Drive with your lights on and keep the lenses clean. Camp well off the road, because passing vehicles fling rocks more than 30 feet. On the Steese and the Elliott the BLM is gentler: the gravel sections are well maintained and can be driven in a two-wheel-drive vehicle, though you should expect tight corners, soft shoulders and dust or slick mud depending on the weather.
Four-wheel drive earns its keep in fewer places than people expect, and in specific ones. The Park Service says most two-wheel-drive vehicles manage the Nabesna Road, but recommends high clearance beyond Mile 29, where Trail Creek, Lost Creek and Boyden Creek can be running across the road and spring melt or heavy rain can make them impassable. The last four miles are unmaintained and the Park Service does not recommend driving them. On the McCarthy Road it says most passenger vehicles get through in summer with at least one spare tire and an adequate jack, that sharp rocks cause flats and one-lane bridges make life hard for long vehicles, and that large vehicles are not encouraged at all. Both roads sell no fuel.
One more thing to check before you leave home: many rental agreements prohibit driving on the Dalton Highway and other gravel roads, and the state repeats the warning for the Denali Highway and the McCarthy Road. Alaska publishes no chain or traction law, but it does regulate studs, and the dates are given in the rules below.
Source 23
Passes and routes
-
Dalton Highway
4,739 ft 414 miles
Livengood, 84 miles north of Fairbanks, to Deadhorse at Prudhoe Bay
The BLM calls it a rough industrial road and says it is narrow, with soft shoulders, high embankments and steep hills, long stretches of sharp gravel, potholes and washboard, and dust or slick mud depending on the weather. It crosses the Continental Divide at Atigun Pass, milepost 244, at 4,739 feet by the bureau’s own page, though its visitor center FAQ gives 4,653 for the same pass. Gas is sold at Yukon Crossing, Coldfoot and Deadhorse; tire and vehicle repair only at Coldfoot and Deadhorse, 239 miles apart. There are no grocery stores and no banks. Four BLM campgrounds sit along it, at mileposts 60, 115, 180 and 275, and camping is limited to 14 days at any one spot. There is no public access to the Arctic Ocean from Deadhorse without an authorized tour. 23
- Vehicle
- Two full-size spare tires on rims, extra fuel and a CB radio, per the BLM
- Season
- Maintained year round. Snow and ice north of Coldfoot in any month
-
Paxson on the Richardson Highway to Cantwell Junction on the Parks Highway
Paved for the first 21 miles west of Paxson and for three miles east of Cantwell Junction, gravel in between. The BLM tells drivers not to attempt it outside the open season because snowdrifts can block the way. The state lists four lodges along it and says to bring food, water, a first aid kit and a spare tire, because services are limited and cell coverage is unreliable. The state also ends seasonal maintenance here on October 1 and does not plow it again until spring. 27
- Vehicle
- Any vehicle in summer. The BLM puts the maximum recommended speed at 35 miles per hour
- Season
- Generally open mid-May to October 1, per the BLM. The state maintains it mid-May to mid-September and closes it for the winter
-
Denali Park Road
92 miles
The Parks Highway to Kantishna, at the western end of Denali National Park and Preserve
One road runs east to west through the park for about 92 miles. Private vehicles can drive as far as Mile 15 at Savage River, which is where the pavement ends. The Pretty Rocks landslide forced the Park Service to close the road at Mile 43 in August 2021; a bridge roughly 475 feet long now spans the slide and the Park Service expects bus service to the west end of the road to resume for the 2027 visitor season. Campers get one exception: Teklanika River Campground at Mile 29 is open to RVs and tents in summer and can be driven to, with a minimum three-night stay if you take your own vehicle. Riley Creek at Mile 0.25 and Savage River at Mile 14 are the other two campgrounds a vehicle can reach. 15
- Vehicle
- Private vehicles as far as Mile 15. Buses beyond that
- Season
- Open to vehicles from late April until the first snow in the fall
-
Taylor Highway and the Top of the World Highway
160 miles
Tetlin Junction on the Alaska Highway to Eagle, with the Top of the World branch to the Canadian border and Dawson City 78 miles beyond
The state calls the Taylor and the Top of the World mostly gravel, with several steep narrow grades and long distances between services. The Taylor gives access to the historic Fortymile gold mining district and passes Chicken on the way to Eagle on the Yukon. Crews start clearing snow and thawing culverts in early March for an April opening. Once maintenance ends in October the road is left for the winter. 33
- Vehicle
- The first 60 miles are paved. The rest is gravel that can go soft, wet or rough
- Season
- Opens in April and stays accessible to mid-October. Maintenance ends October 15 and no winter maintenance is provided
-
Steese Highway
3,668 ft 162 miles
Fairbanks to Circle on the Yukon River
