Communities of the Haul Road

Once actually on the Dalton Highway, there are only three communities to purchase fuel. There are a few more places where you could rent a room or perhaps find a meal, but a trip on the Haul Road assumes self sufficiency in many ways.

Yukon Crossing is the first community when you start north. Yukon River Camp offers gas, food, and lodging in a chain of prefab buildings.

About 15 miles north of Yukon Crossing is another business establishment offering food and lodging in a similar model.

Coldfoot has the restaurant made famous by the Ice Road Truckers television show. Between 6 and 9 p.m. your only choice is the buffet which looked like it could require an iron stomach.

Coldfoot also has a fairly expansive motel,

a Post Office if you're there at the right time,

and a very nice Visitor Center.

About 18 miles north of Coldfoot is the small community of Wiseman with a former Post Office,

a mining museum, and at least one Bed & Breakfast. I should have spent more time exploring this town.

Happy Valley is a collection of cabins around an airstrip that serves as a hunting base during the hunting season but it didn't rate any pictures.

Deadhorse, aka Prudhoe Bay, is an industrial community with very few permanent residents. It has at least three motels (the picture is Deadhorse Camp,)

lots of oil field related business, and an airport served daily by jet aircraft.

The motel of choice is the Prudhoe Bay Motel across from the airport and is reported to be the only one that doesn't have the bathroom down the hall. It appeared to be a popular place to eat lunch as well but I can't vouch for the rooms or the food.

If you go, watch out for flagmen that are off kilter,

and keep your seatbelt fastened, even if you are within 60 miles of Deadhorse before they mention it!

We're in Denali now for a few days and may be out of range for blog posts. We'll see.

Seen on the Haul Road

I saw at least six different bicycles on the trip and

more than a dozen motorcycles, several of which were BMWs rented in Fairbanks from Alaskan Adventure Riders. Most of the motorcycles were Dual Sport types, but I did spot one Gold Wing and a couple Harley wantabes.

Several pickup campers were seen as well as a number of Class C RVs, several of which were rented. I didn't spot any Class A rigs but there's no reason they couldn't do the trip.

The trip would have been much slower if I'd chosen to tow our single axle travel trailer and I'd avoid any trailer without upgraded tires.

I saw road construction

and road maintenance, (note the shorts)

and absolutely no trash except for this one abandoned car a few miles north of Wiseman.

I saw one fox and two caribou, all within 30 miles of Prudhoe Bay but didn't get a decent picture of any.

I saw lots of pickups and many more cars than I anticipated

and of course there were trucks. Lots of tankers hauling northbound and running back empty.

Some vans (by this point the mud had dried)

and flatbeds

and one wide load, but nothing unusual.

Almost all the trucks would slow down and edge over when they would meet you and expected that you would do the same.

My truck was filthy by the time I got to Deadhorse, but the road was dry or nearly so on my return.

I didn't need the jerry can of gas, but the Yukon Crossing Visitor Center hostess that woke me at the Arctic Circle did - she'd left Yukon Crossing without enough fuel to get back.

The Haul Road, Day 2

I broke camp about 4:30 a.m. on the second day

and thirty miles later entered the North Slope Borough, "The World's Largest Municipality." Only 180 miles to go from here to downtown Deadhorse.

Apparently the road crews don't understand the function of hinges. There were at least three instances of snow removal equipment warnings that were still displayed as reality. While it would be nice to have had a CB radio, I forgot about getting one in advance of the trip.

I can see how the climb up Atigun Pass could be a challenge for trucks in the winter, given the slope, the hairpin curve at the bottom of the slope, and the multiple avalanche chutes.

At the top of the pass, the other white pickup suggested my experience to the north might be different than what I'd experienced thus far.

The descent from Atigun Pass opened into a large valley and tundra. The change between the south side and the north side was striking. It was also obvious that while I'd slept through a rainless night about 40 miles south, the north side of the Brooks range had received a good dose of rain.

Mud puddles

and slop (on a good solid base) were the rule of the day until we hit another long stretch of asphalt somewhere around Happy Valley if my memory is correct.

The run from Happy Valley north to Deadhorse was straight forward,

arriving there about noon in time to find a gas station.  Seemed expensive until I considered that we'd paid $7.19 at the Muncho Lake Lodge on our way up the Alcan.

There were some road construction delays of up to 25 minutes during which time we never collected more than 3 other vehicles and at least once I was the only vehicle for the follow car.

With the exception of one short section of very rough construction, the road was much better than all the hoopla would lead you to believe. The biggest surprise was the amount of paving in place.

Verizon cell phone worked with 3G in Deadhorse which got me the message about our dog and expedited my return trip. After an hour in Deadhorse, I headed south, overnighting in the parking lot at the Arctic Circle wayside.

The Haul Road, Day 1

It goes by many names - Dalton Highway, Alaska 11, the North Slope Haul Road, or simply the Haul Road - and is surrounded by much mystic, "war stories," and at least one television show. Being of an age where a number of acquaintances worked on the slope building the pipeline or the road, it's long been on my list of places I wanted to see for myself.

We made the decision some time ago to leave BJ and the trailer in Fairbanks, so I did the trip solo with the pickup and a tent.

Technically, the Dalton is 420 miles long, but that is because it starts about 85 miles north of Fairbanks. The first section is part of the Steese and Elliott Highways which are all paved, including some pavement that was so new that it wasn't finished yet.

This section also included some pavement that had entered the inevitable breakup stage, some with chip sealed repairs, and some with the requisite frost heaves.

Approaching the Hilltop Truck Stop ("Famous Pies") just north of Fox, you're given fair warning that this isn't a trivial trip. One hundred eighteen miles to Yukon River, about the same from there to Coldfoot and then two hundred forty miles between Coldfoot and Deadhorse without services.

It has a nice name, but with 24 residents if everyone is home, Livengood isn't going to be much help to a traveler in distress.

The start of the Dalton is the first section of gravel, and features a beautiful new sign just about a mile from the junction with the Elliott.

Most of the gravel on this first section was hard packed or relatively freshly graded. Now and then there would be a short section of washboard and occasional chuckholes, most of which could be easily avoided.

Speed limit was posted at 50 although the trucks run faster when they're empty.

There were lots of curves and slopes, some in the neighborhood of twelve to fourteen degrees

including the Yukon River Bridge which had a nine degree slope and a wooden deck in excellent repair.

Gas was $5.20 at the Yukon River Camp at the lower end of the bridge on the left. There was a BLM Visitor Center at the lower end of the bridge on the right, almost under the pipeline.

The Arctic Circle Wayside was a required stop but the road doesn't rate any pictures since it was all paved for over 100 miles into Coldfoot. The paved road had some rough repairs and lots of frost heaves, but nothing we haven't seen in lots of places already.

Coldfoot, hiding a little ways east of the highway behind tree cover was the next available fuel (also $5.20) located one hundred nineteen miles past the Yukon River Bridge.

There was also a very nice Arctic Visitor Center here on the opposite side of the road.

There is about 20 miles of very new asphalt north of Coldfoot past Wiseman.

After 8 hours of driving, (I left Fairbanks at 1 p.m.) home for the night was a wayside rest area 30 miles north of Coldfoot. It featured  a nearly new tandem outhouse complete with stainless steel toilet seats. Drivers would be advised to carry their own insulation for winter use!