Dalton Highway

The road is called the Dalton Highway and it was build for the sole purpose to allow trucks to drive to the oil fields in Dead Horse/Prudhoe Bay.  Saying the Dalton Highway is a road is a strong word as most of it is gravel without even a center marking line.  When tractors are coming slow down and get over to the right as far as you can.  I also say that I had what is known of a rock vs. windshield accident and the windshield lost.  The visitor center for the Gates of the Artic is on the left side of the Dalton Highway with Coldfoot on the right side.  Both of these are down a lane a few hundred yards so don’t worry if you do not see them from the road.  The airport is the next left after the visitor center and Coldfoot.  The campground called Marion Creek Campground and it is 5 miles from the visitor center, if you crossed the second bridge you went too far.  The BLM has a motto “Haul it North – Haul it Back South” as in 2019 it hauled 20 tons of trash Fairbanks.  Guess I need to look to haul my trash back with me when I leave the Dalton.  The Artic Circle is well in the rear view mirror of Coldfoot as it was passed many miles ago, 60 to be exact.  The drive from Fairbanks to Coldfoot is only 175 miles but is about 6 hours in duration and there are few places to stop along the route.  Note: there is cell service in Coldfoot, but who wants that when in the woods?  Observation:  The price of diesel in Fairbanks was $3.29 and here in Coldfoot it is $4.899 but unleaded was over $5.499.  Continue up the Dalton Highway and you come to the Atigun Pass which is a scary pass up and over a mountain.  It has some curves at the bottom heading North and then a long and straight road to the top.  Good news is the pass has guard rails on the downward side but that does not make it less scary.  Additional good news the pass road is much wider than the Bear Tooth Pass to Yellowstone.  The pass once you reach the top has a long straight down before a big curve so watch your speed when heading down.  There was now snow on the mountain as the pass is an avalanche area and you are asked to call Channel 19 on your CB radio before entering the pass.  I did not call channel 19 since it was the summer but in the winter make sure you are making the call to validate the pass is passible.  The trip from mile marker 275 to 714, Dead Horse, was more of the same type of road.  The rock road also produced another rock to put a second crack in my windshield but it already had to be replaced so what the heck.  There was construction on the road which the Dalton was down to a single lane.  The wait for a pace car was almost 1 hour in length, only 3 cars came behind me during the wait.  The road is getting an additional upgrade in rock but also a section is getting paved.  Dundee needs a good bath when we get back to Anchorage since it will continue to get dirty during the drive back to Anchorage.  

Trans Alaska Pipeline System – Oil discovered in 1968 in Prudhoe Bay and the pipeline started in 1977.  Prudhoe Bay is in the North Slope between the Brooks Range Mountains and the Beaufort Sea (Artic Ocean). The pipeline has transported more than 15 billion barrels of oil since it started.  The pipeline was paid for with private funds and it cost 8 billion dollars to build and is owned and operated by various oil companies.  The pipe carrying the oil is 48 inches in diameter constructed of steel and it runs 800 miles crossing 3 mountain ranges and 600 rivers/streams.  The oil is hot meaning that it starts at a temperature of 112 degrees F and at the end of its 800 mile journey is it only 54 degrees F.  A barrel of oil is 42 gallons and on any given day 650,000 barrels of ail are moved through the pipeline at a rate of 3 miles per hour.  Given the speed and distance of the pipeline the oil takes 14 days to make it from the beginning to the end.  There are oil measurements along the way to make sure non of the oil is leaking into the tundra or any other places along the way.  Some of the pipe is above ground while other parts is in the ground.  The largest day of throughput was January 14,1988 with a volume of 2,145,297 barrels!