The BLM’s guide puts Twelvemile Summit Wayside at mile 85.5 and Eagle Summit Wayside at mile 107.1, where the Pinnell Mountain National Recreation Trail starts and where you can watch the midnight sun at the summer solstice. Circle is mile 162. The highway threads between the two units of the 1.2 million acre Steese National Conservation Area, whose own routes the BLM describes as unmaintained and unmarked. The U.S. Creek Road at mile 57 leads into the White Mountains, and Cripple Creek Campground is at mile 60. Cell coverage is available only near Fairbanks. 30
- Vehicle
- Two-wheel drive on the maintained gravel, with a spare tire on a rim
-
Fox, at Steese Highway mile 11, to Manley Hot Springs at mile 151.2, with the Dalton Highway leaving at mile 73.1
The Elliott is how you reach both the Dalton and the western edge of the road system. The BLM sets its mile 0 at the state weigh station in Fox and puts the Dalton Highway junction at mile 73.1, noting that the Dalton then runs 414 miles north to Deadhorse. Manley Hot Springs, at mile 151.2, is the end. The Wickersham Dome Trailhead at mile 27.7 carries the Summit Trail into the one million acre White Mountains National Recreation Area, and the Colorado Creek Trailhead at mile 57.1 is a winter way into the same country. Olnes Pond and Whitefish campgrounds sit near the start, at miles 10.5 and 11. The BLM publishes no length for the highway itself, so none is given here. 30
- Vehicle
- Two-wheel drive on the maintained gravel. Carry spare tires and extra fuel
-
Chitina to the Kennicott River, near McCarthy, inside Wrangell-St. Elias
The Park Service allows about three hours each way on the gravel and calls the hazards by name: curves with limited visibility, ruts and potholes after heavy rain, sharp rocks that cause flat tires, and narrow one-lane bridges that make life hard for a long vehicle. The state describes remnants of railroad ties in the surface, because the road follows the old Copper River and Northwestern Railroad grade. There is no gas along it; the nearest is at Chitina or Kenny Lake. The Park Service gives the length as 60 miles on its driving page and 59 on its road guide. 19
- Vehicle
- Most passenger vehicles in summer, with at least one spare tire and an adequate jack. Large vehicles are not encouraged
- Season
- Maintained mid-May to mid-September. Maintenance ends October 1
-
Slana, at mile 60 of the Tok Cutoff, to the end of maintenance at Devil’s Mountain Lodge
The only other road into Wrangell-St. Elias. The Park Service says most two-wheel-drive vehicles manage it, but recommends high clearance past Mile 29 because Trail Creek at Mile 29.8, Lost Creek at Mile 31.2 and Boyden Creek at Mile 34.3 can be flowing across the road. The last four miles are unmaintained, may be deeply rutted and wet, and the Park Service does not recommend driving them. Kendesnii Campground at Mile 27.8 has ten sites, tables, fire rings and two vault toilets. No fuel or vehicle repair is available on the road, and none at Slana: the nearest is Chistochina 28 miles south, Tok 64 miles north or Glennallen 76 miles south. 21
- Vehicle
- Two-wheel drive to Mile 29. High clearance, and sometimes four-wheel drive, beyond it
- Season
- Summer. Stream crossings can be impassable in spring run-off and heavy rain
-
Richardson HighwayPaved
2,794 ft 366 miles
Valdez on Prince William Sound to Fairbanks
Paved for its whole length and mostly two lanes until just south of Fairbanks. It leaves Valdez straight into Thompson Pass, which the state calls one of the most notoriously snowy mountain passes in Alaska. Avalanches close it several times a year: in January 2014 one of the biggest winter events in the highway’s history shut it for 12 days. This is the spine of the Interior road system, meeting the Denali Highway at Paxson and the Edgerton Highway for Chitina and the McCarthy Road, 30 miles south of Glennallen. 34
- Season
- Maintained year round. Avalanches hit the road several times each year
-
Glenn Highway National Scenic BywayPaved
135 miles
Downtown Anchorage to Eureka Summit
The state’s byway runs 135 miles from downtown Anchorage to Eureka Summit, following the braided Matanuska River for more than half its length and entering the glacier-carved Matanuska River Canyon on the way. At Eureka Summit four ranges are in view at once: the Alaska Range, the Chugach, the Talkeetna and the Wrangell-St. Elias mountains. The state publishes no elevation for the summit, and the name is not in the USGS gazetteer, so no figure is given here. 39
-
Seward HighwayPaved
127 miles
Anchorage to Seward, by Girdwood
One of the few roads in the country to hold three designations at once: the state lists it as a Forest Service scenic byway, an Alaska scenic byway and an All-American Road. Its 127 miles run from Anchorage through Girdwood to Seward, across ground the Chugach National Forest manages, and the Chugach covers 5.4 million acres as the northernmost and westernmost national forest in the country. The Sterling Highway leaves it on the Kenai Peninsula and runs west and south to Homer. 40
-
The Seward Highway on the Kenai Peninsula to Homer on Kachemak Bay
