Dalton Highway

Tuesday was the big day that we had been planning for ever since we visited Alaska 12 years ago.  On Tuesday we would make the drive up the Dalton Highway.  The Dalton Highway, also known as the Haul Road, was built in 1974 as a supply road for the Alaska Pipeline.  It starts about 80 miles north of Fairbanks and travels 414 miles north from there ending at the Arctic Ocean in Prudhoe Bay, AK.  The road was originally all dirt but they have been slowly paving portions of it.  Today 109 of the 414 miles are paved.  The road is used primarily by trucks delivering supplies to the oilfields at Prudhoe Bay.  They do not recommend smaller cars or motorcycles travel the road.  According to at least one source, 1 in 50 motorcycles that travels the road crashes.  The road is fairly primitive and quite remote.  There are only three towns located along the route, Coldfoot (population 13), Wiseman (population 22) and Deadhorse at the end.   As was recommended to us in the visitor’s center in Fairbanks several days before, they advise travelers to carry extra fuel, two spare tires, a CB radio or satellite phone, extra food and water, and survival gear.  According to everything we read you are also pretty much guaranteed a broken or chipped windshield each time you pass another vehicle.  Chris has wanted to travel this road for 12 years now.  We did not plan on travelling all the way to the end given how late in the season it was but we did want to get a taste for it so we booked two nights in Wiseman, which is about half way up.  We intentionally booked two nights because we read that around Sept 21 you are pretty much guaranteed to see the Northern Lights from Wiseman assuming the weather is clear.

In the days leading up to our trip we kept a close eye on the weather and the road conditions.  The two days leading up to our trip called for a winter weather advisory for portions of the highway with 4-6 inches of snow expected.  That advisory was to end by 6 AM on the day we left.  We were also concerned because our rental car (rental cars are forbidden on the Dalton) only had a donut spare tire rather than a full sized tire.  This was the reason for us buying two cans of fix-a-flat at Walmart before our journey.  We had considered renting a vehicle that was available specifically for this road but the $199/day price tag + mileage + insurance made us stick with our rental.  We were convinced that if something went wrong we would never be more than 50 miles in one direction or another from a gas station.  Surely a donut tire could hold up for 50 miles on a dirt road!  We sure hoped so because a tow would be about $5 per mile coming and going!

We left our hotel by 7:30 AM on Tuesday.  We only had 279 miles to drive that day but we were not sure what exactly to expect.  The first 80 miles out of Fairbanks, before we even got to the Dalton, turned out to be the worst that day.  While those 80 miles were completely paved, the road crossed over several mountains.  That combined with the fact that there had been light snow the day before plus the sun really hadn’t had time to melt the snow yet, made for slippery driving on a road for many of those first 80 miles.  After about two hours we finally hit the Dalton.

Some of the signs we saw within the first half mile were interesting, presumably warning us to what was to come:

We also stopped to take a couple of pictures of the map of the highway, to prove we were there.

Our initial thoughts on the road were that there was too much hype and it wasn’t bad at all.  We were expecting gravel (the kind that you need 2 spare tires for) but instead it was more dirt.  We made pretty good time, probably travelling between 50 and 60 mph on straight sections much of the way.  We arrived at the first major stopping point after about an hour of driving.  The Yukon River crossing is at Milepost 56 on the road.  There is a large bridge over the Yukon River, followed by a small camp where you could get something to eat and/or fill up on gas.  Filling up on gas was one piece of advice we took from everything we read and what the lady at the information center in Fairbanks had told us.  She recommended we fill up at EVERY opportunity.  Since this was the first gas station we had passed since leaving Fairbanks over 130 miles ago we topped off.  At $5.19 per gallon we are pretty sure that is the most we have ever paid in our lives.  The car (or is it a truck?  We had a Traverse) took about 8 gallons.  We did not buy any food on this trip up; we instead only went inside to check the place out and to take some pictures.  There was a boarded up window where several years back a bear had broken in during the winter.  When the owners had arrived in the spring to open up there was a large sleeping grizzly bear inside.  The bear had torn the place up inside and the hallway where he lay became his final resting place.  We thought that they might just tranquilize it and relocate it or something but in Alaska grizzly bears are a way of life and there are so many of them around that you would likely not get anyone to come help you relocate it. 

