Today we headed to the Arctic Circle – the actual Arctic Circle, not the fast-food restaurant. This is the farthest North any of us have ever traveled. Our day didn’t go as we had originally thought it would. It included cone swallowing holes in the road, fire after fire after fire, a ceiling that kept my Diet Coke from spilling, and a truck stop with fresh homemade cookies.
Our day started when we set off from Fairbanks, getting on the Elliot Highway. The Elliot Highway connects with the Dalton Highway which leads to the Yukon River Camp, Arctic Circle, Cold Foot, and terminates at Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse.
The Airstream was left behind today. We opted to take only the truck and make this a day trip instead of an overnighter. We heard stories about the rough conditions of the road and didn’t want to risk damaging the Airstream. Thank goodness we did, although there were a few parts of the road that where alright, most of it was rough to extremely rough. There is also a lot of semitruck traffic traveling back and forth to Prudhoe Bay.
There were holes and crevasses in the road that were marked by cones so deep that only the tip of the cone could be seen until we got right up to it. The Elliot Highway had paved areas where there were so many layers of asphalt that the road was higher than the guardrails.
I can’t forget to mention the Pipeline! It was visible from the road a majority of our journey. What an impressive structure. There were a lot of fires on our drive, some so close to the road we could see the flames, some huge, some smaller. There were a couple areas around the pipeline that had been burned. Any idea how the pipeline wasn’t affected by the fire? It’s been baffling us.
In addition to being impressed with the pipeline, we also saw some amazing scenery. The fireweed was prevalent, as were Black Spruce trees. Black Spruce are unique trees that are able to root in areas of permafrost. I quite like the look of these trees.
Our first planned stop was the Yukon River Camp. Just before the Camp is the Yukon Crossing Bridge, the largest privately funded construction project in U.S history. It’s a 2,290 foot-long wood-decked bridge that crosses the Yukon River. The pipeline runs along the underside of the bridge. After crossing the bridge, we reached Yukon River Camp. We popped inside for a couple souvenirs and decided to have lunch there. We saved the picnic lunch we packed to have for dinner.
At the Yukon River Camp I had a bowl of chili, Braxton had a burger and fries, Mike had coconut salmon chowder. The food was very good. The bathrooms were clean, although there was some interesting signage in them. Yukon River Camp not only has a gift shop and food, but they have gas, diesel, phones, showers, and lodging. It is one of only a couple stops on the Dalton Highway.
On our way to the Arctic Circle, we passed through a variety of vegetation types. We saw everything from boreal forests, boggy lowlands and alpine tundra to forests that were thick with birch and white spruce trees. We stopped at “Finger Rock”, a tor east of the highway. According to my trip bible, “The Milepost”, tors date back almost 110 million years ago during the crustaceous period. Tors are huge pieces of granite that stick up out of the tundra. They are actually an effect of erosion. At Finger Rock we took the short hiking trail around the area, a great place to get some fresh air and stretch our legs.
We then made it to the Arctic Circle. We did the required photo op at the sign. It was at this point we made the decision to go to Cold Foot, home of the most northerly truck stop. We were, after all, only about an hour and a half away. What’s an hour and a half more when we have already driven 5 hours?
We made it to Cold Foot Camp and of all the places to have cell service, our phones worked here. They didn’t work anywhere else on the Dalton Highway, but they worked here – go figure. We had to pop into the Cold Foot Camp Truck stop, the most northerly truck stop. I had hopes of getting a trucker style hat there as a souvenir, but alas, they had only regular baseball hats. Bonus, though – they had fresh homemade cookies. Yes please!!
We made our way back toward Fairbanks, stopping to eat our postponed picnic lunch for dinner at the BLM Yukon Crossing Visitor Contact Station, across the highway from Yukon River Camp. It was closed by the time we got there so we just ate and got back on the road. Other than some craziness on the part of the Dalton Highway called the “Roller Coaster” where one bump was so big my Diet Coke hit the ceiling; the drive back was uneventful. Thankfully the ceiling acted like a lid to the can and not a drop spilled!
The weather was great the whole day and being so far north we had daylight the entire drive. We got back after 11pm and the sun was still up.
It was a long day, but a lot of fun. A day we will look back on for years to come.
Tips for traveling on the Dalton Highway:
- Take plenty of supplies (food, water, tools, etc.) in the event you get stuck somewhere.
- Have at least one spare tire.
- Know your gas mileage and make sure you have enough gas, there’s not a lot of stops along the highway.
- Watch for holes and other obstacles in/on the road.
- Keep in mind, this is an industrial highway. Give truckers the right-of-way. Slow down and pull to the right of the road when you see them coming from either direction. Let them pass you. If you give them the respect they deserve, they will almost always slow down when driving when passing. This can spare your windshield rock damage. Remember, they are working, you probably aren’t.