The state describes it as leaving the Seward Highway and playing tag with the Kenai River down to the end of the road at Homer. Neither of the two byway segment pages publishes a length, so none is given here. Much of the corridor runs beside the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, which the Fish and Wildlife Service calls its most-visited refuge in Alaska at nearly two million acres. One state rule applies here and nowhere else: studded tires are barred from any paved portion of the Sterling Highway from May 1 through September 15 whatever the latitude. 42
-
George Parks HighwayPaved
2,400 ft
Anchorage to Fairbanks, by the entrance to Denali National Park and Preserve
The main paved link between Alaska’s two largest cities, and the road every Denali trip starts from. The state calls Broad Pass a 2,400-foot pass, which is the figure used here; a 3D Elevation Program query at the gap’s USGS coordinates gives 2,330 feet. No official length for the highway was found, so none is stated. It meets the Denali Highway at Cantwell and the Steese, Elliott and Richardson at Fairbanks. 41
-
Alaska Marine Highway System
Bellingham, Washington to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians, with more than 30 communities in between
Not a drive, but the reason several Alaska road trips are possible at all. The ferry system covers 3,500 miles of coastline and carries vehicles to more than 30 communities, including towns in the southeast Panhandle that no road reaches from the rest of the state. The state lists the Inside Passage route as an All-American Road. Where a highway in Alaska ends at saltwater, this is usually what comes next. 43
Rules worth knowing
- Sixteen refuges, seventy-six million acres
- The Fish and Wildlife Service describes itself as shared steward of 16 refuges in Alaska totalling over 76 million acres, and the Congressional Research Service counts 76.7 million. That is more refuge land than the rest of the country holds put together, and almost none of it has a road. Refuge ground in Alaska is a destination you fly or boat to, with a handful of exceptions on the road system. 8
- Kenai is the refuge you can drive to
- Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is nearly two million acres and the most visited refuge in the state, because it sits on the Sterling Highway within a few hours of Anchorage. If a refuge is part of your trip plan rather than an expedition, this is almost certainly the one. 9
- BLM Alaska is seventy million acres and almost no roads
- The Bureau of Land Management describes about 70 million acres of mountains, wetlands and tundra in Alaska, and the Congressional Research Service counts 71.1 million. The agency’s recreation here is concentrated on the few highways that cross it: the Dalton, the Steese, the Elliott and the Denali Highway. Everything else is country rather than destination. 10
- The two national forests are the largest and the northernmost
- The Forest Service’s Alaska Region holds the Tongass, the largest national forest in the United States at nearly 17 million acres, and the Chugach, the northernmost and westernmost at 5.4 million. Together they are 22.1 million acres by the Congressional Research Service’s count, and the Tongass is reached mostly by boat and ferry rather than by road. 11
- The Chugach sits between Anchorage and the sea
- The Chugach National Forest occupies 5.4 million acres in the middle of Southcentral Alaska, which is the part of the state most visitors drive. Its roads and campgrounds along the Seward and Sterling highways are the most accessible national forest recreation in Alaska by a wide margin. 12
- Wrangell-St. Elias is the size of Switzerland and two national parks
- The Park Service puts it plainly: at 13.2 million acres, Wrangell-St. Elias is the same size as Yellowstone, Yosemite and Switzerland combined. Two gravel roads enter it, the McCarthy Road and the Nabesna Road, and everything else is flown or walked. Scale is the thing that catches people out in Alaska, and this is where it is most extreme. 13
- At Denali, a private vehicle reaches Mile 15
- Denali spans six million acres around the 20,310-foot Mount McKinley, and the park states that private vehicles can only drive a short portion of the park road in summer. That portion is 15 miles, to the Savage River, and the road is only open to vehicles from late April until the first snow in autumn. Plan the park as a bus trip with a short drive at the front of it. 14
- Savage River is the end of the public pavement
- The Savage River area sits near the end of the paved and publicly accessible portion of the Denali Park Road at Mile 15. It is where private vehicles turn around, and where the character of the park changes from road to wilderness. 16
- Only three Denali campgrounds take a vehicle
- Riley Creek at Mile 0.25, Savage River at Mile 14 and Teklanika River at Mile 29 are the campgrounds where people may camp with RVs and other vehicles; Sanctuary River at Mile 22, Igloo Creek at Mile 35 and Wonder Lake at Mile 85 are not. Teklanika requires a minimum three-night stay if you drive to it, which is the park’s way of limiting traffic beyond the public road. 17
- The Pretty Rocks landslide closed the park road for years
