Northern Exposure: Alaska 1 and 3
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- Опубліковано 26 жов 2024
- You know distances are long when the first line of a milage sign is a three digit number. Alaska is vast, beautiful, and makes some interesting choices in signage!
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Upcoming episodes:
February 29th - Puerto Rico Highway 22
March 8th - State DOT Madness Introduction
Control City Freak is updated weekly and covers every two digit Interstate Highway in America as well as other roads. I'll be showing control city signs on each 1 and 2 digit (2di) Interstate Highway in the continental United States and will strive to make as complete a record as possible, as well as various other highways. I'll also be getting into the roadgeek weeds here and there, showing downtown skylines and state border crossings, and making corny jokes. I welcome all to join my geeky tour of every primary Interstate in the country!
Thanks to everyone who made a request on this road!
All images of roads and signs come from Google Street View unless otherwise specified.
The Alaska Highway 1 Sign Image comes from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.o...
The Alaska Highway 3 Sign Image comes from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.o...
Maps used in this video come from Google Maps www.google.com...
Music: Acoustic Sunrise, from the Apple iMovie sounds library
"How the Leopard Got Its Spots" performed by Portugal The Man
Control City Freak Episodes mentioned in this video:
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Interstates, Interstate Highways, Control Cities, Signs, Roadsigns, highway nerdery, Alaska, Alaska Route 1, Alaska Route 3, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Denali, Wasilla, Ted Stevens
If you didn’t know - the Parks Highway is NOT named for Denali Park, but rather for George Parks, who was Alaska’s territorial governor from 1925 to 1933.
Yes, but they chose to name it after him precisely because his last name is Parks.
@@timpalmer7934Nope.
Alaska residents mostly refer to the main highways by their names. My daughter went to college in Alaska. It is indeed a beautiful place.
Thank you so much for this! I was hired by AAA as a dispatcher for alaska, out of an office in Delaware for the over night shift. From my experience almost everyone local you talked to would call them by the highway names and not the numbers, especially as you got away from anchorage. This was 10 years ago and I’m getting flashbacks on who I’d have to call for different spot up and down these highways
Made for lots of boring nights and the occasional “the diesel in this guys truck froze in Fairbanks.”
Only #1 diesel is used in Alaska and it doesn’t freeze even at -70F.
@@Chris_at_Homeplaces in Anchorage do use ds2 for some reason
Probably cheaper to pay you in Delaware than hire someone in Alaska
Kind of unrelated to the video, but I just wanted to say I did a route 80 trip from New Jersey to Pittsburgh, and I thought of your channel the whole way as I was passing the signs! Your channel definitely makes me want to explore more
Alaska likes to call highways by their names. I know that from a book my Grandma used to have called “The Milepost”, which I absolutely loved to read. It had chapters for each highway, with logs listing various intersections and points of interest, as well as the mile-markers at which they were located. I wish she still had that book.
Sounds cool!
Milepost is published every year with updated info on all the highways and roads in AK and YT!
