the dalton highway

last april, when i started my plan of appending alaska to my trip, i discovered that there was a road going north from fairbanks along the alaskan pipeline all the way up to the arctic ocean - 500 miles long.   all but the last 8 miles was open to the public for travel.  my research as well as pointers from people who knew about the road indicated it was not an easy highway.  "have two full size spare tires on hand and slow down when passing trucks to try to avoid a cracked windshield from flying gravel."   at the end, a paid tour across the oil fields would get me to the arctic ocean.  it's something i had never imagined doing.  before that i didn't even know it was possible to drive to the arctic ocean.  but i was up for the challenge and excited to try it!

i left fairbanks around 10am.  the first 75 miles along the pipeline is a pretty decent highway.

then the dalton highway branches off and continues north all the way to prudhoe bay at the ocean.

it's dirt as soon as it starts and within minutes i went through some muddy ruts and had dirt and gravel bang on my windshield from passing trucks.  yup, just as expected - pretty rough going.

only 100 miles from fairbanks my gas gauge was reading unusually low for how many miles i'd gone.

i pulled over and check for leaks underneath.  there is only gas at the halfway point another 140 miles ahead, so having enough fuel was critical.  after investigating and finding no apparent cause for it, i cautiously continued and eventually figured i must have just started with very bad gas mileage while in fairbanks.

this is what it was like to follow a truck.

my first time being within the arctic circle!!

a few trees jumpstarting the arctic autumn.

pipeline.

a pot-holey stretch of dirt road mixed with rain equals mud.

my view:  i have to watch the road.

your view:  you can take in the scenery to the side while i watch the road.

gross.

i saw several cyclists on the dalton.  gutsy.

pretty red and yellow floor

another cyclist and an oncoming truck

in several locations i had to wait for construction work

i used the longer waits to wipe the mud off my lights and windows.

pipe, pipe, pipe the whole way.

the road truly was challenging with thousands of potholes and dips...  attempting to avoid them was more exciting than a video game.   my poor shocks and alignment!  but my van was holding up like a champ.   and never has my van been so dirty!

people camping out and chilling in their camping chairs.  i think these were airforce dudes.

big trucks got the right of way.  there was a little bridge between us at the bottom between the hills.  at the pace we each had we would have hit the bridge at the same time...

so i decided i better pull over and give them the whole road.

that let them gain the necessary momentum to more easily make it up my side of the hill.

musk oxen.

geese in front of the bluffs

windsurfers!  brrrrr!!

i made it to prudhoe bay in the same day with under 12 hours of driving.

it was foggy so i couldn't see anything.  i went a mile back to a pullout for sleeping...  sleeping within the arctic circle only miles from the arctic ocean.  awesome!

fairbanks

i had driven morning to evening several days in a row to get to fairbanks.  when i got there i was pretty fatigued, so i took two days to chill and blog and call people and other errands.  

i looked for mail at the post office where i was expecting general delivery mail, but they told me i'd have to find it at another post office.  the other one didn't have anything for me even though i was expecting it to.  not sure what happened there.   near the first one i saw these cool log cabins with vegetated roofs.

clustered together were a walmart, barnes & noble, mcdonals, and some other stores.  that was convenient for me those two days.  it became my own little city.  i used the internet at barnes & noble and enjoyed sitting at their nice fire place!

i found it funny that everyone had plugs hanging out of the front of their vehicle.  i don't want to imagine living in a place that gets so cold that you need to plug in your vehicle for it to start again.

alaska!

i made it to alaska!

alaska became state number 49 since i had started my trip nine months before that.  wow.  there were only three cars in front of me at the border patrol stop and it didn't take long for me to get through.    as soon as i hit the border, the road turned to dirt.  but i had hoped for pavement.

turns out it was just a little construction.

and the rest of the 300 miles to fairbanks was a nice smoothly paved highway.  yay!

suspended pipe

most of the highway to fairbanks was in a valley away from the mountain ranges, but it did pass a few mountains.

once in fairbanks i settled down in the walmart parkinglot for sleep.  the sun was setting late and the full moon was already in the sky.

yukon

"welcome to yukon"!!!

i stopped at this place in watson lake to figure out where i was heading...  um....

confusion

"aloha state"!  soon i hoped

annnnnnd, This is where i originally planned to intercept the alcan.  i was happy to see that the road was still indeed closed - it wasn't a waste going around it.

some roads i don't mind going on forever.

i got to whitehorse with light to spare.  so i went for a walk!  except for pumping gas, it was the first time i'd been out of my van in three days.  walking felt very good.

check out this wooden cab

i got back on the alcan highway and continued another 300 miles in the yukon to get to the border of alaska.  i passed more beautiful mountains on the way.

yes, i actually stopped for this photo.

the last 150 miles before the border had the worst pavement i've seen on my whole trip.  it was in awful disrepair, but kind of a fun challenge too - swerving to miss gaps and trying to quickly gage how much to slow down to avoid crunching the shocks fully in the crazy dips.   when i dared, i would look up from the road to the continued beautiful scenery.

not sure how well it shows up in this photo, but it was a super wide rainbow at ground level

then i finally approached the border.  the mountains in the distance were in alaska!