- A landslide forced the Park Service to close the Denali Park Road in August 2021, and the roughly 475-foot bridge now spanning the active slide near mile 45 is the long-term fix. Public bus service to the west end of the road is expected to resume for the 2027 season. It is the clearest example in this guide of a single piece of ground closing hundreds of miles of access. 18
- The McCarthy Road has its own guide for a reason
- The Park Service publishes a dedicated guide to the McCarthy Road, which is the sort of attention a road gets when it regularly surprises people. Read it before driving it rather than after, and take the tire advice seriously: the road is built on an old railbed and the spikes are part of its history. 20
- The Nabesna is the other way into Wrangell-St. Elias
- The Nabesna Road is the northern gravel entrance to the park, and the Park Service publishes its own page on conditions, fords and services. It is quieter than the McCarthy Road and it has water crossings, which makes it the more serious of the two in a wet year. 22
- On the Dalton, carry oil, spares and a CB
- The BLM asks drivers to check tires and fluids, carry extra motor oil and spare tires, and if possible use a CB radio tuned to channel 19, because cell service is extremely limited. The state adds that the road stretches 414 miles from Livengood to Deadhorse, is mostly gravel and dirt with intermittent pavement, and that it runs seven year-round maintenance camps along the corridor. The campgrounds are at 60 Mile, Arctic Circle, Marion Creek and Galbraith Lake. 24
- Marion Creek is 27 sites at twelve dollars
- Marion Creek Campground sits at mile 180 of the Dalton Highway with 27 sites, three of them accessible, open from mid-May through the end of September depending on snowfall, at twelve dollars a night, first come first served only. It is the most developed thing on the highway north of the Yukon River. 26
- The Steese conservation area is unmaintained and unmarked
- The 1.2-million-acre Steese National Conservation Area was designated by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980, and the BLM states that except for the Pinnell Mountain National Recreation Trail, both winter and summer routes within it are unmaintained and unmarked. Its contact address is a wayside at milepost 107.1 of the Steese Highway, which tells you what kind of place it is. 28
- The White Mountains are a million acres with three campgrounds
- The White Mountains National Recreation Area covers a million acres with three campgrounds, 13 public use cabins, two trail shelters and 250 miles of groomed winter trail. Summer access is on foot along the Summit Trail at mile 28 of the Elliott Highway, and Nome Creek is reached from US Creek Road at mile 57 of the Steese. It is the closest real backcountry to Fairbanks. 29
- The state’s own Dalton page says what to expect
- The Department of Transportation describes the Dalton as 414 miles from Livengood to Deadhorse with mostly gravel and dirt surfaces and intermittent pavement, maintained from seven year-round camps. Read the state page and the BLM page together: one tells you about the road, the other about the country it crosses. 31
- The Denali Highway is 135 miles, and closed most of the year
- The Denali Highway runs 135 miles between Paxson on the Richardson and Cantwell Junction on the Parks Highway, paved for the first 21 miles west of Paxson and three miles east of Cantwell, and gravel for the rest. It is generally open from mid-May to 1 October, and the advice is not to attempt it outside that window because snowdrifts can block the way. 32
- The state publishes its own McCarthy Road conditions
- The Department of Transportation maintains its own page for the McCarthy Road, separate from the Park Service’s guide. Between them they cover the two things that change: the surface, which the state maintains, and the access at the end of it, which the park manages. 35
- The Taylor and Top of the World are a designated byway
- The state lists the Taylor Highway and the Top of the World Highway among its scenic byways, which is how a gravel road to the Canadian border ends up with a designation. The byway listing is a useful signal of season and surface, because the state publishes both on the same page. 38
- The state park system is the largest in the country
- Alaska State Parks runs 156 units covering about three million acres, by far the most acreage of any state park system in the United States. Several of them sit on the road system where federal land does not, which makes them the practical answer for camping on a drive between Anchorage, Homer and Valdez. 44
- The mountain has two published elevations and two names
- The USGS puts the summit at 20,310 feet after a 2015 GPS survey, ten feet below the 20,320 the older elevations table still carries. The Geographic Names Information System holds the summit as Mount McKinley; the park around it is Denali National Park and Preserve. This guide uses both names in that way and states both elevations. 6
- How the route mileage in this guide is counted
- Where this guide gives a BLM route mileage it is computed from the agency’s Ground Transportation Linear Features layer, summing miles of route managed for public or limited public motorised use. In Alaska that number means less than it does elsewhere, because most of the land has no mapped route at all rather than a closed one. 3
