Previous texture evolution experiments carried out on high-density polyethylene to an equivalent strain of epsilon(e) = 1.86 have indicated the development of a quasi-single-crystalline long-range coherence in the principal direction of molecular alignment parallel to the direction of extensional flow, in which the differentiation between crystalline and amorphous components is substantially weakened. The present investigation probes the long-range coherence of the macromolecular order with atomic force microscopy (AFM) with molecular-level resolution. The AFM findings support the earlier studies and reveal a remarkable level of long-range coherence in the chain direction with few regions of imperfection - consisting mostly of isolated molecular kinks, flip-over of molecules and gradual coherent twists, but no readily discernible phase-separated amorphous layers. These structural characteristics are consistent with the radical weakening of small-angle X-ray scattering images and the high level of hexagonal coordination of molecules in the stretched ’amorphous’ material, which was revealed by X-ray pole figures.