24 May 2012 Traveling the Famous Haul Road: The Dalton Highway

Journal

beautiful river valley looking back as we travel north up Atigun Pass — incredible view as we begin ascending Atigun Pass

Incredible views, wildlife sightings, good conversation and a picnic along the Yukon River made the miles fly along the Dalton Highway today. We headed north out of Fairbanks to Toolik Field Station, my home for the next six weeks. The Station is about 370 miles from Fairbanks, and we enjoyed driving approximately nine hours making our way up the famous Haul Road along the Alaska Pipeline.

meeting a southbound semi on the Dalton Highway, or Haul Road — meeting a southbound semi on the Haul Road

The official name of the road is the Dalton Highway, and it has been featured on the History Channel Show "Ice Road Truckers". No ice today, thankfully, and plenty of great weather and scenery to enjoy.

taking a little hike in the tundra at Finger Mountain Wayside along the Dalton H — taking a look at the tundra at Finger Mountain Wayside

Some of the wildlife we spotted today included an Arctic fox, Dall sheep, a sik-sik, and numerous caribou. We must be in Alaska!
A favorite milestone is the Arctic Circle wayside stop. Here the road crosses the Arctic Circle, north of which the sun will be above the horizon for 24 hours on the summer solstice, and will stay below the horizon for 24 hours the day of the winter solstice. I will enjoy being here for the summer solstice on June 20, and seeing the famous "midnight sun".

Ms. Steiner at the Arctic Circle sign, milepost 115 along the Dalton Highway — me at the Arctic Circle!

The Yukon River at MP 56 along the Dalton Highway — The mighty Yukon River!

We made several stops along the way: a picnic lunch along the Yukon river, a stop for souvenirs at the old mining town of Coldfoot

old buildings in Coldfoot, AK — early mining town of Coldfoot, AK

and a stop to walk along a short tundra nature trail.

Tundra wildflower along Finger Mountain Wayside nature trail

There were also several unplanned stops, as there is always construction and maintenance work on the highway.

DOT pickup truck filled with road route markers, sign holder almost hidden in fr — perpetual road maintenance and construction at various points along the Haul Road

We even came across some areas being cleared of recent avalanches!

one lane of passage past the front end loader clearing an avalanche off the Dalt — avalanche clearing on the Dalton Highway

Following a couple of semis over the last few miles of road seemed a little anti-climatic, but it was really great to pull into the field station and sit down to a delicious dinner and begin meeting everyone.