MikeWalk the land of explorers, hunters and dreamers. Admire the sunset colors reflected on the Yukon river and also immerse yourself in the vastness of the tundra. Watch humpback whales splashing in glacial waters. Alaska is one of the last few places on Earth that still has vast extensions of land where no human beings actually inhabit. The last frontier at its best!
We’re continuing our Alaska adventure from our past article part-1. After exploring and camping in Denali National Park, me and my friend drove Highway 3 towards the city of Fairbanks, located about 193 km./ 120 miles north. Explorefairbanks.com describes the city as a past “gold rush boomtown” where a number of activities that include hiking and wildlife sightseeing in the summer, and “skiing, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, curling, hockey, sledding, ice fishing, dog mushing and ice sculpting“, which can be done during the winter (explorefairbanks.com, 2021). The city is famous for being a great place to watch the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights, due to its proximity to the Arctic Circle. You can imagine how brutal the cold gets here during the winter. Luckily for us, since we visited during the month of July (summer) we actually experienced 86 degrees (F). There were flowers booming and people wearing shorts on the streets. We stayed here for three days, while planning our next leg of the trip: Crossing and camping north of the Arctic Circle, and getting as far north as possible!
In order to carry out our plans, our current rental car was less than ideal (and even allowed), since at certain point, the highway would turn into the well-known Dalton Highway, a rough, rugged gravel road made for the semi-trucks traveling to and from the oil fields located at the Arctic Ocean shore, hundreds of miles north. We got our new ride, much better suited for the trip, equipped with all the necessary gear and even CB radio. We left Fairbanks early during a sunny morning. After some time, we reached the rough highway, then, soon after, the Arctic Circle. There is an actual stopping point where a sign shows: Latitude 66 deg. 33′ and, to our surprise, a small welcoming kiosk where they issued us a certificate for crossing the line. We took pictures, then continued north. The landscape would change dramatically, shifting from pine tree forest to flatlands, and then to tundra.
We reached the legendary Yukon River and crossed it. When you stop and think about the countless pioneers and gold seekers that ventured here during the gold rush, some thriving, some perishing. The more north we got, the more isolated and increasingly deserted the place looked. I remember us reaching a point where it was stated that the next services were about 250 miles away, all the way to Prudhoe Bay. Gasoline was prohibitively expensive here. Ironically, our only distant companion on the side of the road was the trans-Alaska pipeline, which pumps thousands of gallons of crude oil per minute to the south. Ahead of us, desolated nature at its best. We reached the small towns of Cold Foot, an abandoned mining town where we saw a big moose near the road, then found a great visitor center with lots of information. We kept going to the small village of Wiseman, where we saw sled dogs as pets. We decided to find a good camping spot, since the sun was going low in the horizon (without darkness never really falling, a strange thing for us). We found a campground in the taiga, which is a quite singular coniferous type of woods that can be found at this latitude all around the planet. We slept with the bear spray can loaded under the pillow and the eerie total silence of a very northern forest. We were the only tent around that night.
After a bear-filled nightmarish night 🙂 we woke up to a pristine morning, got a quick breakfast, then hit the road further north, aiming to possibly make it to Deadhorse, near the sea. The trucks were just merciless and big rocks kept hitting (and a few times cracking) our windshield. We had to maintain a certain speed, since the road was pretty uneven, finding big potholes at certain points. We reached the Gates of the Arctic National Park, then the Brooks Range, the last mountains before getting to the Arctic Ocean. We actually saw a wolverine trekking the tundra. We were running low on gas, unsure if we would be able to make it further. Risking becoming stranded in the northern Alaskan wilderness, we made the decision to turn back at Atigun Pass, 210 km / 131 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and still 170 miles south of Deadhorse. It was a tough decision to make in the name of survival and caution. We headed back south.
Stay tuned for Mainland Alaska Part 3, where we explored new places, and for the conclusion of our trip!
References:
-Explorefairbanks.com. Explore Fairbanks, Alaska / Fairbanks. 2021
https://www.explorefairbanks.com/explore-the-area/fairbanks/
Really interesting post!
Thank you, Jim!