The bear window

The Yukon River Camp

View crossing the Yukon River

After leaving the Yukon River Camp we passed by the Hot Spot Café where we would have stopped for something to eat but it had already been closed for the season.  Instead we continued northward towards our next stop at the Arctic Circle.  The road remained in pretty good shape, alternating between very nicely paved road not unlike anything you see in the lower 48, to rougher sections full of potholes.  Nevertheless we were able to maintain our 50+ mph speed for much of the way.

Closed Hot Spot Cafe

We stopped for our obligatory Arctic Circle picture.  How many people can say they’ve driven not only to but north of the Arctic Circle?  The Arctic Circle was the first place we saw other travelers besides trucks and maintenance vehicles.  As we were there taking our pictures another car pulled up filled with a few Japanese tourists.  We learned that they too had started that morning in Fairbanks.  We did not learn how far north they were travelling but we did end up leaving before them.

A grouse in the trees near the Arctic Circle

We continued onward.  By now there was more snow around us.  While it wasn’t deep, it was there.  The road was mostly clear but the mix of fall colors with the snow all over the place made for some pretty nice shots.  We stopped a few more times at various pull offs admiring the truly amazing scenery before arriving at the first of the 3 towns on the highway, Coldfoot.  

Don't let the lack of tire tracks throw you off...this is a side road from the highway, not the actual highway

One of the paved sections of road

And an unpaved section of road

The highway and the pipeline in the background

Coldfoot, at MP 175 of the Dalton, was 60 miles beyond the Arctic Circle.  It is a former gold mining town that exploded to a big town of 450 people or so during the construction of the pipeline in the 70’s.  Today there are 13 people who live there.  Coldfoot was the second and last available gas on the Dalton as well.  Because we were only travelling another 20 miles or so beyond Coldfoot we decided not to fill up until the next day.  We did stop to check the place out.  There isn’t much: a small post office only open 3 days a week, a gas station, a saloon, a hotel (if you want to call it that…more like a place to sleep).  Basically it was a glorified truck stop.  Upon leaving Coldfoot they warn you of the lack of services for the rest of the Dalton and they also advise you of restrictions when you get to the end.  We think it was then that we started kicking ourselves for not driving the whole distance.

The facilities at Coldfoot

Coldfoot Post Office

Our last stop of the day would be in Wiseman.  The highway between Coldfoot and Wiseman was in excellent condition, having apparently been paved in the last year or so.  Wiseman, 3 miles off the Dalton at MP189 is another tiny little town.  It was also established as a gold mining town in the early 1900’s but today is nothing more than a handful of houses.  Our stats for the trip between the start of the Dalton Highway and Wiseman:  189 miles.  We passed only 36 vehicles in the other direction, 22 of them being big rig trucks, 1 being a snowplow and most of the others being maintenance vehicles that seemed to be patrolling the highway.  We saw 5 vehicles travelling in the same direction as us, most of them being while we were stopped at pull offs.  We actually passed 1 person walking on the road, we did not stop because he waved at us (didn’t seem to be in trouble) plus there was never a broken down vehicle anywhere.  Those stats show you how remote the road is.

One of the 22 trucks we passed

In Wiseman there are several cabins and other lodging available for travelers, we assume this is how people there make a living.  We had reservations at the Boreal Lodge, which had several cabins available as well as a lodge with a few rooms.  We had two rooms in the lodge for the 4 of us.  We shared 2 bathrooms and we shared a kitchen.  We were alone the first night but the second night we shared our kitchen and bathrooms with a couple from Oregon.  We were pleasantly surprised by how nice the place was, as we were expecting something very rustic.  The shared bathrooms and kitchen may sound rustic but they were very clean.  We were very comfortable and quite happy with our home for the two days.  

The Lodge

Shared kitchen

One of the two shared bathrooms and showers

We even had clear weather so we figured we might get lucky on the Northern Lights.  Our host told us that they had been seeing the Northern Lights on clear nights between 11 PM and 3:30 AM.  We did our very best to stay awake until then.  We alternated between staying awake and taking naps and we were able to stay awake long enough to check out the sky.  We think we got a quick glimpse of the Northern Lights before it clouded up about 10 minutes after we went outside.  We kept checking every 15 minutes for the next 3 hours or so and it never did clear up again.  Now we have another reason to return.

