We did not have any scheduled activities today. Some chose to take bus tours or air tours to the arctic circle or beyond but we decided on a more economical drive to the beginning of the Dalton Highway. The Dalton Highway is the road used in recent season of “Ice Road Truckers” on the History Channel. That is the road built by the oil companies to supply the oil fields in Prudhoe Bay. It is a gravel road and is not recommended for the faint of heart so we only drove about a mile of it before turning back.
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| Our northernmost sojourn |
The drive up was marred by the usual clouds and rain but the weather cleared some on the way back and we saw 4 moose and some nice scenery as we crossed the mountains.
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| Mother and two calves |
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| Birch and Black Spruce |
Temps were in the 50s most of the morning but rose into the 60s in the afternoon when the sun came out.
It is true that the Dalton is not for the faint of heart ... or at least not for those who don't have several spare tires ... just in case. All kind of debris from the initial construction of the road was thrown into the roadbed, so getting a blow out is almost assured.
ReplyDeleteWanting to travel to the edge of the Arctic Ocean, but not wanting to drive the road ourselves, we traveled the Dalton on a Princess Cruisetour in 2001, staying overnight in Coldfoot on our way to Deadhorse ... got to love these place names. The bus did have a blowout en route that shredded one tire to bits. It took a while for the driver to change the tire, but we were well-entertained by a herd of musk oxen while he did that.
The drive was an interesting experience, to say the least :-).