Alaska Sunday XXI

Trip Log - Part V

June 26 - July 3

The fifth installment of the actual trip log of 'The Drive from Texas to Alaska and Back'.

As mentioned previously, this log does not contain too much commentary. It is mainly sequential locations, dates, mileage traveled, photographs showing the trip progress, and how the landscape changed. The Alaska Trip Log is divided into one to two week intervals (parts) and I am posting it on consecutive Sundays. Past and future posts of Alaska Sunday (apart from the trip log) will have more detailed information, and more photos of each specific area. Most of the photographs in this log section were previously posted when describing specific locations.

Click on the links for more photographs and detailed descriptions of this part of the trip.


Last week we arrived in Fairbanks. Today we will continue with mileage to Coldfoot, Deadhorse, and back to Fairbanks.

Be sure to click on the photographs for full screen views.

And so, on with the trip.


6/26 Fairbanks, Alaska to Coldfoot, AK 261 mi

Martha under the Pipeline

A lot of gravel road to go


Standing on the Arctic Circle looking NW
Just after the Summer Soltice

See AK Sunday V, click here.


Slate Creek Inn at Deadhorse
$149.oo per night for a box room


See AK Sunday VI, click here.


Martha caught me resting



Koyukuk River at Midnight
Photography after a little rest


See AK Sunday VII, click here.

6/27 Coldfoot, AK to Deadhorse, Ak 247 mi

Cirque in Atigun Pass
Brooks Range


Looking Back at the Brooks Range
Alaska Pipeline

See AK Sunday VIII, click here.

6/28 and 6/29 Around Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay, AK 120 mi

Chasing butterflies (one in the net)
Near the Arctic Ocean

6/30 Deadhorse back to Coldfoot 240 mi

Racing ahead of a flash flood
Koyukuk River
In 1994 floods on the river swept away three villages,
forcing the wholesale relocation of the population.

See AK Sunday XI, click here, for more of this exciting part of the trip.

7/1 Coldfoot back to Fairbanks 245 mi

7/2 Fairbanks area 22 mi

Next week we will travel to Denali National Park with lots of Photos in that area.

Mileage for this section of the log ...........1135 mi
Mileage before 6/26 ................................7809 mi

Total miles for the trip to date ...............8944 mi

Comments are appreciated.
Let me know if you are keeping up with the trip,
or are just a onetime visitor.

Troy and Martha

Alaska Sunday VII

Today we will try to get from Coldfoot to Deadhorse.

Be sure to click on the photos to see the enlarged view.
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Enjoy and leave a comment.

Midnight in the Rain at Coldfoot
A little rain can’t stop the Photography

Coldfoot is basically a truck stop on the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. It has a restaurant, and a small number of overnight accommodations (converted pipeline construction camp quarters). Bus tours along the highway typically take two days, and passengers spend the night here. The BLM, USFWS, and NPS jointly staff a small visitor center during the summer. The Coldfoot truck stop was founded by Iditarod champion Dick Mackey who started his operation by selling hamburgers out of a converted school bus. Truckers helped build the existing truck stop and cafe.

The Koyukuk River at Midnight
Photography at Midnight is Great

I stayed up most of the night having fun with photography. I had to sleep a little for the drive tomorrow into Prudhoe Bay (Deadhorse).

The town was originally a mining camp named "Slate Creek", and around 1900 got its present name when prospectors going up the nearby Koyukuk River would get "cold feet" and turn around. In 1902 Coldfoot had two roadhouses, two stores, seven saloons, and a gambling house. A post office operated from 1902 to 1912, then reopened in 1984.

Coldfoot Airport, on the west side of the Dalton Highway, consists of a 4,000-foot (1220-metre) gravel strip.

The Road and Pipeline out of Coldfoot
The road is pretty good here
For perspective, the Pipeline is 48 inches in diameter.

The Koyukuk River is a principal tributary of the Yukon River, approximately 500 mi (805 km) long, in northern Alaska in the United States.

It drains an area north of the Yukon on the southern side of the Brooks Range. The river is named for the Koyukon people.

