DrewE's Alaska Trip Travelogue
I returned about a week ago from a marvelous ten-week trip to and through Alaska (and back) with my dear mother. I went in a 32' class C, actually about 35' overall with a bicycle rack on the back, w...
Forum Discussion
I'm glad people are enjoying these posts as much as I'm enjoying reliving this trip part by part.
July 31st -- We started on one of the parts of the trip I was looking forward to doing (and, I should add, my mom was rather less gung-ho about): driving north along the Dalton Highway. We made it without incident to Deadhorse and back: the motorhome a bit worse for the wear, and very, very dirty.
To be more precise, we started off on the Steese Highway for a few miles to Fox, on to the Elliott Highway, and then onto the Dalton Highway proper near Livengood.
The Dalton Highway exists because of the trans-Alaska pipeline and the oil fields in Prudhoe Bay. Going along the way, the pipeline is in evidence much of the time, sometimes above the surface and sometimes below it (depending on the soil conditions--above ground where there is permafrost or other problematic conditions).
A few miles from Fairbanks on the Steese Highway is the first really good view of the pipeline, at a neatly done pullout area with some informational signs and displays. This is actually one of the relatively few places where it's easy and legal to get right up next to the pipeline, and would be worth the short jaunt from Fairbanks even if one doesn't go further north.
Click For Full-Size Image.
The Alyeska Pipeline (or Trans-Alaska Pipeline System). The pipeline itself can slide lengthwise on the little cradle parts (named shoes), and the shoes can slide crosswise on the horizontal supports. The finned prongs on the tops of the vertical supports are part of a passive cooling system for the supports to prevent the permafrost from thawing where the supports are mounted. The pipeline as a whole is arranged in a zig-zag to allow for overall expansion and contraction with temperature or ground movement. Arranging the plumbing across Alaska is a little more complicated than in an RV.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Looking in the other direction, the pipeline goes subterranean for a spell.
Click For Full-Size Image.
A "pig" used to clean crud that accumulates on the inside of the pipe. Different pigs exist that carry instruments to check the integrity of the pipeline. There are various stations where pigs can be inserted and retrieved from the pipeline.
Click For Full-Size Image.
The sign marking the start of the Dalton Highway proper.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Around mile marker 55 is the only road bridge across the Yukon river in Alaska. It's not super obvious in the picture, but the bridge is on a quite noticeable grade. There is a neat little wayside on the far side of the bridge with an informational kiosk staffed by the BLM. There's also some picnic tables and a viewing platform and a bunch of information panels. The kiosk was closed when we got there--it was fairly late in the day--but it's a neat rest stop regardless.
We camped for the night a few miles up the road at the Milepost 60 BLM campground, which incidentally also has the only dump station (and potable water fill) for many miles around. The campground and dump station, like virtually all the camping spots along the Dalton, is free. The insects were pretty ferocious; I did not loiter outside. (On the whole, the insects were not very bad for our trip.)
Next to the campground is the Hot Spot Cafe that has been made famous (infamous?) on the ice road trucker series. We did not eat there. I think we should have because it seems the first question most people asked after we said we had gone up the Dalton Highway was whether we stopped at that ice road trucker burger stand place. Perhaps I need to watch more television....
August 1st -- Continuing along the Dalton Highway. The weather was intermittently foggy and drizzly and a bit rainy.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Just you and the pipeline and the road (and the occasional other vehicle)
Around mile 98 is Finger Rock and the Finger Mountain wayside. This wayside has a quite nice little nature trail, as well as views of the rock. Finger rock served as a rather important landmark for travel; it points pretty directly towards Fairbanks.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Finger Rock
Click For Full-Size Image.
A bit broader view, including DrewE's motorhome. There's still a good bit of clean white visible on it; that will change over the next couple days.
A little further on the road crosses the Arctic Circle, one of two roads in North America to do so (the other being the Dempster Highway in Canada). There's a wayside there, with a little campground and at least sometimes some BLM volunteers staffing it. This is, of course, a popular photo stop for most everyone traveling through for the first time.
