Alaska’s Dalton Highway: Introduction and Practicalities
We got to be Ice Road Truckers fans at my house, driving the Dalton with every episode. But I never thought, “Wow! I want to do that!” Like most of my trips, this one just came to me. I was pondering a late summer trip to somewhere new and preferably remote. I’d been aurora viewing and dog mushing the previous winter, and Alaska came to mind again. So off I went in August when autumn had come to the Dalton and the Arctic was frosty.
See my post about the trip! “Riding the Dalton Highway: ice road trucking before the freeze”
What’s the Dalton like?
Alaska.org says: “How remote is it up here? There are only three very small towns along the way. Often, the Trans-Alaska pipeline, which runs parallel to the road, is a driver’s only companion. And from the midpoint (the town of Coldfoot) to the end of the road (Deadhorse), you won’t find gas stations, restaurants, rest stops, or hotels—in fact, you won’t find services of any kind over this entire 240-mile stretch. In other words, if you love lonely roads, this is the drive for you.”
An Alaska driving guide I found in our Wiseman lodge read, “The Dalton Highway is unique in its scenic beauty,Heavy industrial traffic wildlife and recreational opportunities, but it is also one of Alaska’s most remote, dangerous and challenging roads.”
There’s no cell phone coverage. The rest stops may have outhouses (and the bushes are preferable). There’s no place for a snack. No medical facilities. And take the caution about industrial traffic to heart. This is the Haul Road. Every length of pipe, nail, canister of gas, load of fuel, hammer, acetylene torch, steel girder, pump, every bottle of Dawn, pair of gloves, can of soup, egg, leaf of lettuce and grain of salt – everything that’s used in Deadhorse and the Prudhoe Bay oil fields gets there by truck. Do not get in the way.
Gifts of the Dalton
The Dalton drive was spectacular. Soulful, really. The ride gave me the gifts of isolation and timelessness, something most of us don’t have much of. The Haul Road reminded me that going a distance can take patience. Over 800 miles on a muddy, gravel, washboarded road was more involved than a slow security line at the airport. We were off the grid, no cell coverage, no wifi. A CB radio. A satellite phone. I don’t need to be constantly connected but this was different. Not possible, and the relief of not being connected was liberating. My mind could wander where it pleased. The markers of time and distance passing were far apart. The quality of Arctic light was unfamiliar; the sun was in a different place and during our drive, sunlight was often watery, even milky, as if it were another world. Even my journal notes lost their anchor in time.
Is this the only intersection on the Dalton?
Make sure you read the sign closely
When I got back to Fairbanks, a woman at my hotel reception said, “People come back and say ‘it’s a long drive,’ and ‘it’s not what I expected.’” A cab driver told me that she thought some people were disappointed by the Arctic Circle. “It isn’t much but a sign,” she told me they’d say. I wasn’t disappointed! I knew I was on the Haul Road. I was in the Arctic. But I don’t know that I expected anything in particular. Maybe it’s better to be wonderfully surprised.
Dalton Practicalities
Driving and sleeping (not simultaneously). If you want to drive the Dalton yourself, research the requirements for your vehicle and equipment. You’ll need to rent a vehicle designed for the Dalton. And make arrangements ahead for someplace to stay. There aren’t a lot of rooms out there. If you’d rather bike it, we saw motorcyclists, bicyclists and even a unicyclist along the way. If you’re biking or camping, I assume you know all about what to do in the wilderness. I hope so. I would be hopeless and have no advice. For a guide to milestones along the Dalton, see Alaska.org’s guide here.
I chose to ride the Dalton with 1st Alaska Outdoor School. There were three passengers and a driver. The three of us passengers stayed at Uta’s Arctic Getaway the first night, sharing a two-bedroom cabin. There were extra beds downstairs, enough for a mob of travelers, a fully equipped bathroom and a kitchenette. On the way back, we stayed at Boreal Lodge, also in Wiseman. Here, we had sleeping rooms that opened to a porch, a shared bathroom and a common kitchen. There is also a separate bathroom “chalet” near the lodge. Both Uta’s and Boreal Lodge provided soap and towels. Uta’s also offers breakfast but we left too early.
Arctic evening
A few basic supplies. 1st Alaska Outdoor School sent snacks and water along in the van, but I wanted more and hadn’t taken enough of my own water, almonds and granola bars. Experienced caravaners and campers Ulrike and Bernhard brought fruit and nuts. They graciously shared. The company put hand sanitizer in the van, but I also took my own, along with plenty of pocket packs of tissues that were handy for those trips to the bushes. I wore my favorite Palladium boots, hiking socks and cords. For whatever reason, the mud didn’t leave permanent stains. Maybe I’m just a good laundress. It was chilly. A fleece and rain jacket were adequate although I also needed my knit hat at Prudhoe Bay.
Wildlife. We saw a lot of birds, swans, Brandt geese and many other geese and waterfowl. Hawks, one sitting on a kill near the road. There were ptarmigan everywhere. The only moose we saw stood in a meadow near Wiseman and in the gloaming of that second night, we couldn’t even take pictures to prove it! We had marmot sightings, and saw what we thought were Arctic chipmunks or ground squirrels and Arctic hares. Dall sheep in the mountains. It was caribou season opener and we saw no live caribou but plenty of dead ones as hunters loaded them into pickup trucks. That’ll keep the freezer full. At the Bureau of Land Management’s Arctic Interagency Visitor Center there was a funny white board with daily wildlife sightings. One day the list included four moose. Another day, 3 ravens and a dragonfly.
BLM Arctic Interagency Visitor Center. Our second afternoon, we visited the BLM Arctic Interagency Visitor Center near Coldfoot. It’s clean, informative and well-curated. We stayed for a gold panning demonstration presented by an intern. I’d thought it would be a little ho-hum, but turned out to be very interesting and nicely presented. And, the audience was invited to try panning. So don’t skip any demos on offer. Stop at the Visitor Center. It’s in an appropriate Arctic cabin style but so thoroughly modern (including great bathrooms) that it was almost improbable to find it here. The Center is closed in winter.
Trip date: August 2015