The Iditarod is about 1,049 miles long. The trail is beautiful but it can get dangerous. There are two trails: one trail is called northern route and the other trail is called the southern route. The mushers use the northern route on odd years, and the mushers use the southern route on even years. There are 26 checkpoints on the trail; the mushers sign in and then they pick up their supplies. Sometimes the mushers sleep outside because they need some rest from racing for a few hours. All of the teams must take a 24 hour rest somewhere along the trail.

Reporters have a hard time pronouncing some of the villages' names like Skwentna, Unalakleet, Ophir, Shageluk, Shaktoolik, Rohn and Takotna. Those names all come from the Native Alaskan people.