It rises in several forks above the Arctic Circle in the Endicott Mountains, near 67°58′N, 151°15′W.

The North Fork rises in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. The combined river flows generally southwest, past Bettles, in a broadening valley of spruce forests amid small lakes and marshes. It joins the Yukon from the north at Koyukuk.

Its tributaries include the Glacier, Alatna and John rivers. The area around its confluence with the Yukon is a large floodplain protected as part of Koyukuk National Wildlife Refuge.

The valley of the river is a habitat for bear and moose and is a destination for game hunting.

A little History of the Region of Coldfoot and Deadhorse

Lt. Henry Allen and Private Fred Fickett of the United States Army ascended and explored the river in 1885. The discovery of gold deposits on the Middle Fork in 1893 led to a gold rush in 1898 with the establishment of trading posts and mining camps, including Bettles, on the upper river. In 1929, Robert Marshall explored the North Fork and gave the name Gates of the Arctic to the high Brooks Range along the river.

In 1980 the United States Congress designated 100 mi (164 km) of the North Fork in the Brooks Range as the Koyukuk Wild and Scenic River.

In 1994 floods on the river swept away three villages, forcing the wholesale relocation of the population.

Blue Sky Ahead
Photo Opportunities Abound Everywhere

Next Week will be about the Brooks Range and the Tundra.

Here is a short preview of the Tundra and Deadhorse

Deadhorse is a settlement located on the North Slope of the U.S. state of Alaska near the Arctic Ocean. The town consists mainly of facilities for the workers and companies that operate at the nearby Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Deadhorse is accessible via the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks, or the Deadhorse Airport. Limited accommodations are also available for tourists.

Companies with facilities in Deadhorse service Prudhoe Bay and other nearby oil fields, as well as the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) which brings oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez in south-central Alaska. Facilities in Deadhorse are built entirely on man-made gravel pads and usually consist of pre-fabricated modules brought up on barge or via air cargo.

Tourists traveling to Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay typically take tour buses from Fairbanks via the Dalton Highway, a two-day journey with an overnight stop in Coldfoot. During the summer months, visitors can access the Arctic Ocean during its summer thaw, as well as experience the midnight sun due to Deadhorse's location above the Arctic Circle. In winter, the opposite phenomenon of polar night occurs.

Facts about Deadhorse Weather

• Longest day: 63 days, 23 hours, 40 minutes (12:09 a.m. on May 20 to 11:18 p.m. on July 22)
• Shortest day: 45 min (11:42 a.m. to 12:27 p.m. on November 24)
• Longest night: 54 days, 22 hours, 51 min (12:27 p.m. on November 24 to 11:18 a.m. on January 18)
• Shortest night: 26 min (11:43 p.m. on May 19 to 12:09 a.m. on May 20)
• Highest recorded temperature: 83 °F (28 °C) on 21 June 1991
• Lowest recorded temperature: −62 °F (−52 °C) on 27 January 1989
• Highest wind speed recorded: 95 knots (109 mi/h, 176 km/h) on 25 February 1989
• Official lowest wind chill: −102 °F (−74 °C) on 28 January 1989 (air temperature of −54 °F (−48 °C) and wind speed of 31 knots (36 mi/h, 57 km/h))

Wildflowers on the Tundra
Along the Sagavanirktok River

In the photograph below looking across the Tundra to the west of the Highway is a pingo? It is 3 miles away and shot with a 200 mm lens. Pingos form from the bed of a spring-fed lake that has been covered by vegetation. Freezing of the water can raise the surface several hundred feet above the flat terrain. They start small and grow from year to year.

Pingo
The Tundra is flat, flat, flat.

This is a waterfowl paradise. There are thousands of small lakes and an abundant food supply. Following is a map centered on Prudhoe bay showing some of the small lakes. Also there are perhaps millions of small water filled potholes.

Map centered on Deadhorse

Next week: Brooks range, wildflowers, Prudhoe Bay and environs.
Yes, we will get to Deadhorse next week. I promise.