We don’t use the numbers for the highways lol. I get confused whenever gps says AK-1. Seward Highway Anchorage to Seward. Sterling highway from Seward/Sterling interchange to Homer. Kenai Spur Highway Soldotna to Kenai by Fred Meyer in Soldotna. Glenn Highway Anchorage to Glenn/Parks interchange. Old Glenn Highway from Eagle River to Mirror Lake merging to Glenn Highway, and again from Glenn at Palmer Hayflats following Pioneer Mountain all the way through Butte and ending in Palmer, becoming Arctic Avenue after the bridge near the airport. Parks Highway from Glenn/Parks interchange all the way up to Cantwell, becoming George Parks Highway from Cantwell to Fairbanks, becoming Roger Mitchell Expy. Johansen Epxy, Steele Expy, Airport Way also major in Fairbanks. Steese and Roger Mitchell merge to become Richardson Highway south to Valdez. Glenn Highway continues from Glenn/Parks interchange through Palmer until it stops and intersects with Richardson in Glennallen. Edgerton Highway comes off Richardson Highway at an intersection, goes to Chitina and ends at McCarthy River Bridge, becoming McCarthy Road until it becomes Kennicott Road in McCarthy, leading to Kennicott. Palmer-Wasilla Highway between Palmer at the bottom of Bailey hill all the way to Wasilla, ending at the intersection of Palmer Wasilla Highway and Knik-Goose Bay road. We call it KGB. Denali Highway from Cantwell at the airport and AKRR Cantwell Section all the way to Richardson Highway at Paxson. Steese Expy becomes Steese Highway at intersection of Chena Hot Springs Road, ending at Circle. At Fox, the Steese intersects with the Elliot Highway which goes all the way around to Manley Hot Springs. At Livengood, the Elliot Highway intersects with and becomes the Dalton Highway which leads to Prudehoe Bay. Also, the pronunciation of the town names is off, it’s Kee-nigh, not Kenay or Kee-nay. Val-deez, not Val-Dezz. Toke, not Tock. Nenana, not Nanana. Den-Ah-lee, not Deenalee. McKinley if you can’t pronounce Denali. Palmer is more famous because of the colonists in the 1920’s and 30’s. Wasilla is and always has been just Wasilla, but it is growing. Traffic is seemingly just as bad as Anchorage now. But hey, good coverage of the Alaskan road system. We had to make it make sense, because we’re Alaskans. We don’t use highway numbers, just the names. All roads lead to Anchorage.
Was up in Alaska for vacation last summer and travelled those highways. The roadhouses were some of the best parts of the drive on those long highways. Each had a unique feel to them and were interesting to walk around. Of course budget travelers will wince quite a bit as it costs a lot of money to get food and fuel to these places, so gas prices and food prices...ouch!!! Melting permafrost is making a mess of these roads - lots of heaves and buckles can make it feel like a rollercoaster. But you will find so many places to pull over and take pictures - glacier covered mountains, waterfalls, inlets and ocean, just stunning. Also, the closer you get to the southern parts of Alaska like Valdez and Homer/Seward, brace yourself for a lot of extra rain and snow. Valdez seems to be fog covered half of the time, and the mountains outside of town get over 1,000 inches of snow a year!
AK-3 passes by Denali NP. Wasilla is a suburb (long drive) to Anchorage and has grown quite a bit so that explains the strip mall/stroad feel of the place. Up by Denali, those are some hiking trails crossing the rivers that Todd showed us. If you go up there, hope for nice weather and take the flight to see Denali. Unless you're going to do some serious hiking, that's the only way you're going to see the mountain up close. And in Fairbanks, if you take the UAF exit, visit the university and see "The Magic Bus."
And Kroger shoppers, your shopper's card is good at Fred Meyer's!
I’ve lived here 45 years and the roads have always had frost heaves.
it looks like they need a new Welcome to Anchorage sign.
Never having been to Alaska, I think Seward makes sense going north on 1 because of how the geography makes the drive there circuitous, i.e. it feels like it shouldn't be in the same direction as Anchorage, so it's better to sign both. I think Palmer might be better than Wasilla because of the state fair? Then again, tourists driving up to Denali would pass through Wasilla.
I’m glad you finally did all 50 states on this channel!!
If I’ve learned anything watching this channel, it’s: Don’t use “Canada” as a control city. We all know Alaska should’ve used “Toronto” as a control City. 😆
Lol
Congratulations Alaska you are no longer left out.
If you ever get to AK, refer to the highways by their names or where you are trying to go. Alaskan's do not reference the numbers.
Yes. I have to tell tourists this (working in tourism over 20 years) all the time.
Alaska has one of the best state highway markers
I was about 9 mouths old when the Exxon Valdez oil spill happened
Should have use North to Alaska for your opening
I’m from the Kenai Peninsula, that’s the best part in my opinion. About an hour and a half north of Homer
It looks awesome!
So glad I watched this. I was born on Tudor Rd. First time ever seeing the area. Moved to the lower 48 when I was 3. Never made it back to Alaska.
