Day 16 July 17, 2024 roadside turnout to Arctic Circle 151 miles
Last night we had a few raindrops so we went to bed a little earlier than expected. We changed clothes in the shower that pops up beside the trailer. We cracked the windows just a little and it was nice and cool all evening. Traffic did continue to go by all night but not as frequent.
Early in the day, we encountered a portion of heavily burned forest. The ground is now covered with those raspberry colored flowers. Makes the hillside quite pretty. The pictures however don’t really show it very well.
Now I think the tall skinny trees are actually black spruce. There’s a lot of it up here in the northern part of Alaska. And the further north, we go the shorter it gets. The ground has very little topsoil for the plants to grow in. Too much permafrost.
We arrived at our first construction site. Did have to wait a little bit. But we’re the first in line. When the pilot car came, the driver could hardly believe her eyes. She asked us how fast we could go. Then said she would try to set that kind of pace. Two other vehicles pulled up behind us. We drove quite a ways behind the pilot car and then she stopped. She came back to tell us she had ordered another pilot car to take us so that she could take the other vehicles at a faster pace. They are redoing a large section of the highway and there is a great deal of activity going on. Our private pilot car actually went very slowly. At one point, we came along a piece of equipment coming up off the side at a 45° angle. At least half of the vehicle was suspended in the air. Could not get the camera out fast enough to take a picture, however.
We came to the spot where the Dalton Highway begins. There was a sign posted that said speed limit 50 mph for the next 416 miles. Before long, the pavement ends and we are on dirt road. In someways the dirt road was a little better. The potholes were not as sharp. However, there were just as many of them.
Next on the agenda came a detour. They are doing yet another section of the road and we were put on a new road that was very narrow very rocky and obviously not at the same quality as the rest. We thought maybe we were in the wrong place, but there was nowhere else to go. We eventually pulled off into a parking spot where there were two other vehicles. The passengers in those vehicles said they had turned around at Coldfoot because the road was so muddy they couldn’t get through. They indicated that even some of the trucks had turned around. We then talked it over and decided that we would try to go as far as the Arctic Circle, spend the night and then perhaps turn around and go back home.
Shortly there after the road joined back with the original Dalton Highway and the construction flagger was not far away. The line was quite long at this stop. We didn’t have to wait too long. We drove for quite a few miles with the pilot car this time through various different sections of the construction. They are completely rebuilding the road throughout here. New culverts, new sides, new everything I think. They’re working this section 24 hours a day. Best guess is they want to get it finished before the end of the summer. In some places, they are laying down a foam sheet before they put on the dirt. This is to help keep the permafrost cold. Sure hope it keeps out some of the bumps. Then we had to stop and wait because another pilot car was coming from the other direction. It makes a lot of sense that they would have two pilot cars due to the distance that they had to go.
We could see more sections of the pipeline above ground, and once again, it crossed the Yukon river and went under the bridge across the river. Now the bridge had a wooden floor. That wooden floor had potholes in it. Did not give me a very warm feeling about crossing that bridge. Especially when you know that there are so many big heavy trucks going across it at reasonably fast speeds.
There is a small gas stop just across the river and outdoor toilets and a very small restaurant and gift shop. There’s also access to the river with a boat launch. We filled up with gas. Price of regular gas was $7.499 per gallon. That is the most we have paid on the entire trip.
We went about 4 miles further down the road and ate lunch at the BLM campsite. This is certainly not much of a campsite. It has five tables and five fire pits in one big gravel parking lot. The view isn’t even all that terrific. But the price is right. There is no fee to stay.
From this campsite, it is approximately 60 miles to the Arctic Circle. The road is not very good so it’s slow going. We go at about 25 mph if we’re lucky. We went over several hills that are nicknamed the roller coaster. That’s because they have a very steep incline up and a very steep decline down. The day is mostly cloudy and we did get a few raindrops but not too serious enough to turn the windshield wiper on.
We stopped at another rest stop for a few minutes and encountered a tour group of people from Argentina. They are going north but we don’t know how far and then flying back. Not sure where back is either. They seemed very friendly, however.
The foliage has certainly changed. The trees are now all much shorter and fewer. There’s more brush and low lying grasses. All part of the tundra up here. Still no animal sightings of any kind other than ravens and chipmunks.
We got to the Arctic Circle sign. We took a picture of us and the car by the sign so we have officially gone past the Arctic Circle. We then continued on to the campground that is also run by the BLM. This campsite is quite nice with picnic tables, fire pits, drive-through spots, back in spots, pit toilets, all the amenities except hook ups. There is a small fee to stay in this one. We signed for the spot that we wanted and returned to pay the fee. We could hardly get the envelope into the deposit slot because there were so many in there that had not been picked up. This campground is not convenient for B!M personnel.
We return to have dinner and set up camp. There are trash bins and camper food storage very close to our campsite. We think that might be kind of handy since there is a big warning sign about bears and wolves nearby.
As a little side-note, they built the Dalton Highway in approximately five months. It took them approximately three years to build the pipeline. Both are hard to believe timelines.
The car ran fine today spending most of the day in first or second gear.
Spoffords Travel 