As requested pics from this past weekend's Arctic roadtrip.

So you think you want to drive the Dalton Highway? If you grew up in the suburbs, learned how to drive in a minivan and when going to Disneyland you got scared in the Haunted Mansion and on the Spinning Tea Cups, the Dalton Highway is probably not going to be a fun road trip for you. If you grew up in the sticks, learned how to drive in a pickup on dirt roads and when going to Disneyland Space Mountains and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride were your idea of fun, you’re really going to have fun on the Dalton!

Highway in the name Dalton Highway is a rather loose term. It’s only 2 lanes, most of it is a hard packed dirt surface with some stretches of asphalt and other stretches of gravel. It was built as the supply road for the Alaskan Pipeline in the 70’s and goes from just north of Fairbanks all the way up to Deadhorse on Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean. It’s also called the Haul Road and is still the supply road for the oil fields. It’s got pot holes big enough to swallow a Subaru full of lesbians whole. It’s got frost heaves big enough to launch that same Subaru into low earth orbit.

Driving the road is just as much of the experience as the scenery. Probably as close to Rhys Millen driving the Pikes Peak Hill Climb as I’ll ever get. Getting the back end sideways on gravel, power slides all on a 2 lane dirt road with really big ditches and trees on the sides. Just remember, you’re basically on your own out here and the ditch is not a place you want to be. There’s no cell service, no roadside assistance and if you’re lucky enough to be in the ditch and visible from the roadway, it’s a very long time between passing vehicles.

An incredible trip that makes me want to return when I have more time.

Dustcloud from a semi about 1/4 mile in front of me. Yes, the dust clouds kicked up by the trucks on the gravel sections suck!


Bridge over the frozen Yukon River.


Me proving I walked out into the middle of the Yukon River. Why? Because I could and never know when I might get the chance again. I'm still getting used to this Alaska thing of standing on large bodies of water.


Looking down the river, yes it's that big.


Somehow my iPad on shuffle pulled up Dwight Yokam's, "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere" on this stretch of road.


It's official, I'm cold. Not so much from the temperature but from the wind. It was in the mid 20's but the wind was absolutely brutal.


Sometimes the Arctic looks like a Salvadore Dali painting.


On top of the section of the highway the truckers nicknamed, "Kamikaze Hill". That diagonal line in the foreground is the road coming up an 8% grade dirt road. It does a nasty 180 degree steep horseshoe to get up to the overlook where I'm at.


Another view from the top of the Kamikaze Trail. Complete and total silence, no wind, no wildlife, no vehicles, no people. I've never experienced silence like this before. It's spooky. It was time to get back in the truck and crank the iPad up.


As far north as I made it, pipeline in the background. Doing some quick cowboy math of far I'd driven, how big the gas tank was, and how much I had left to get back told me it was time to turn around and go back to Fairbanks. That's the problem with the Arctic, it draws you in farther to see what's over the next ridge.


Looking back at from where I had come from and was going to cross again.


Proof that the truck made it across the Arctic Circle. Here's the joke they played on me, that sign isn't visible from the highway. It's up inside a campground. I passed the sign that said, "Arctic Circle Campground" figured it was just a campground and the sign would be at the actual crossing of the Circle and the highway. Fifty miles later I decided that maybe I'd gone too far and the sign was back at the campground.


Proof that me and the truck made it back in one piece.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 2000Z-71,

That's great. Thanks for posting these.

Thanks for sharing your pic's.I enjoy the shows of the people that scratch a living from that country,not for my old ass.

I drove it a few years ago, but in July.

There was no walking to the middle of the Yukon then. :-)

It was beautiful however.

I will add, that the mosquitoes were unbelievable. We ran over to the sign, took off our head nets, took the pic, and nets back on, back to truck. Swatted the swarm all the way back to North Pole....

We did stop on the way back and gather blueberries.... If you go in the summer, I highly recommend you do the same, they are fantastic!

Thanks for the pics!

Doug

Nice!

Looks like "Book on CD Heaven". Quiet empty road, a veritable home on wheels, great time to drive and contemplate.

That just made its way into my bucket list. I’ve always had a fascination with extremely remote places.

Thanks for sharing.

quote:

Originally posted by asonie:
That just made its way into my bucket list. I’ve always had a fascination with extremely remote places.

Thanks for sharing.

Remote doesn't begin to describe it. I thought driving the ALCAN in October was remote making Wyoming look positively metropolitan. This made the ALCAN look like I-5 through southern California. It was an incredible trip that makes me want to go again, spend more time and go farther up.

Driving all the way up to Deadhorse is a trip that I have planned. But that takes some planning and reservations. What few places there are to stay up there can be filled with oil crews or construction crews. I also want to take the shuttle from Deadhorse out to the Arctic Ocean and that doesn't start running until the end of May. If I'm going that far north, I'm going all the way north!

quote:

Originally posted by asonie:
That just made its way into my bucket list. I’ve always had a fascination with extremely remote places....

Me too. After seeing this, my childhood fascination with books like "Call of the Wild" has been rekindled and making this trip, but hopefully all the way to Prudhoe Bay, is now on my bucket list.



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We will be going up to the Artic in 2020. We will also try and make it up to Tuk in Canada on the same trip..Fortunately I have almost a 50 gallon fuel tank.

OP: What a great post....thank you.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
We will be going up to the Artic in 2020. We will also try and make it up to Tuk in Canada on the same trip..Fortunately I have almost a 50 gallon fuel tank.

Not sure of your to and from Tuk, but you might want to consider something that takes in the Top of the World Highway. It starts with a ferry ride from Dawson City across the Yukon River. From there it follows the top of the ridgeline into Alaska and ends at the Taylor Highway. I've got the Top of the World on my list of planned road trips.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...of_the_World_Highway

I made just the first part of that drive back in March of 2014 with my brother. The rental car contract strictly forbade going any further than the end of the pavement.




The pipeline, from a pullout about 10 miles north of Fairbanks.


Next day we drove down to see Denali. Bluebird day.


A couple days nights before, we found a field outside of North Pole and took in the aurora.

Very nice! Here's a shot of the pipeline from about that same spot near Fairbanks, but in the summertime:
DSC_7928.jpg by David Casteel, on Flickr