Click For Full-Size Image.
If we were here on the solstice, the sun wouldn't set from here north. The attendant took pictures of us walking from one side to the other, so we'd have pictures of being on either side of the Arctic Circle. That's all well and good, but according to the map the wayside is not quite actually on the Arctic Circle, so it's more a figurative gesture than anything. They also have Arctic Circle certificates and stamps and stuff.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Did I mention something about incredible scenery?
We stopped at Coldfoot to buy gas (it's 240 miles to Deadhorse and the next gas, so there's not a lot of choice in the matter) and to stop at the excellent Arctic Interagency Visitor Center. This cozy building has some exhibits, nice restrooms, information, and a lounge area with a wood stove for heat. (I think it was a Vermont Castings wood stove, which came from a tiny bit further away than I did; they're made in Bethel, VT.)
In this area there is a stretch of inexplicably nice paved road, sandwiched between the gravel portions north and south.
The next major highlight continuing on is Atigun Pass, the highest elevation on the Dalton highway at 4800 feet. The pass was pretty foggy as we were going through, with visibility only a few hundred feet at most. Since it's a curvy bit of road, that was sufficient visibility for safety, but not to enjoy scenery. Fortunately, the view was clearer on the return trip.
We camped at the Galbraith Lake campground, which has an absolutely spectacular setting. The four mile access road is extremely rough with washboards; it took somewhere on the order of a half an hour to get to the campground. The campground itself is rather informal, without many well-defined sites; one just follows a road or trail and finds what looks like a convenient spot to plonk down in next to a fire ring. There are a couple of vault toilets and I think maybe a handful of picnic tables.
I think this was probably the most magnificent setting we had to camp in all trip. The Kennicott/McCarthy Root Glacier Base Camp was perhaps a somewhat close second.
Click For Full-Size Image.
It's probably a good thing they aren't trying to use a toll by plate system along the Dalton Highway. (It is not a toll road.)
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
Click For Full-Size Image.
A wide angle fish-eye shot; the mountains are much closer and much larger than they appear. It's a bit of a challenge to photograph these sorts of surroundings: either things get cut off, or they come out looking like molehills.
July 31st -- We started on one of the parts of the trip I was looking forward to doing (and, I should add, my mom was rather less gung-ho about): driving north along the Dalton Highway. We made it without incident to Deadhorse and back: the motorhome a bit worse for the wear, and very, very dirty.
To be more precise, we started off on the Steese Highway for a few miles to Fox, on to the Elliott Highway, and then onto the Dalton Highway proper near Livengood.
The Dalton Highway exists because of the trans-Alaska pipeline and the oil fields in Prudhoe Bay. Going along the way, the pipeline is in evidence much of the time, sometimes above the surface and sometimes below it (depending on the soil conditions--above ground where there is permafrost or other problematic conditions).
A few miles from Fairbanks on the Steese Highway is the first really good view of the pipeline, at a neatly done pullout area with some informational signs and displays. This is actually one of the relatively few places where it's easy and legal to get right up next to the pipeline, and would be worth the short jaunt from Fairbanks even if one doesn't go further north.
The Alyeska Pipeline (or Trans-Alaska Pipeline System). The pipeline itself can slide lengthwise on the little cradle parts (named shoes), and the shoes can slide crosswise on the horizontal supports. The finned prongs on the tops of the vertical supports are part of a passive cooling system for the supports to prevent the permafrost from thawing where the supports are mounted. The pipeline as a whole is arranged in a zig-zag to allow for overall expansion and contraction with temperature or ground movement. Arranging the plumbing across Alaska is a little more complicated than in an RV.
Looking in the other direction, the pipeline goes subterranean for a spell.
A "pig" used to clean crud that accumulates on the inside of the pipe. Different pigs exist that carry instruments to check the integrity of the pipeline. There are various stations where pigs can be inserted and retrieved from the pipeline.
