Dean & Val's Adventures: Into the Arctic Wilderness

We made it to the Arctic Ocean and took a walk in its frigid waters. The flight up to Prudhoe Bay and the 500-mile drive back on the Dalton Highway (haul road) far exceeded our wildest expectations. Words cannot describe the beauty and vastness of the arctic wilderness. We now understand why people like Bob Marshall, Walter Hickel, and Heimo Korth ventured to Alaska in their early years and fell in love with this wilderness.

We started our Arctic trip with a 2 hour flight on an 8 passenger 1978 Piper PA-31 plane flying from Fairbanks to Deadhorse.

Wish Southwest Airlines would give you cool headphones like these….

This is the view out the right side as we were approaching Deadhorse. The arctic tundra is very much like a swamp in the summer time, with lots of grass growing out of water logged earth. In the winter, the tundra is frozen solid. Most construction work and well drilling occurs in the winter when the ground can support heavy weights.

Safe on the ground in Deadhorse

Previous travelers have left their mark on the outside of the Prudhoe Bay General Store.

After a quick tour of the Prudhoe Bay Industrial area, we made our way to the banks of the Arctic Ocean. At the ocean, we both took a quick stroll in the ocean. The water was about 32 F but didn't feel all that cold initially, but after a minute or so the bitter cold was evident. Some visitors to the ocean do the "polar bear plunge" - where you completely submerge in the frigid waters and swim out at least 50 feet. We wisely chose to only get our feet wet!

Trying to decide if this is a smart idea or not…

Deadhorse Camp was our lovely accommodations for the evening ($219 per night!). The buildings were left over modular buildings from the building of the pipeline in the 70's. The accommodations were very basic with a very small room with twin beds. A common bathroom/shower was down the hall. These were the type of buildings the construction workers lived in during the building of the pipeline.

A reminder as you leave the building to look for bears before stepping outside. Bears are not an unusual sight in Deadhorse.

With oil prices fairly low right now, there are a lot of these modular camps stored around Deadhorse waiting for the next oil boom. There currently are about 3000 people working in the area, but during boom times, that number can reach 10,000. The buildings are built on skids and can be towed across the tundra in the winter.

These green buildings are the well heads and are located all over the area. The wells in Prudhoe Bay are all free flowing, so no pumping is required. From the well heads, pipelines take the oil to collection points where they feed into larger pipelines that go so separator units.

Small pipelines leading from the wells to the oil/gas/water separator unit located in the background. The separator separates the oil from the gas and water. The oil heads to Pump Station #1 where it is put into the Trans Alaskan Pipeline at a pressure of up to 1600 lbs - to begin its 800-mile trip to Valdez. The water is injected under high pressure back into the ground in an effort to keep the pressure up on the oil formation so the oil continues to flow. Some of the gas is used locally in Prudhoe Bay to power the pump stations and other equipment. The remaining un-needed gas is injected back into the ground with the hope that in the future there will be a gas pipeline built that can transport it to market. The China Investment Corp is currently discussing the possibility of building a gas pipeline alongside the oil pipeline to take this gas to market.

After a good night's rest at the Deadhorse Camp, we were ready to start our long journey down the famous Dalton Highway, also known as the haul road, to Fairbanks - 494 miles away. Fans of the program "Ice Road Truckers" will recall that the first few seasons were filmed on the Dalton Highway.

The Dalton is a remote primitive industrial road primarily built to hall heavy loads from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. The road is mostly gravel with a few areas of pavement. Actually, the gravel is smoother than the pavement in most cases. There are no services along the road except for a small truck stop/motel at Coldfoot which is at the halfway point. The Dalton Highway was built in the early 70's, but wasn't opened for public travel until 1994. The northern part the of the road is built on a gravel pad to protect the tundra and frozen permafrost. The ground is frozen solid about 18" to 24" below the surface.

The heavy loads and the environment/weather are constantly destroying the road surface, requiring constant maintenance during the short summer months. Most of the really heavy loads wait until the road is frozen solid in the winter months.

There were lots of motorcycles making the trip up and down the Dalton. By the time they got to Deadhorse they were totally covered in mud. This rider had a really hard time in one of the construction areas as the gravel was wet and very deep. He nearly went down several times.... We did see a bicyclist from China making the trip, but not sure how he could have made it through the loose gravel and muddy sections.

Shortly after leaving Deadhorse, we met this tractor pulling a trailer. We had passed them a few weeks ago along the Cassiar Highway in upper BC, and again a few days later in Whitehorse Yukon. The side of the trailer said "Driving for Diabetes". Turns out this is a fund raiser by two men from Washington State who are driving a Ford tractor and a 1956 John Deere tractor from Arlington, Washington to Prudhoe Bay and back - to raise money to fight juvenile onset diabetes.

After leaving the north slope tundra we slowly climbed into the Brooks Range and finally over Atigun Pass. The environment quickly changed from the short grass of the tundra to spruce trees.

Fans of the TV show "Ice Road Truckers" may recall several hills along the Dalton had names. This one is called "The Rollercoaster". As we approached the crest we could see why as you cannot see the bottom of the hill from the top. Can't imagine going down that hill in an 18-wheeler.

The accommodations in Coldfoot were even more interesting than in Deadhorse. Actually, we have to say this was the worst motel room we have ever stayed in.

On the second day of our drive back to Fairbanks we finally reached the Arctic Circle. North of this line the sun does not set during the summer solstice.

The bridge over the Yukon River is a 2295 foot long bridge which carries both the road and the pipeline. This was the last section of the road to be completed. Prior to its completion, an ice bridge was built every winter so supplies could be hauled up the road.

We stopped just north of the Arctic Circle and picked wild blueberries

The following photos are views of the Trans Alaskan Pipeline, which basically parallels the Dalton highway all the way to Fairbanks. The silver structures standing on top of the pipeline supports are radiators which use an ammonia refrigerant to help keep the permafrost below the supports frozen. There were originally 11 pump stations along the 800 mile pipeline to keep the oil moving toward Valdez. Today several of the pump stations are shut down because of the lower oil flow. Today, about 500,000 barrels of oil flow per year, whereas in the 80s, about 2 million barrels flowed.

After spending the night in Coldfoot, we back tracked to Wiseman, which is an old mining town nearby. The guide had arranged for us to meet with a local resident who provided an amazing overview of life in the Arctic.

The wildlife along the Dalton was simply spectacular. Based on what other travelers were reporting, we really didn't expect to see much wildlife, but were pleasantly surprised with both the quantity and the variety of what we found.

Arctic Fox