Blogs from Dalton Highway, Alaska, United States, North America

Last April, on my flight from Fairbanks to Coldfoot, Alaska to see the Aurora borealis, I returned to Fairbanks on the famous Dalton Highway. It tracks along the famous Alaska pipeline, through and over some rough and tumble country, including the frozen Yukon River. Here is Mental Floss view of the Dalton: "Sick of traffic? Try heading for Alaska’s Dalton Highway, considered the least-traveled road in the United States, url=https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/03/americas-loneliest-roads-are-gems-hidden-in-plain-sight/555779/CityLab reports. The 414-mile highway, traversed largely by a handful of truckers and passing through only a few small towns, sees the fewest cars per year of any road in the U.S., according to America’s Quietest Routes, an interactive website made by url=ht... read more

For sleeping in a place where the lights never go out, we actually slept quite well. We went to the dining room at the agreed upon time, involving a long walk across the foot bridge from the dormitory for breakfast. We sat down with Mike who was busy chowing down on his hot breakfast with coffee. He says he needs the coffee to stay awake, and we didn’t see anything wrong with that. I got an over-sized chocolate chip cookie and a Dr. Pepper; and, shared the cookie with Sharon. We’ve pretty much noticed two things about the diet of Alaskans: They love their chocolate chip cookies and the love Dr. Pepper. Both are found in abundance just about everywhere we’ve gone. We needed to be on the road at 7:15AM sharp, and Mike had made ... read more

At the strong recommendation of resident Alaskans, we took a spontaneous trip up the Dalton Highway from Livengood (real name!) above Fairbanks north towards the Arctic Ocean. This road was built as the “haul” route to support the construction and maintenance of the infamous Trans-Alaska oil pipeline that travels 414 miles from Prudhoe Bay to the terminus at Valdez on the southern Prince William Sound. In addition to following the path of the pipeline, the Dalton Highway provides the only drivable access to the unique Brooks Range and the vast plateau beyond. The main landmarks are: the Dalton Highway sign at the beginning, the Yukon River, Arctic Circle, the Atigun Pass, and f... read more