- Where the elevations in this guide come from
- Town and summit elevations here are read from the 3D Elevation Program surface at the coordinates the Geographic Names Information System holds for the place, rounded to the nearest foot, unless an agency publishes its own figure. Where an agency does, the agency’s number is used and ours is named beside it. 4
- Camping on state land: 14 days, then move two miles
- Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources publishes a list of uses generally allowed on state land without a permit. Camping for personal, non-commercial recreation is allowed for no more than 14 days at one site, using a tent or another temporary structure that can be taken down and removed, and moving the entire camp at least two miles starts a new 14-day period. Cabins and permanent improvements are never allowed. Dead and down wood may be used for a cooking or warming fire unless the department has closed the area to fires. The list does not cover state parks or land held by other state agencies. 45
- The weight limits that decide whether you need a permit
- The same list sets the vehicle rule. A highway vehicle with a curb weight of up to 10,000 pounds, including a four-wheel drive or a pickup, and a recreational off-road or all-terrain vehicle with a curb weight of up to 1,500 pounds, may travel on or off an established road easement, provided the travel does not degrade water quality, alter drainage, or cause significant rutting, ground disturbance or thermal erosion. Larger off-road vehicles over 1,500 pounds curb weight need a permit from the department, and motorized travel in fish-bearing streams needs an authorization from the Department of Fish and Game. 45
- The Dalton Highway corridor has its own rules
- Recreational camping along the Dalton is limited to 14 days at any one spot. The BLM asks you to park well off the road, because passing vehicles fling rocks more than 30 feet, and never to block a pipeline access road. State statute prohibits off-road vehicles within 5 miles either side of the highway from the Yukon River to the Arctic Ocean, and from the Yukon River north, hunting with firearms is prohibited within the same 5-mile strip. Gold panning is permitted on some federal stream segments south of Atigun Pass, but not in the pipeline right-of-way. 23
- Studded tires are legal by date and by latitude
- Alaska publishes no chain or traction law, but it regulates studs closely. North of 60 degrees North latitude it is unlawful to drive on a paved highway with studded tires from May 1 through September 15. South of that line the closed season is April 15 through September 30. At any latitude, studded tires are barred from any paved portion of the Sterling Highway from May 1 through September 15. Boroughs and municipalities can be stricter than the state, so check the one you are in. 37
- Burn permits run April through August
- The Division of Forestry and Fire Protection requires a burn permit in Alaska from April 1 through August 31. A small-scale permit covers a burn barrel, a maintained lawn under an acre, or a brush pile no more than 10 feet across and 4 feet high; anything larger needs a large-scale permit. A campfire less than 3 feet in diameter does not need a permit at all, which is the size most travelers are cooking on. Suspensions and restrictions are posted by the division, and the state land rules add that dead and down wood may be burned unless the area has been closed to fires. 46
- Off-highway vehicles register with the DMV
- Alaska’s Division of Motor Vehicles registers off-highway vehicles and all-purpose vehicles separately from highway vehicles. The category covers snowmachines and other tracked vehicles, homemade or individually constructed ATVs, hovercraft, and two- and three-wheeled recreational vehicles. Registration runs for two, four or six years from the date it is taken out, ending on September 30 of the second, fourth or sixth year, and a decal issued at first registration becomes the vehicle’s number. Proof of ownership is required with the application and fee. 47
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
US Forest Service (USFS)
National Park Service (NPS)
US Fish and Wildlife (USFW)
Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
Department Of Defense (DOD)
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
Other Federal
State
Local
Alaska Native Lands (Patented or Interim Conveyed)
Alaska Native Allotment
Road
Primitive Road
Road
Primitive Road
Trail
Roads open to all Vehicles, Yearlong
Roads open to all Vehicles, Seasonal
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Yearlong
Roads open to highway legal vehicles only, Seasonal
Special Designation, Yearlong
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails open to all vehicles, Yearlong
Trails open to all vehicles, Seasonal
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Yearlong
Trails open to vehicles 50" or less in width, Seasonal
Trails open to motorcycles, Yearlong
Trails open to motorcycles, Seasonal
Special Designation, Seasonal
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" in Width, Yearlong
Trails Open to Wheeled Vehicles Only < 50" or Less in Width, Seasonal
Wilderness Area
Wilderness Study Area