The next day we awoke to very different weather.  While Tuesday had been clear and quite beautiful, Wednesday it was snowing.  It wasn’t snowing hard but it was snowing enough to make it a little slippery.  We were not driving back to Fairbanks until Thursday but we did plan on driving about 50 miles north of Wiseman for one specific purpose:  To visit the North Slope Borough of Alaska.  We have already been to all 50 states so we needed a new goal.  We are trying to visit every county in the USA (3142 counties).  Alaska has boroughs instead of counties and the North Slope Borough is one of the more difficult boroughs in Alaska to reach so being only 50 miles away, we had to go for it.  The trip again was pretty easy. Besides being a little slippery, it was not as much of a roller coaster ride as the day before.  Tuesday’s trip had lots of ups and downs in the road, Wednesday was mostly flat.  The first 20 miles or so were newly paved making for a smoother ride than most places back home.  With just about no traffic we were able to drive pretty quickly despite the snowy roads.  Near the border of the North Slope Borough we also spotted the furthest north spruce tree on the highway.  We learned that near our turnaround point was the tree line. Basically that means that north of that point, trees just do not grow.  Our turnaround point was also the start of probably the most treacherous part of the road, where the road climbs over a 4700 foot high pass.  While we didn’t drive over the pass we did get a picture at one of the pull offs of what the road looked like in the early days of the highway.  We vowed to travel the rest of the road the next time we visit Alaska.

Wednesday's scenery...quite different

Road conditions on Wednesday

The highway over the pass in the early days (1970's).

We drove back to Wiseman, passing by the town on the way down so we could buy gas at Coldfoot before heading south the next day.  The snow made for a very different scene than the previous day, but the town was still just as quiet as the previous day.  We returned to Wiseman, walked around town a little bit and returned to our room to get some sleep because we would be on clear sky watch again that night hoping for a break in the clouds that would never come.

Coldfoot on Wednesday

Filling up.  $5.19/gallon again.

The road leading to our lodge.  Like just about every remote Alaska town there is a small airstrip, thus the airplane.

Just outside our lodge

Another shot of the lodge

On Thursday we got another early start, this time we were on the road by 7 AM.  We knew how long the trip should take but we also knew it was snowing and likely would be snowing the whole way.  Before leaving the lodge we checked on the road conditions for the trip back because as part of our rustic experience we also had free Wi-Fi.  Chris noted that for part of the trip back they were recommending chains for your tires, which of course we did not have.  We would just have to take it easy.  The traffic going home was about as heavy as the traffic coming up.  We saw only 46 vehicles the whole way, but this time 3 of them were snowplows!  We think every single truck had chains on their tires and we also noticed that the trucks, which yesterday were all barreling down the road at 60 mph+, were today mostly taking it easy.  The snow also made for some really nice scenery going down.  It was quite a difference between Thursday being snowy and Tuesday when it was mostly clear.  

The car after 100 miles of driving through the snow

What a difference only 2 days makes..

We stopped again after 130 snowy miles, at the Yukon River crossing, this time we did not fill up on $5.19 gas but we instead got some nice pieces of pie inside the café.  After eating our pie we continued onward.  As for driving conditions, Chris noticed that driving on snow covered pavement was slippery but driving on snow covered dirt road was not slippery at all.  We wished they hadn’t paved that road!  The snowy roads quickly turned into mud the further south we got.  Driving on muddy roads was far more slippery than driving on icy or snowy roads and it made for a very dirty car.  We had to stop several times to clear off the windshield by hand (windshield wiper fluid up front broken:  long story). The back of the car further north was completely covered in snow but now it was completely covered in mud.  Many years ago on a trip for work, Chris and a friend had an agreement that the person who had the muddier car must have had more fun on the trip.  Chris won back then with the muddier car but that mud back then was no match for today.  We have no idea how the car rental company is going to get this car cleaned.

Yukon River Camp Cafe

The end of the highway

We had been using the rear windshield wipers to keep the window clean but we found that every minute or so it looked like this again.

Looking out the back window from the inside.

We made it back to Fairbanks a little before 3.  We again hit the Walmart, this time to return our fix-a-flat that we didn’t get to use as well as our bear spray that we thankfully did not use.  We then checked into our hotel a little after 3.

Next time we’ll make it to the Arctic Ocean…