The sign marking the start of the Dalton Highway proper.
Around mile marker 55 is the only road bridge across the Yukon river in Alaska. It's not super obvious in the picture, but the bridge is on a quite noticeable grade. There is a neat little wayside on the far side of the bridge with an informational kiosk staffed by the BLM. There's also some picnic tables and a viewing platform and a bunch of information panels. The kiosk was closed when we got there--it was fairly late in the day--but it's a neat rest stop regardless.
We camped for the night a few miles up the road at the Milepost 60 BLM campground, which incidentally also has the only dump station (and potable water fill) for many miles around. The campground and dump station, like virtually all the camping spots along the Dalton, is free. The insects were pretty ferocious; I did not loiter outside. (On the whole, the insects were not very bad for our trip.)
Next to the campground is the Hot Spot Cafe that has been made famous (infamous?) on the ice road trucker series. We did not eat there. I think we should have because it seems the first question most people asked after we said we had gone up the Dalton Highway was whether we stopped at that ice road trucker burger stand place. Perhaps I need to watch more television....
August 1st -- Continuing along the Dalton Highway. The weather was intermittently foggy and drizzly and a bit rainy.
Just you and the pipeline and the road (and the occasional other vehicle)
Around mile 98 is Finger Rock and the Finger Mountain wayside. This wayside has a quite nice little nature trail, as well as views of the rock. Finger rock served as a rather important landmark for travel; it points pretty directly towards Fairbanks.
Finger Rock
A bit broader view, including DrewE's motorhome. There's still a good bit of clean white visible on it; that will change over the next couple days.
A little further on the road crosses the Arctic Circle, one of two roads in North America to do so (the other being the Dempster Highway in Canada). There's a wayside there, with a little campground and at least sometimes some BLM volunteers staffing it. This is, of course, a popular photo stop for most everyone traveling through for the first time.
If we were here on the solstice, the sun wouldn't set from here north. The attendant took pictures of us walking from one side to the other, so we'd have pictures of being on either side of the Arctic Circle. That's all well and good, but according to the map the wayside is not quite actually on the Arctic Circle, so it's more a figurative gesture than anything. They also have Arctic Circle certificates and stamps and stuff.
Did I mention something about incredible scenery?
We stopped at Coldfoot to buy gas (it's 240 miles to Deadhorse and the next gas, so there's not a lot of choice in the matter) and to stop at the excellent Arctic Interagency Visitor Center. This cozy building has some exhibits, nice restrooms, information, and a lounge area with a wood stove for heat. (I think it was a Vermont Castings wood stove, which came from a tiny bit further away than I did; they're made in Bethel, VT.)
In this area there is a stretch of inexplicably nice paved road, sandwiched between the gravel portions north and south.
The next major highlight continuing on is Atigun Pass, the highest elevation on the Dalton highway at 4800 feet. The pass was pretty foggy as we were going through, with visibility only a few hundred feet at most. Since it's a curvy bit of road, that was sufficient visibility for safety, but not to enjoy scenery. Fortunately, the view was clearer on the return trip.
We camped at the Galbraith Lake campground, which has an absolutely spectacular setting. The four mile access road is extremely rough with washboards; it took somewhere on the order of a half an hour to get to the campground. The campground itself is rather informal, without many well-defined sites; one just follows a road or trail and finds what looks like a convenient spot to plonk down in next to a fire ring. There are a couple of vault toilets and I think maybe a handful of picnic tables.
I think this was probably the most magnificent setting we had to camp in all trip. The Kennicott/McCarthy Root Glacier Base Camp was perhaps a somewhat close second.
It's probably a good thing they aren't trying to use a toll by plate system along the Dalton Highway. (It is not a toll road.)
A wide angle fish-eye shot; the mountains are much closer and much larger than they appear. It's a bit of a challenge to photograph these sorts of surroundings: either things get cut off, or they come out looking like molehills.