1. Tok is actually pronounced "toke" ( i went there a few times and thats how the locals pronounced it.) and 2. only reason it's not classified as an interstate with a shield is because it doesn't meat interstate standards which i find ironic considering a few interstate highways in the lower 48 are also not Interstate standard. I should mention that these highways are in the US interstate system just to clear up any confusion
Say whatever you want about Wasilla, but I think it must have the best backdrop for any strip mall town in America, with the mountains that you can see from the town, especially here 18:16, here 18:22, and here 18:24. As always great video Todd, keep on trucking! :) 👍
14:03 the natives always called it Denali
Tok is pronounced like what someone does with a joint. I remember when the Parks Glenn interchange was a stop sign and Wasilla only had a flashing light where KGB/Main Street and the Parks Highway meet.
I came here to say this about pronouncing Tok, glad someone beat me to it 🙂
Also, the pronunciation of Kenai made me cringe lol
I visited Alaska last March for a very interesting 10-day trip. It was still very snow covered up there but the temps were at least usually above zero degrees. So it was "weird" seeing these highway scenes with no snow on the ground, my memory has all snow in it. I got to view glaciers and the Northern Lights and even got to see Denali off Highway 3 one day. Those pull offs to view the mountain aren't open (or plowed) in the winter so I had to pull off to the side in one spot to view the mountain, it was a blue sky morning with cold temps but there was the mountain. So naturally I got to see plenty of the highways while I was up there.
A few quick observations from my travels:
1. As with other comments, they indeed use the highway name more up there
2. I never understood signing "City of Kenai" on some of those signs. The city is just called Kenai, I understand not wanting to confuse those with the Kenai Peninsula but I wouldn't think that would be a problem on a highway sign.
3. I was thinking about that western freeway in Anchorage, the one you get to from O'Malley Road off of the Seward Highway. I kind of think Alaska could sign that with another state highway, following O'Malley Road around that western freeway up Minnesota Drive and up to Downtown Anchorage before following the one-way couplet east back to the Glenn Highway.
3. Personally, I think the freeway part of Highway 1 from north of Anchorage to the split with Highway 3 could be Interstate A1. It certainly felt like that when I drove up there, some parts were even six lanes wide. They could still call it the Glenn Highway as well.
5. The expressway part around Fairbanks was interesting as well. I wonder why some of it was freeway and other parts were at-grade intersections. Again, if they ever added overpasses and/or interchange at those lights and made the whole expressway into a freeway then I could see a southern freeway stretching from west of Fairbanks to east of North Pole and they could sign that Interstate A2
6. Back to Fairbanks, I agree with what you said about Alaska 3 south not being signed for Anchorage. Definitely not a bad idea. That all said, I do remember that the first southbound mileage sign just outside Fairbanks does list the distance to Anchorage, so they do have it listed there.
7. As for the control cities at the junction with Highway 3 and Highway 2, I think Fort Richardson actually isn't a bad control point. I believe the main entrance (probably the one the military prefers people using) is just north of there and that must be a fairly high traffic generator. Signing it for Downtown Fairbanks could work too. You missed an overhead sign in the same area that just lists the control city as the Steese Expressway with Highway 2 south being signed the Richardson Highway. This could be one scenario where signing the highway names as controls may not be the worse idea.
Great info, thanks! Sounds like a cool trip
Tok rhymes with Coke, not sock. Kenai is pronounced KEY-nye. Technically, you’re right when you say Valdez. But if you want to sound like an Alaskan, we say
val-DEEZ. At about 17:20 you ask why our exit sign lists Denali Park instead of Anchorage. Interesting story. When it first went up, it did say Anchorage instead of Denali park. But a whole bunch of Fairbanksans complained and wanted it to say Denali park instead. I see a lot of comments that we call our highways by their names, not their numbers. Not only is that true, it’s so true that most of us don’t even know the numbers. I’ve had more than one hilarious conversation with a tourist who wants to know how to get to Highway 3 and I’m like, “now which one is 3 again?”
Actually jumped into the comments to correct the pronunciation.
