Into the Arctic - June 24 & 25, 2011

Heading North from Fox, the Elliot Highway meets the Dalton highway about 79 miles up a little ways past Livengood.  That is a little old village but from what I hear there's nothing really left there anymore.  Then once you reach the Dalton, you can drive 415 miles or so to Deadhorse - the end of the road.  We've been wanting to make that drive but just haven't had a 4 day weekend to do it in.

We didn't have 4 days this past weekend either but decided we would go ahead and drive as far as we could in the time we had.  So, Friday morning, JW was off work.  He had the day off so while I worked, he spent the morning packing everything up and loading the truck.  He also went down and filled up the truck and the two 35 gallon fuel containers we have so we could carry our own gas with us instead of paying the exorbitant costs we knew we would find up north. 

With a full tank and 60 gallons of extra fuel (he only put 25 gallons in one barrel just to clarify how I came up with 35 + 35 = 60), as soon as I got off work, we jumped in the truck and headed north.  We stopped by the Fox general store and got a couple of sodas.  It was now about 1:25.  A little before 3:00 we reached the Dalton Highway.

Last year when we'd made this trip, this is what the sign looked like.  It is also what the sign looks like at the beginning of the Ice Road Truckers.

But this year it is all clean.

Since the road follows the pipeline, the Milepost magazine points out many places to stop to take pictures of the pipeline.

Above the pipeline comes down the hill - the zig-zag design here apparently helps with the flow of oil.

We arrived at the Arctic Circle but didn't even take a picture of us with it during our brief stop.  I took a little video and JW spent the time of our stop setting up the satellite phone and making a couple of calls to his hunting partner (for this fall's hunt).  He wanted to  check out the quality of the phone but only got voice mail on his work and cell number.  We had talked about spending the night at the campground near here but since it was only 5:30 and we had plenty of daylight left, we decided to drive on up the road a ways further.

The milepost said there was camping at the South Fork of the Koyukuk River so we decided to stop there.  The camping consisted of a long turnout on the south east side of the bridge with a bear proof litter barrel and an outhouse.  The mosquitoes were really bad at the Arctic Circle stop so before we got out of the truck, we piled on the deep woods OFF.  We decided to set up our tent right near the truck but first we walked around a bit to look around.

The river was nice and wide. 

Bridge over the river - pipeline is on the left.

JW checked it out and there is a place on the west side of the bridge to put in a boat - we're just not sure if it's open to  the public.

JW set up the tee pee tent and after getting all the camp stuff out, sat down to relax a few minutes.  I had made pasties a few weeks ago so for dinner we were going to warm those up and have them with a little gravy.   It was pretty delicious if I do say so myself - for sure better than any food we could have bought along the Dalton.  We had expected that it would be a little cooler up here in the Arctic but it was 70 degrees and hot in the sun.  We ended up having to move the tent into a shadier spot as with the sun shining, we knew there was no way we would be able to sleep in a hot tent.

By the time we got the tent moved and we settled down, it was 9:30.  Since we'd gotten up at 3:30 that morning we should have easily been able to get to sleep.  We had mosquito coils burning in the tent so were free from the bugs - aaaa nice peaceful sleeping in the Arctic.  But then it started.  All night long they came, one after another, 18 wheelers hauling up the road and coming back down.  One at least every 10 minutes and each time they passed us, we felt they were driving right beside the tent.  Finally got to sleep about 2:00 a.m.

JW got up at 6:00 and I followed a few minutes later.  It wasn't cold at all, it was already about 60 degrees.  I cooked bacon and eggs while JW siphoned fuel from a barrel into the truck.  We ate, packed up the truck and headed north again about 8.  We arrived at Coldfoot at about 8:30 and stopped by the visitor center only to find out that their hours are 10 a.m. till10 p.m.

We drove on north, deciding we'd stop by Coldfoot on our way back down.  It was nice to be so far north.  The Brooks mountain range was towering above us.  At Fairbanks, we have a lot of hills but no real mountains nearby.

Above is Sukakpak Mountain.  It is sometimes said this is the traditional boundary between lands of the Athabaskan Indians to the south and Eskimos to the north. 

This is Wiehl Mountain - 4000 feet in height doesn't compare to the height of mountains we see in the lower 48 but for Alaska it is quite high.

JW looking for Dall sheep through his binoculars.  He did see a few but it would be a long hike up to see if they were anything worth shooting or not. Seeing these mountains gave him a better idea of the challenge he will face this fall when he does his drop sheep hunt in the Brooks range.

At the top of Atigun Pass, we were able to look down the north side of the pass. (both the pictures above and below show the north side.)

Here, the pipeline snakes south from Pump Station 4 seen near the center of the picture.

All of a sudden out here in the middle of no where we came across a stop light.  They were doing construction and using a stop light instead of people to stop the traffic as needed.

These white flowers filled the tundra - Almost making it look like a dusting of snow.

We stopped for a lunch at about milepost 300.  We had driven on up almost to Pump Station 3 - we were only a hundred miles from Deadhorse and it was only about 12:30 so was tempting to go ahead and drive all the way up.  Fortunately JW made the decision that we did not need to overdo and continue further north.  It was so tempting.  Once he made that decision, it was easy for me to say that we might as well drive all the way home.  We were both tired and another evening with the skeeters didn't sound too exciting.

Back in the truck and heading south.

Following a truck down Atigun pass - course a few minutes after I took this picture, JW passed him.

 

The ever present pipeline - kind of annoying that it is in the view but also we know that if it wasn't there the road wouldn't be either and we wouldn't have the opportunity of driving this far north.

The towering granite mountains were just unbelievably beautiful.

Wiseman is a little old town about 11 miles north of Coldfoot.  It was a mining camp in the early 1900's - this is the post office.  Population today is 16 - we didn't see anyone out and about in town.

Central Koyukuk River - might be fun to take the boat in.

Entering Coldfoot, AK - it is just to the east of the Dalton Highway and consists of an old inn, a small restaurant, post office and the Frozen Foot Saloon.  While JW syphoned some more gas from our barrels into the truck, I looked around a bit.  I was glad we had brought our own gas because here it was selling for $5.29 a gallon.  I bought 2 Dr. Peppers for $2.45 each.  I didn't buy anything else as they didn't have any t-shirts, spoons or even a post card.  So, no Coldfoot Souvenirs for me.

The old Coldfoot Camp center.

We didn't see any wildlife so I took a picture of this wolverine in the visitor center just for Sam since I don't think she got a picture of the one she encountered in CO.

Flags waving high over the visitor center.

We had to stop a few times for wide loads heading to Deadhorse.

Once when we stopped, we were unlucky enough to be this close to one of the many mosquito hatcheries.  We made the mistake of opening the door for just one second.

As we got closer to home, it sprinkled a bit and we saw this unusual phenomenon.  It was not a full rainbow but a rainbow colored affect in the clouds. It made for a beautiful ending to a fantastic trip into the Arctic.