Why not start with the most beautiful gravel road of them all:
You might know it from the Ice Road Trackers TV series, or, if your neighbor went to Alaska, he might have described it to you right up to the Arctic Circle. That is the place, where most of the travelers take their picture in front of the sign and turn back. So, I took a picture of the sign too, but went on.
As a matter of fact, the Arctic circle is not too far from the paved highway, as you may see on this map:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Dalton_Highway_Map.png
I also recommend that you pick up a guide at Fairbanks or print it out from this location:
http://www.nps.gov/anch/parknews/upload/DaltonGuide.pdf
Since you might be picking your guide at Fairbanks Information Center I also suggest that you do the following:
- Call the Deadhorse Camp and give them your ID or passport information. You must do it one day (or more) before you reach Prudhoe Bay in order to get clearance to go to Prudhoe Bay. Apparently, the Prudhoe Bay is the largest oil field in the United States, and you need a security clearance to visit it. Deadhorse is only a camp for the oil fields workers and, believe me, you may not want to stay there waiting a day for the clearance. There are no night clubs to keep you entertained; to put it more bluntly, Deadhorse is NOT ready for tourists (although you can get gas, meals and accommodation there).
- Ask about weather conditions at Atigun Pass. I was traveling in August, and I was asked whether I had snow chains, because the Antigun pass had a fresh snow falling down overnight.
- Ask about forest fires which could cut you off from either reaching Prudhoe Bay or coming back for a little while.
- Turn around and go home if it is raining. You cannot see anything in the rain, the road is slippery, and every passing truck will make you wish you had a 10 gallon windshield washer container in your car. I know, I drove from Coldfoot to Fairbanks in a heavy rain and then I was removing the clay from my car for 4 hours...
The road is very nice, the view amazing and the truck drivers are the most courteous of all I have met on the gravel roads I traveled. Obviously, you have to come prepared for a gravel road travel (I will write a bit about it in one of my next posts) and, it means to come prepared for almost 700 miles (1,000 km) of it. The recommended speed is relatively low, but the road is well maintained and allows for a much higher speed.
However, you may want to think twice about a high speed -- should you hit a moose or a bear, or crash the car in any other way it takes a lot of time (and will cost you as well) to get you back to Fairbanks. I wonder, what you would think about speeding if you were waiting for a truck in a swarm of mosquitoes, in a heavy rain in mud or while making friends with a bear close by...
Although I will touch upon it later, please be courteous and when passing someone, stay in the left lane as long as you can -- nobody likes a broken windshield. I have met way too many travelers who did not, and I hated every one of them.
I was quite lucky. The road was excellent and I found only the last part of the road near Deadhorse to be quite bumpy. (Yet this can change easily if it rains.) I had a great visibility so it was possible to see Brooks Range from the Deadhorse (about 240 miles (380km)) and, best of all, neither the mosquitoes nor the black flies enjoyed my company.
As I noted above, the view was fabulous. Here are some of the pictures taken by my $150 camera. The view is so good you just cannot take a bad picture.
to be continued....
However, you may want to think twice about a high speed -- should you hit a moose or a bear, or crash the car in any other way it takes a lot of time (and will cost you as well) to get you back to Fairbanks. I wonder, what you would think about speeding if you were waiting for a truck in a swarm of mosquitoes, in a heavy rain in mud or while making friends with a bear close by...
Although I will touch upon it later, please be courteous and when passing someone, stay in the left lane as long as you can -- nobody likes a broken windshield. I have met way too many travelers who did not, and I hated every one of them.
I was quite lucky. The road was excellent and I found only the last part of the road near Deadhorse to be quite bumpy. (Yet this can change easily if it rains.) I had a great visibility so it was possible to see Brooks Range from the Deadhorse (about 240 miles (380km)) and, best of all, neither the mosquitoes nor the black flies enjoyed my company.
As I noted above, the view was fabulous. Here are some of the pictures taken by my $150 camera. The view is so good you just cannot take a bad picture.
to be continued....
