When we finished the season in Skagway we decided to spend some time exploring the interior of Alaska before heading back down to the Lower 48. After a few days of packing and prepping we said goodbye to the town we've called home for the last few months and headed over the White Pass and into Canada. Our plan was to drive North to Dawson City in the Yukon and then West to cross the border back into the US and head for Tok. Of course, as typically happens on our travels through Canada, things didn't go at all according to plan. We arrived in Dawson City the next morning, spent about 20 minutes looking around the three stores (including the grocery store) that were still open, and then tried to get back on the road. We drove up and down the tiny town looking for the road to the border, finally stopping at the visitor center where we learned the road was on the other side of the river, but the ferry was no longer running because that border crossing was closed for the season. No information about the border closure had been posted on the internet...there was no signage along the road warning of a dead end ahead... no clue at all to tell us we were wasting our time (and precious gas money!) driving north. So we had no choice but to turn around and drive 8 hours South, to just two hours North of Skagway, to take the alternate road to Tok via the only border crossing open year round.
Once we got back on the good side of the border, things improved. We made it to Tok around 11pm and since it was snowing we decided to stay the night in a parking lot and continue on in the morning. We woke up around 11am to a few inches of new snow and after filling up the truck we headed to the only restaurant in town, Fast Eddies, for our first real meal since Skagway. All fueled up, we continued on towards Chena Hot Springs and the prospect of a warm soak and a good shower. We made it to Fairbanks around dinner time, picked up a few Papa Johns pizzas to tide us over for the next few days and drove the 45 minutes out of town to the hot springs. We soaked and stretched in the warm water until midnight and then drove down to one of the many trailheads on the side of the road and camped out for the night.
The next morning we woke up early to drive back to Fairbanks, and enjoyed a race with a big bull moose running along the side of the road as well as several more moose sightings along the way. Our plan for the next few days was to go as far north towards the Arctic Ocean as we could, so we stocked up on wager and fuel and headed up towards the Dalton Highway.
The next morning we woke up early to drive back to Fairbanks, and enjoyed a race with a big bull moose running along the side of the road as well as several more moose sightings along the way. Our plan for the next few days was to go as far north towards the Arctic Ocean as we could, so we stocked up on wager and fuel and headed up towards the Dalton Highway.
We followed the course of the Alaska pipeline as we wound over and around mountains and through forests on the narrow dirt road. We reached the Arctic Circle a little after noon, and several hours later we pulled into Coldfoot for gas, just as it began to snow. Coldfoot, the only services available between Fairbanks and Deadhorse, is little more than two gas pumps, a truckstop/restaurant, an airstrip and a "hotel." There wasn't much to see so we decided to keep heading North and try to reach Deadhorse by the next day, but little more than an hour into the drive the snow intensified and low visibility and slick roads forced us to slow to a crawl.
We soon pulled up to a line of semi-trucks waiting in a turnoff before a hill, and found out that another large truck was stuck on the mountain pass ahead and blocking the road. Luckily we only waited several minutes before the road was cleared and we were able to head up the mountain, past avalanche signs warning us not to stop on the road. The road hugged the side of the mountain to the left and a small guardrail stood between us and the sheer cliff to the right, but the storm had settled in and there was little visible beyond the swirling snow. We continued driving well into the night, since the view would have been the same no matter what time of day it was.
We soon pulled up to a line of semi-trucks waiting in a turnoff before a hill, and found out that another large truck was stuck on the mountain pass ahead and blocking the road. Luckily we only waited several minutes before the road was cleared and we were able to head up the mountain, past avalanche signs warning us not to stop on the road. The road hugged the side of the mountain to the left and a small guardrail stood between us and the sheer cliff to the right, but the storm had settled in and there was little visible beyond the swirling snow. We continued driving well into the night, since the view would have been the same no matter what time of day it was.
A little after midnight in Happy Valley, about two hours from Deadhorse, we were again stopped by a long line of trucks and this time the news was not so good. A truck had tried to make it over the next pass without chains, spun out, and was completely blocking the road. It was the same truck that had tailgated us for about 20 minutes before finally passing us and the three trucks in front of us, and the other drivers were not too happy that his reckless driving was going to cost them an entire night. We stayed and talked to the trucker in front of us for about an hour, and since it was going to be at least 4 hours before the road was clear we went back to a pullout to spend the night. The storm was predicted to blow for the next few days without stopping so Steve did some preemptive shoveling to hopefully make it easier for us to get out in the morning and then we settled in for the night.
When our alarms went off at 6am visibility was still only about 10 feet, so we tucked back in and got a few more hours of sleep and woke up again at 10. It had snowed more than a foot overnight and the thick cloud of white still stretched all the way to the ground, so we decided to play it safe and head back south... no point in wasting gas and risking getting stuck on the road if we couldn't even enjoy the scenery. Several southbound trucks were lined up next to our turnout, apparently waiting for another truck that needed to chain up before continuing down the road, so we ate the last of our leftover pizza for breakfast and chatted with a DOT maintenance guy until traffic was moving again.
Despite the heavy snowfall we didn't have any trouble getting moving, although the same couldn't be said for the maintenance truck, whose tires just kept spinning and digging themselves a deeper icy hole. Fortunately all it took was a tow strap and a little tug from my truck to get him going, and we all had a laugh about my little mid-size 4 cylinder saving the day. We didn't make it very far before we were once again forced to wait for a vehicle that had spun out, this time it was the grader that was supposed to be clearing the road and it took 40 minutes and several heavy machines to haul it out of the ditch. Despite the treacherous conditions, we didn't have much trouble with the road, and staying behind the big trucks and letting them blow the deep snow out of our way we made it out of the storm without much trouble.
Despite the heavy snowfall we didn't have any trouble getting moving, although the same couldn't be said for the maintenance truck, whose tires just kept spinning and digging themselves a deeper icy hole. Fortunately all it took was a tow strap and a little tug from my truck to get him going, and we all had a laugh about my little mid-size 4 cylinder saving the day. We didn't make it very far before we were once again forced to wait for a vehicle that had spun out, this time it was the grader that was supposed to be clearing the road and it took 40 minutes and several heavy machines to haul it out of the ditch. Despite the treacherous conditions, we didn't have much trouble with the road, and staying behind the big trucks and letting them blow the deep snow out of our way we made it out of the storm without much trouble.
When we got back to the base of the mountain pass we had crossed the night before, the storm had cleared and the sun revealed the most stunning 360 degree views of the mountains we had missed the night before. We pulled over and spent at least half an hour taking it in before starting the climb up and over the pass. The next several hours were spent driving through the Alaska of everyone's imagination... tall snow-capped mountains stretching as far as the eye could see, broken only by the narrow road winding through them and that big metal pipeline pumping oil down South. We made it back to Coldfoot late in the afternoon and shared a hard-earned cheeseburger before continuing on towards Fairbanks.
After a few more hours in the car we stopped to stretch our legs and enjoy the strange rock formations around "finger mountain," a 40ft tall rock shaped roughly like a finger, conveniently pointing towards Fairbanks making it a great landmark for bush pilots. We also took some time to climb around and explore the oil pipeline a little closer. We pulled off for the night several hours outside of Fairbanks, and made the rest of the journey back to civilization (and cell phone service) the next day
For more pictures, see the photo post.
For more pictures, see the photo post.
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