Lots on wildflowers, flash floods and landslides on the trip back to Fairbanks in two weeks.

Troy and Martha

Alaska Sunday VI

The Haul Road – 414 miles of dirt, gravel, and pot holes

See part I of the Haul road saga from last week

For those looking for Sunday's Camera Critters,
Scroll down and see the Flower Beetles playing Rugby.
There are two posts for today.

Today’s post on Alaska will be abbreviated.

Yesterday, the temperature was 75-80 F., and we spent the entire day at Hagerman NWR. We saw 45 species of birds including more Spotted sandpipers that I have ever seen on the migration route and lots of beautiful Black terns. And for those that are worried about where all of the Dicksissles are – well, they are alive and well at Hagerman. Seems like they were in every tree. This morning we are off to the Ft. Worth Nature Refuge to look for Tiger Beetles. It may still be early for them there, but we will find something great. We always do.

Next week I will continue with the travelogue portion of the drive on the Haul Road from Coldfoot to Deadhorse. There we will cross over Atigun Pass, the highest in Alaska, and then drop down onto the tundra on the way to the Arctic Ocean.

Atigun Pass (el. 1415 m./4643 ft.) is a high mountain pass across the Brooks Range in Alaska. While famous among bush pilots for difficulty of crossing the pass with small planes (Anaktuvuk Pass is favored as the safer flying route), it is the only pass in the Brooks Range that is crossed by a road (the Dalton Highway).

Atigun Pass is the northernmost pass in the world that is kept open year-round and the highest year-round pass in Alaska.

Atigun Pass in July
(Click on the photos for much larger views)
There is still plenty of snow

Looking Back at Atigun Pass
(The pass is the first notch on the left side)
Alaska Pipeline

I will leave you with another photograph of one of my favorite wildflowers along this road – the Fireweed.

Fireweed

For an amazing photograph,
Scroll down two posts to see a Long-tailed Jaeger playing in a storm on this portion of the road.

Alaska Sunday is a collection of photographic remembrances of our driving trip from Texas to Alaska.
18,000 miles, 16 weeks, 16 western states including Alaska and four Canadian Provinces.
No chronological order, just anything of interest that got in front of our cameras.

Troy

Alaska Sunday V - Dalton Highway

(The "Haul Road")

Part One of the Dalton Highway

The James Dalton Highway is a 414-mile gravel road.

It heads straight north from the Livengood turnoff of the Elliott Highway (which is 70 miles north of Fairbanks), through arctic tundra to the farthest north reaches of Alaska.

You will see a lot of fireweed along the highway. Fireweed is one of the first plants to grow back after a forest fire. I was talking to one of the Rangers, and he said that there were no forests older than about 200 years. The reason is that the odds of a lightning strike starting a fire are high before a forest is that old.

Fireweed growing in a burned Forest

This forest is less than 200 years old

Alyeska built the 360-mile haul road, now known as the Dalton Highway, from the Yukon River to Prudhoe Bay, for $150 million to supply the oil facilities on the North Slope. The bridge, with pipeline, crossing the 1,875 mile Yukon River is the only span across that river in Alaska.

The road's northern 360 miles, beginning at the Yukon River, were built in just five months in 1974 using 32 million cubic yards of gravel. The pipeline parallels the highway most of the trip north.

But this is not a road for the faint of heart, or those with a brand-new vehicle! It is still the main supply route for the Prudhoe Bay oilfields, and you will be sharing the road with large tractor-trailers. Windshields and headlights are easy targets of flying rocks. Most rental companies will not allow you to drive their cars on the Dalton. Trucks speeding along the slippery gravel track kick up thick clouds of dust or mud, reducing visibility to absolute zero; potholes take a heavy toll on cars and services, gas, and repairs are practically nonexistent.

Don't even consider driving the Dalton unless you have extra fuel, food, tires, and a trunk filled with supplies. This is grizzly country, so when camping, keep a clean campsite, storing food at least a quarter mile from where you sleep.