Dead Horse / Prudhoe Bay – Dundee made it to the end of the Dalton Highway!  Dead Horse is a large oil field support town.  There is an airport here in town that Alaska Airlines flies into but I have to say that this place is very industrial.  It should be industrial as this town is supporting the Prudhoe Bay oil field.  There are a few hotels in town and all offer buffet breakfast and dinners for the oil field workers since there are no restaurants in town.  Note: The road into/out of town and the entire town will have to be cleaned up when the oil is done. The EPA mandated this when they agreed to allow oil to be drilled and the oil companies had to put the reclamation money up front. Most of the town is built on rock pads and everything is above ground. A great deal of the land was created by placing oil barrels with steel mesh to secure them together and placing rock and crushed rock on top of them. It is amazing what they have done up there to support the oil industry creating this town. The buildings are all modular and well insulated as you would expect. There is only company that does the water treatment and it is said that water in hotels, and buildings once it is “cleaned” by the company it is then trucked to their location. The cleaning company is in town but water is still about $7.00 per gallon and I thought fuel was bad! Most of the oil companies have their own support camps and these camps provide benefits to the workers like cigar lounges, 5 star dining, cable TV, gyms, tanning beds and each man is in his own room with own bathroom. NO BOOZE is allowed in any camp or in town and that is the fastest way to get thrown out of town or fired from a job to bring booze into camp.

Aurora Hotel –   This is the hotel of choice for me in Dead Horse.  The breakfast starts at 0430 in the am and ends at 0730 which is crazy but when you support the oil field and the workers are at work at 0530 it is not so crazy.  The hotel room would not be called 5 star but it is serviceable.  Dinner was ok and I sure did get some of the ice cream for dessert.  The buffet for dinner had a large variety of dinner options to include chicken, Italian sausage, lasagna, spaghetti with meat sauce, and a mixture of clams, scallops and shrimp in a broth.  There was also a salad bar, tomato with fresh mozzarella, rice and green beans.

Talkeetna – The road from Fairbanks to Anchorage has many small villages which are always good to go check out.  When driving north I put Talkeetna on my RADAR and then stopped on the way back.  The village is about 14 miles off of the highway but it is well worth going and checking out this village, but it is a bit touristy.  The way in there is a brew pub/distillary which I did not stop at thinking the way out I would stop.  Talkeetna has a vodka that I purchased a bottle in Denali and have yet to try but think it could not be all that bad, more to come on it.  The town was hopping for a Tuesday afternoon/evening and I had to pay to park Dundee.  The village has little shops selling wears to tourists and also some places to eat.  I noticed a place Mountain View pizza and saw that it has two pizza slices outside that are in the shape of a butterfly and when you take your photo in front of it your body is the body with wings of pizza slices.  Joe created us, see “people along the way” and I knew then I was staying for more than a slice of pizza.  The pizza is very good and it thin crust like NYC style.  They also had 8 beers on tap all brewed in Alaska with one being their “own” beer.  They also had bottle beer and bud, bud light and coors light for those who need them.  No oranges were provided by the restaurant but the bartender was cleaning out his fridge when he noticed a bad of cutie pie oranges and brought them in.  Some sad sack wanted an orange for his beer and was told no they did not have orange slices but then a cutie pie was offered to him.  The place was outdoor seating only with tables and a bar.  Corn hole game was going with kids and the drawback was that the plumbing was restrooms was a spot a pot but I am a guy so who cares!  The village does have a NPS visitor center but it was closed on Tuesday.  The village was packed with tourists and as the day went on the tourists left to go someplace else including me.  Lastly, the Talkeetna River flows just outside of town and it is a fast flowing river.  The salmon are running and the only way to fish them current is “snag.”  As the name suggests you put a line in the water and snag a fish.  If you snag it in the mouth you got a winner and can keep it.  All other snags have to be thrown back into the river.  I watched two women throwing a line upstream and in seconds it was down stream trying to snag a fish.  They did this over and over about every 15 seconds and no fish for 10 minutes but as I was leaving one snagged a fish.  She could not get it out of the water so I don’t know if it was a keeper or not.  There are also some places to camp and stay in a hotel in town or on the way to town.  I would say this is worth a few hours maybe a night depending on the beers you drink but not a long term vacation spot.