Iditarod Trail is the name for several trails in Alaska.
Historic Iditarod Trail
The Iditarod Trail was a trail that connected a point 80 km (50 miles) north of Seward, Alaska, where a forerunner of the Alaska Railroad ended, through Iditarod, Alaska and then to Nome. The trail was about 1,850 km (1,150 miles) long.
From its beginning, the trail wound along Turnagain Arm, over Crow Pass, down the Eagle River Valley and northward to the trading post of Knik River, the largest town on the Upper Cook Inlet until the railroad town of Anchorage began in 1915. The trail then passed west through the valleys of the Susitna River and Yentna River and passed through the Alaska Range through Rainy Pass. West of the Alaska Range, the trail crossed the Kuskokwim River Valley to the hills west of McGrath and entered the Innoko River mining district and the town of Ophir. After Ophir, the trail went southwest through the Kuskokwim Mountains to Iditarod.
The trail went northwest from Iditarod to the Yukon River, and then due north on the river to the village of Kaltag. The trail then followed the 145 km (90 mile) long Kaltag Portage, an old native trading trail, to Unalakleet, on the Norton Sound. From Unalakleet, the trail north and west around the shore of the Seward Peninsula, passing the villages of Shaktoolik, Koyuk, and Golovin. It then proceeded to its end on Front Street in Nome.
The trail was used during the winter by dog mushers with large freight sleds carrying up to 1/2 tonne (1,100 pounds) of freight.
Iditarod National Historic Trail
The modern Iditarod National Historic Trail is a network of trails used by pre-European inhabitants of Alaska and the gold rush supply trail mentioned above. The network includes 1,450 km (900 miles) of trail on the main route and 3,950 km (2,450 miles) of side trails. Most of the trails are usable only during Alaska's six-month winters when rivers and tundra are frozen.
Iditarod Race Route
A famous dogsled race, the Iditarod, is named after the now-abandoned town of Iditarod. The race commemorates a dogsled relay that carried a life-saving vaccine from Nenana to Nome in 1925. The race does not follow the Iditarod Trail nor does it follow the route used in 1925 to transport the vaccine.
The 1925 route through Nenana is in gray
The modern race trail, approximately the same as the historic trail, is in red