Driving Haul Road Yourself
(not recommended by anyone but me)

Permits to travel north were once required, but have not been since 1995.
If you do decide to travel the road yourself, be aware that semi-truck drivers can't stop their rigs quickly and often must accelerate downhill to gain momentum. Yield to these big rigs at all times, especially going over narrow bridges that often only accommodate one vehicle at a time. Also, you need to keep your lights on, avoid stopping or slowing suddenly if a semi-truck is nearby and keep the CB--if you have one--turned to Channel 19 (that's the frequency used by Dalton truckers and motorcoach drivers.)

Roadside Services

Roadside services are few and far between. Once you leave Fairbanks, there are only two spots to buy gas -- the Yukon River crossing and Coldfoot. You will need to bring extra gasoline, a couple of spare tires, basic tools, food and drink, warm clothing, first aid supplies and bug repellent.

After making arrangements at the RV Park, where we were staying in Fairbanks, we left our trusty camping trailer behind and headed north. Travel trailers are definitely not advised for 360 miles of dirt, gravel, pot holes (and I do mean POT HOLES), mud, and mixtures of all of these.
Not too long after starting we passed this daunting sign.

Deadhorse 360

Just take it one mile at a time and enjoy the view.
Remember, it’s the trip of a lifetime and a real adventure.

Our first view of the Yukon river

The Bureau of Land Management staffs a log cabin visitor center (mile 56) at the Yukon River (the fifth largest river in North America) , open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Yukon River

Shot through the window while moving

Its official name if the Yukon Crossing Visitor Contact Station. The staff can advise you on camping, wildlife and road condition information. Gas, bathrooms, restaurant and hotel are available at Yukon Ventures.

We had a surprisingly good meal at the truck stop here at the Yukon River.

The roads from here on don’t follow nice gentle grades, that’s why it’s “beware the trucks”. Click on the photo below to get a feel for the grade. We were flying. Boy, was it fun.

Photo of Orange road
Actual colors - Unretouched

Yukon River Tours, phone (907) 452-7162, on the north bank of the river, offers riverboat trips three times a day--morning, mid-day and late afternoon--for $20 per person. Reservations are not needed, but you may have to wait a few minutes. The excursions will take you to an operating Athabaskan fish camp, as well as provide opportunities to see wildlife.

Finger Rock - A landmark Through Time

Hunters knew of the rock, when shaggy mammoths and bison roamed the surrounding hills. It was a premier location to watch for game. There is evidence of visitations for countless generations.

The Athabaskan Indians hunted for hides for clothing and shelter, bone for tools, meat, and the fat and marrow for food and fuel.

Later looking down from windy cockpits, bush pilots used the rock to guide their way home, since the finger points directly to Fairbanks.

Today, Finger Rock marks a unique habitat, scenic vista, and wildlife viewing site for people like us traveling the Haul Road.

At mile 86, there is a scenic overlook with a view of the oil pipeline 500 feet below. The road crosses the Arctic Circle at mile 115. This marks the latitude at which the sun just fails to rise on the year's shortest day and just fails to set on the year's longest day. There are picnic tables, barbecue pits, outhouses and camping spots.

See a previous post to view the Arctic Circle area and a Photo of Martha there.

The northern-most truck stop in the world is at your half-way point, mile 175, Sourdough Fuel at Coldfoot.

Coldfoot reportedly got its name in 1900, when a few gold stampeders came north up the Koyukuk River, but got cold feet and turned back at Slate Creek, the settlement's original name.

There is a 24-hour cafe, a 50-room inn, a complete tire shop with limited mechanical and towing service, a post office, gift shop, groceries, and RV park with plug-ins and dump station.
Reservations are suggested at the hotel, called Slate Creek Inn.

Slate Creek Inn
Typical muddy road through town

In addition to the 50 rooms with private baths, there is a 28-room annex with shared bath facilities. Call (907) 678-5224. The cafe number is (907) 678-5201.