Been here since 1964, thank you for correcting him💯, it was driving me nuts lol
you should do Long Island Expwy (i-495 NY)
All I need to say is watch your speed do not pass when you're not supposed to drive safely because hey you know this is the only road we have and I mean the only road we have
Awesome video man I love your videos
Glad to hear it
@@ControlCityFreak cya Thursday! 😊
As for musical acts from Alaska, unfortunately, it seems that Alaska isn’t in the Sporcle playlist that I use, but I do know of two acts: Jewel (You Were Meant For Me) from Homer and Portugal. The Man (Feel It Still) from Wasilla.
Yep that's why I went with Portugal: The Man. Did consider Jewel.
Not from here apparently.
Kenai (Kee nigh, rymes with high) Tok, as in have a toke on this spliff.
This river? This mountain scenery?
3:23, technically not the "sea", it is the Turnagain arm of Cook Inlet of Gulf of Alaska of the Pacific Ocean.
O'Malley is O'Mally at that off ramp, it becomes the Walter j Hickel Parkway to the west. NOT a freeway. We have Highways not freeways. The clue is in the names, Seward Highway
America, We park in driveways and drive on parkways ?? but i digress.
The sign for Palmer is there because Palmer is closer then Wasilla and it is on the highway that it is telling you to turn onto to get there, (the Glenn) Wasilla is on a different highway, #3.
1 and 3 do not make a Palmer Wasilla highway, the Palmer Wasilla highway goes from one town to the other and back, thus the name.
Left for Glennallen and right for Anchorage is not "probably just about right", it is actually true.
Valdez (Val Deez).
Highway 4 Valdez to Fairbanks, NOT Canada. The Tok (toke) cut off (part of #1) takes you to the junction with the Alaska Highway which DOES go South to Canada.
Tok is "top line" because it the first TOWN of any size and is at a Junction
2 is labeled south because everything down the Alaska highway from Alaska is south (unless you turn off of the Alaska highway and go to Eagle Ak or northern Canada.)
Anchorage is west of Tok even though you drive south southwest to get there.
OK, just because a sign says left or right for Anchorage Does not mean that that the particular highway you turn on to, terminates in Anchorage, it means turn this way to get to Anchorage, you will be taken to a junction of another highway that will in turn get you headed in the direction of Anchorage.
You arrive at Anchorage on the Glenn highway but you head into downtown Anchorage on 5th ave, the Glenn terminates and becomes 5th ave.
@12:09 - Towns are not listed on the signs because of popularity or the way Todd thinks they should be.
North view Denali is not a road, it is a scenic view stop of - You guessed it Mt Denali.
The roads in Fairbanks are the closest things to "freeways" we have in Alaska.
You assume wrong, Hundreds of thousands of acres burn in Ak every year, nearly 10,000 acres were human caused in 2021.
So We have learned that Alaska Highway 1 is a series of different highways, and also, if you are going to post an "Informative" video about someplace you should actually go there and get factual information and not just use Google fu*&%#$g maps.
It is weird that North Pole is southeast of Fairbanks. I loved North Pole when I went and it was a great little town.
Greetings from Sunny Florida and The Florida Flywheelers Show!!
I'm not aware of any state highway departments that follow the even/odd numbering scheme that the US- and Interstate highways do (doesn't mean there isn't one). Heck, most state highway departments predate those systems, so it's not surprising.
Indiana does have an even-odd ordering to their state highways, but it’s the only state that I’m aware of that does that.
16:17 I like how you have to go south to get to North Pole 😂.
lol
Alaskan things 😂
My parents and I rented an RV and traveled throughout Alaska for a 16 day trip in 2015.
Sounds awesome!
One of my best friends lived in Homer for a couple of years. She moved there because of a man. It definitely didn’t work out And she is back living in the Keystone State!
I did Alaska Hwy 2. You did Alaska Highways 1 and 3. Now we need someone to do Alaska Highway 4.
I like ur highway videos too! and ccf to
@@CSXEK thanks! I’ll be releasing a cool gimmick Video in about 2 weeks.
