Saturday, September 4, 2021

 Saturday, September 4, 2021

Boy, did we sleep well last night! Both Dad and I slept soundly though the night and didn’t wake up until 6:30. Once we were up we showered and hit the road.  The motel  had a little breakfast which was perfect. We grabbed snacks and muffins to enjoy on our journey. Then we were off from Fairbanks headed north.  

The drive as a whole was absolutely incredible. The scenery was breathtaking and I truly cannot find words to even describe it.  As we left there was thick fog. But because the road goes in and out of the hills and mountains sometimes we were above the fog and sometimes we were below the fog. Dad had a good idea to take a picture of the road about every hour to show the difference in the road and terrain. The road at times was smooth and concrete, and other times was fought and filled with potholes. The leaves are changing here so the hills were filled with green spruce trees, a vibrant yellow and red of the lower plants. 

The Dalton Highway is named after James W. Dalton who was a pioneer in Alaska petroleum exploration. We stopped at the Dalton Highway sign but someone had gotten to it and wrote “No Ambler Road”. 

We stopped along the way to get a picture with the pipeline.  Our first “big stop” was at the Yukon River to fill up with gas, use the bathroom, and check out their gift shop.  They had signs all over in different languages from people who had visited. They also shared a little story of the time a bear got into their building. 

Back on the road the skies started to clear a bit and we had beautiful blue skies with a few light clouds. The traffic was really light. I bet the whole drive we saw under 50-75 vehicles. As we were driving we started looking for animals. Dad saw a wolf run across the road, but I was taking a picture of the scenery and missed it. We also saw two grizzly bears about 50 yards from the road. Our sudden stop spooked them so they went off running but seeing them running through the field was incredible. We believe it was a mama bear and her older cub. The cub was curious and turned around a couple times to look. 

We made a little mission to stop and get firewood along the way in case they needed more at camp (this ended up being a great idea and we had fun at little stops along the way to hunt for wood). We found large dead trees due to a fire and they were perfect. We were able to use the gate of the turn offs to use leverage to break the trees into smaller pieces for the backend of the truck. 

Our next stop was the Arctic Circle. Everywhere north of the Arctic Circle line has at least one full day of light and one full day of dark during the year.  The terrain continued to change as we drive each mile. At one point we stopped for a picture because you could see for miles and miles and miles. We gathered a couple trees and found some wild blueberries!

Coldfoot was our next big stop. We stopped at their gas pump to get gas, mailed some postcards and ate lunch.  I got the fried chicken sandwich which was three chicken tenders on an AMAZING homemade potato bun. Their tater tots were delicious! We were able to watch the fourth quarter of the Iowa game while we ate. A tour guide was also speaking in the room so we listened to him. His job when they get to their next stop is to sit up and watch for the northern lights and wake up the guests if he sees them. After our meal we headed across the highway to the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center which was so neat! They had Gates of the Arctic stuff and I was able to get a Gates of the Arctic stamp and a Dalton Highway sticker. We were soooo close to the Gates of the Arctic, but could not go in because the only way to access it is via helicopter tour/plane or hiking in. We looked at the mountain that on our side was not Gates of the Arctic, but on the other side was.  The lady showed us on the map where the line was and we were able to peek through a couple times as we were driving to see what we believe was mountains in Gates of the Arctic.  

The next town to Coldfoot is Wiseman. It is just a few miles north. Dad had never been there so we decided to drive in.  It was such a small town with log cabins and each home had little pens for their mushing dogs.  The dogs sat on top of their pens.  We stopped at a tiny little log cabin that said “open”. It was a woman who made jewelry from caribou antlers, doll sheep antlers, and all natural items. It was neat.  There was a tour guide there (husband of the jeweler) and he said their last frost was on June 3 and their first frost was on August 17.  

We then continued to head north. Shortly after our stop in Wiseman we were driving along and saw a truck facing south. We drove by, but as we drove by the guy flashed his lights. It was a Ranger. We backed up and dad got out to talk with him. He explained that it was a holiday weekend and wants everyone to be safe and dad was going 62 in a 50 and needed to slow down. Then he looked over at me, told me to roll down the window and asked “Are you ok?” To which I said yes.  Then he asked if I was getting kidnapped. I honestly thought he was joking, but answered that I was not getting kidnapped.  He told us to drive safe and have a good weekend.  Dad said “young girl with an old guy must have looked suspicious.”

We continued to stop and look for wood along the way before we hit the “north most spruce tree” (which was cut down by a vandal in 2004). The. There was no more looking for wood because there were no more trees!

Antigun Pass was our next big mile marker. It went right through the Brooks Range. It was beautiful! Snow capped mountains and we were going right in between them all. The road was a little scary because it was slick from grease and rain, but gosh it was gorgeous.  We even saw a couple mountain goats, but no dall sheep.  Once we were through the mountains it really felt and looked like we were in the tundra. The terrain started to look so much more flat and there were absolutely no trees. 

We made it to camp about 7:30pm and Taunie and Jeff we’re outside by the fire waiting for us. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of burgers, beans and corn and enjoyed the amazing temperature -about 58 degrees. We stayed up a bit I. Hopes of seeing the northern lights and enjoying good conversations but the clouds started to take over. We knew the northern lights were present behind the fluids due to the light sneaking through some of the lighter clouds but we weren’t able to see them completely.  At about midnight we called it bedtime and came in the tent to sleep. I have the first bunk to the left and dad is behind on the left.  I slept decently, but was a little chilly.  Ready for a great new day!