Don’t forget, it’s $150.00 per night for an 8x12, 2-bunk bedroom, with shower, lavatory, and toilet, and chipboard walls. It’s an old mining camp. Get out the Duct Tape to shut out the daylight and get a little sleep.

Coldfoot

Coldfoot is a popular stopover for companies offering bus tours to Prudhoe Bay, and it is a jumping off point to the Gates of the Arctic National Park, which has no road access.

Alyeska has considered shutting down access to Prudhoe Bay and the ocean - they say for security concerns since Sept. 11. If they succeed, tours will have to stop here. Personally, this is unnecessary since this is only a small portion of the pipeline.

A surprisingly modern state-of-the-art visitor center in Coldfoot is run jointly by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. It is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and features information on recreation, natural history and visitor services along the Dalton. The center also features nightly slide presentations. Call (907) 678-5209 for more information.

The next morning we had a “Truckers breakfast” and headed out. No cereal and milk this morning. We had traveling to do.

The next mileage sign announced how much traveling we still had to do to reach our destination. We said, “Wow, we have a lot of great scenery ahead of us”.

Deadhorse 205

Beyond Coldfoot, the Dalton climbs into the Brooks Range, a northern spur of the Rocky Mountains. Marion Creek, mile 179, has a campground with outhouses, fire pits and water.

This is an HDR photo. I just bought HDR software and I will do a post on this at a later time (after I have learned a little more about it).

Trees are primarily Black Spruce. They may be 200 years old and only 10 to 20 feet tall.

Black Spruce

The trees become sparser until they disappear entirely at Mile 235. A photo of the last tree will be seen next week. A few miles later, the road crests Atigun Pass, Alaska's highest divide, elevation 4,800 feet. No services are available at Atigun Pass.

The road then drops steeply to the flat, marshy North Slope. Mile 414, Prudhoe Bay is the end of the road. All services are available here, but private vehicles are restricted from entering the Prudhoe Bay oilfield, which provides access to the Arctic Ocean. The only way you will be allowed to enter these areas would be as part of an organized tour.

We stayed at the Arctic Inn in Prudhoe Bay. There are actually 2 inns there (both owned by the same person).

More on the part 2 of the Dalton Highway from Coldfoot to Deadhorse next week and more photos.

Part 3 of the Dalton Highway the following week will feature lots of photos.

Touring the Dalton

If you value your car, or want to actually reach the Arctic Ocean, you may want to take a professional tour, as an alternative to driving the Dalton yourself. Besides being safer, their tour guides will provide welcome, informative commentary, lunch, and photo stops when the area's abundant wildlife (caribou, moose, bears, fox, musk ox, snowy owls, eagles, and wolves) are seen from the road or even crossing in front of you. If you do want to drive the highway yourself, see a car rental page for companies that allow their cars on the Dalton.

Ignore all of this.
Take your car.

Stop when you want.
Look at what you want.
Enjoy the trip of a lifetime.
We did.

If you don’t want to drive, you can call any of these companies - they offer a wide variety of itineraries, some turning back at the Arctic Circle, and others offering tours of Prudhoe bay, or a chance to "dip your toe in the Arctic Ocean".

See previous post for Martha doing just that (wading actually). Click here.

Phone numbers for tours

Gray Line of Alaska, (800) 544-2206
Nature Alaska Tours, (907) 488-3746
Northern Alaska Tour Company, (907) 474-8600
Princess Tours, (800) 426-0442
Prudhoe Bay Hotel Tours, oilfield tours from Deadhorse, (907) 659-2449
Tour Arctic, oilfield tours from Deadhorse, (907) 659-2368
Trans-Arctic Circle Tours, (907) 479-5451

Tune in next Sunday for Part 2 of the Dalton Highway from Coldfoot to Deadhorse.

Part 3 will be lots more photos along the Haul Road.

Alaska Sunday is a collection of photographic remembrances of our driving trip from Texas to Alaska.
18,000 miles, 16 weeks, 16 western states including Alaska and four Canadian Provinces.
No chronological order, just anything of interest that got in front of our cameras.

Troy and Martha
Photos by Troy and Martha

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