Palmer is where the state fair is
My solution for Highway 2 heading north out of Fairbanks is Prudhoe Bay. No, it isn’t on Highway 2, but Highway 2 just ends unceremoniously in the middle of the state; it can’t even follow the Yukon River to the Bering Sea. Prudhoe Bay along the Dalton Highway, however, does have a sick payoff: ignoring Nordkaap along the E69, it is the northernmost community connected to a Continental road network!
Would be cool!
Interesting. I’d do Manley Hot Springs and Prudhoe Bay. Once Highway 2 meets Highway 11, then Highway 11 could be signed for Prudhoe Bay. Sadly, the only “Town” recognized on Alaska 2 that’s not on Highway 2 is Circle which is off Highway 6.
@SonicandHighwayDude401 I did consider exactly that when watching this on the Patreon last night. However, I don’t know why someone would stay on 2 after the split. At least Prudhoe Bay is synonymous with the Alaskan oil industry and the Trans Alaska Pipeline, which I believe runs within eyesight of the Dalton Highway, not to mention providing access to (figuratively) the edge of the world…
I recognize a lot of Alaska because of Ice Road truckers they showed a lot of prudhoe bay and coldfoot
@truckercowboyed2638 Except the Dalton Highway isn’t really an ice road. Only half of it is paved, but it’s otherwise a gravel road. In fact, apparently I’ve heard that the paved portions are actually worse than the gravel ones. I don’t reckon it’d be wise to attempt it in my Corolla. Gas isn’t the problem (I’ve done the long haul between Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie over the top of Lake Superior on one tank, both eastbound and westbound), but the clearance could be problematic…
University of Alaska. If you're a college basketball fan - especially a fan of a blue blood - you'll remember the Great Alaska Shootout
Of course! Plus KU great Mario Chalmers is from there.
@@ControlCityFreak didn't know that. I know Trajan Langdon from Duke is from there. I'm a UK fan & we got Ramon Harris from there. Good ol' Billy Gillespie days 😩🔫
That road in Alaska at 16:16 is so far north, that you have to go south to get to the north pole.
lol
The O in Tok is long
@18:14 a few miles behind that firework stand on June 2 1996 37,000 acres burned 344 houses burned because some dipsh!t with fireworks! Now they are not legal but they still sell them? New years is safe for fireworks and its dark but the forth of July its 24 hour day light. Fireworks are a stupid fire hazard and should be illegal.
Not sure if the place is still there, Streetview in Alaska tends to be pretty outdated.
@@ControlCityFreak It's still there. It's the place in Alaska where you buy your fireworks. lol
Beautiful here in Florida too... And a bit more acceptable temperatures here than in Alaska lol😂!!
@tomtbi it all depends on the time of year. Sure, the winters can be brutal, but you won't find a finer summer than one in Fairbanks; 70° with 60% humidity is average, and sunlight for 24 hours a day. It sure beats 85° and 90% humidity in my book. Of course, I was born and raised there. I may be somewhat biased.
We are getting ready to buy a place in Florida. We will only spend winters there as Alaska is the only place I’ll spend our summers.
I'm from Alaska (Anchorage area) and could never live in Florida. it sounds so hot and nasty all the time, how do you live?
Delta Junction is where 2 & 4 meet
Are you talking about the Rich? Then call it the Rich. And the Alcan. You sound like a cheechako. 😂
would love to see a I-278, the only interstate highway to go through all 5 boroughs!
I plan to!
@Chiefbiggums12 I recently watched a drivelapse video of 278 that combined it with 695 (over the Throgs Neck Bridge, I believe?). The geometry of that massive interchange in the Bronx certainly does make it feasible to combine the two.
Outside of other long New York spurs like 287 and 495, another drivelapse combines CT 15 and the Hutchinson River Parkway with 678 (over the Whitestone Bridge?). I’m just saying that 278 is far from the only spur in New York worthy of a video, but then again, it is basically a tour of all the city’s bridges…
Thank you for my request. You meant both, Taco Bell, and Fred Meyers. But you did not mention me. but its alright...
I think maybe they could upgrade Highways 1 & 3 between Anchorage and Fairbanks to Interstate standards and sign that as Interstate A1
I don’t. Probably nowhere near enough traffic to justify all that
The Parks Highway is on the books as Interstate A4.
How do you think Alaska and Hawaii have done with control cities so far?
@jordanjobes5751 It’s not that hard to get Alaska right, considering how empty it is. I’m even willing to forgive “Canadian border”, as it’s still a long ways away to the next major city in Whitehorse (roughly 500 km).
@@tylermarchand2996 how good do you think Hawaii does?
@jordanjones5751 Again, hard to mess up, since everything is on Oahu. It’s either Honolulu or wherever else the highway goes. It’s almost unfair to compare them to the contiguous 48.
Aren't some of these officially part of the Interstate system?
Yeah but they’re never signed and nobody refers to them that way. They exist on paper but not in any practical way.
@@ControlCityFreakyears ago I knew one of the Alaska DOT heads and he told me that Alaska roads are considered temporary and get more money from the Feds because of this. Supposedly these roads can’t have more than 4” of asphalt on them to have this temporary status.
@@Chris_at_Homeliving here yes they are constantly repairing and ripping up roads (in the summer) so i could totally see that. in fairness, we get earthquakes and permafrost so concrete roads are by and large a no go
It’s key-ni
My interstate hero wasn’t here last week! What was wrong
Said for weeks that I was taking a break
@@ControlCityFreak oh yeah I forgot 😆
11:00 Highway 9
Alaska is a very interesting place....... first line is a 3 digit... strangeeeeee
@TomMaster If he does the Dalton Highway at some point, I suspect we’ll see a TOP LINE distance of 240 miles (there’s only three spots for gas along the highway before Highway 2, and it’s 240 to the first one leaving Prudhoe Bay! I think it’s the LONGEST stretch of highway in the U.S. without services!
I did Route 2 in Alaska and I showed a Mileage Sign with 4 Places on it. 3 of them were for Alaska 2, while the 4th was for Alaska Hwy 1 which was 421 miles away!
@SonicandHighwayDude401 I actually did see a distance sign with four lines while on my summer road trip across Canada last year. BC 1 (the mainline for the TCH) northbound through the Fraser River canyon north of Hope had Kamloops as the third line, and featured a BC 97 city (Prince George) as a fourth line. I really liked that choice, as Prince George is a major city on the route to Alaska from the contiguous 48 states.
@@tylermarchand2996My work truck could make the whole trip from Fairbanks to Prudhoe on one tank with 8 gallons to spare. I’ve driven in many times working along the pipeline. Coldfoot is mile 175 and Prudhoe is mile 419.
Your pronunciation of Alaska town names is a little rough haha
Toke is “Toke”, Valdez is Valdeez, Kenai is Keen-eye
No Alaskan refers to our highways by their numbers. We don’t even know what the numbers are. We call the highways by their names. The Parks, the Glenn, the Seward Highway…
And you mispronounced Tok. And Kenai. And Valdez. And Tok again a bunch of times. And Denali. And Nenana.
And they label it it “City of Kenai” to avoid confusion with the Kenai Peninsula and Kenai Fjords National Park, which is actually in Seward.
The way you pronounced Kenai, Tok, and Valdez was very wrong.
TOK is not pronounced TALK , but rather TOKE!
I'm a 30 year resident of Alaska !
No one cares
You've obliterated the names of our various towns. Otherwise, the video was nicely done. Kenai is pronounced Keen Eye; Tok is pronounced like Toke which rhymes with smoke; Valdez is pronounced Valdeez (long e sound)
Outsider acting like he’s knows anything. To start with, no Alaskan uses Highway numbers. 😂Lol 😂😂 We call them by their names.
Not pretending to be an expert on Alaska, and I mention that people use highway names. Coulda been worse, I could have done Alaska "Interstates," which literally just exist on paper and nobody acknowledges.
Alaska dose not honor out of state drivers licenses. Consequently, their residents can't drive here in Texas.😊
Akasja does honor out-of state drivers licenses, if you are in the state for 20 days or less if you do not intend to live in Alaska for many years or vote in Alaskan elections.
Incorrect