This summer I drove with a friend from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay – 1,732 miles round trip. The Dalton Highway or “Haul Road” as the locals call it is the life line for the North Slope oil fields on the Arctic Ocean. The ocean near the oil fields is only ice-free for a couple months each year, yet the “Haul Road” is open all the time. It is one of the most desolate places on the planet. You are at least 200 miles from nowhere most of the time.

This is not a road for the faint of heart, or those with a brand-new vehicle! It is still the main supply route for the Prudhoe Bay oilfields, and you will share the road with large tractor-trailers. Windshields and headlights are easy targets of flying rocks. Most rental companies will not allow you to drive their cars on the Dalton. Trucks speeding along the slippery gravel track kick up thick clouds of dust or mud, reducing visibility to absolute zero; potholes take a heavy toll on cars and services, gas, and repairs are practically nonexistent. Don’t even consider driving the Dalton unless you have 4-wheel drive, a CB radio, extra fuel, food, tires, and a trunk filled with supplies. This is grizzly country, so when camping, keep a clean campsite, storing food at least a quarter mile from where you sleep.
The road is mostly a dirt and gravel road with random areas paved. This section of interior Alaska has one State Trooper for over 600 square miles – yet he was able to stop me for speeding (going 59 in a 50 mph zone) literally IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!!!. I didn’t get a ticket because I wasn’t going 60 and “All of my paperwork was in order.” In the view of the local Alaskans I have told this story, there was more of a chance of getting eaten by a grizzly then getting a “speeding ticket” on the Haul Road.
Here is the adventure.

To the top of the world.

Denali from 250 miles away.

Denali – up a little closer.

This is literally the “end of the road.” The pavement ended and the gravel road began.

They weren’t kidding.

These were some of the last trees that would be seen over the next few days.

Gravel and trucks – what a combination.

This road went on forever.

Made it to the Arctic Circle.

This is where is it.

Let’s see how long that guy can stay out in the cold.

Atigun Pass is the most treacherous section of the Haul Road. Rising more than 4,600 ft. the road is steep, unpaved, rocky, and unbelievably scary if you were there in the winter. It was even disturbing during the summer. During the winter, the large trucks get in a convoy bumper-bumper train and push each other up over the pass. On the way down the other side they haul-ass and just try to hang on. Major accidents happen here each year. At the restaurant in Cold Foot (half way on the road) there is a bulletin board of photos of many of the horrific wrecks. The regular route for one of these truckers is drive from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay in one day (450 miles in a big rig over the mountains), sleep the night and drive back, sleep a day and do it all over again.

Here are a few photos of the pass.

Not a good road on which to drive.

View from the top looking north.

Heading down. Can’t imagine this being an ice road.

More Haul Road Photos.

Following the pipeline.

The endless road.

Wait, a mountain!!!

The tundra.

More tundra. Not a tree for the next 300 miles.

One of the three things a person must do to become a “real Alaskan” is pee in the Yukon River. So here I go – carving a notch in my headboard.

I’m really there.

Looks like the Mississippi to me.

Boy is that water cold – and deep!!!

Prudhoe Bay (Deadhorse, AK) is from where the majority of our domestic oil comes. Oil workers usually work 14 days on (12 hours per day) and then have 14 days off. Many of them live across the US and fly out at the end of each shift. The oil companies have flights that will only take them to Anchorage. It is up to themselves to get home. I have flown on the oiler flights from Anchorage to Houston and have seen more dirty jeans and shirts then I want to. These “Good ol boys” from Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma have had the experience in their own locales of working the crude, but choose to work the North Slope for the $$$. The work is hard and the climate is bitter (up to 50 degrees below zero during the winter) and you are often working outside. Safety is a major issue and thus, alcohol is forbidden. Get caught once and your career is over – black balled from the Slope.

Workers sleep in dormitories or two to a small room in WWII style housing. It’s all about the work here – not fun and games. There is no movie theater here, but your cell phone works.

Here are a few photos.

Bumper sticker.

Luxuriant accommodations were had at the only place non oilers can stay.

From where your oil comes. One of the drill sites.

These are the only trees for 300 miles.

The Christmas Tree – really.

Another rig site. Those buildings are where the workers stay.

Another desloate work site.

These are working well heads that were drilled many years ago.

Post card of caribou crossing a pipeline.

Deep in winter.

Well site probably at 50 below zero.

Oil workers stay in housing structures built from portable structures the size of ocean going shipping containers. Each housing unit was at one time hauled up from Anchorage on a truck.

Portable housing up on stilts.

More housing above the permafrost.

Because of the harsh winter conditions and for the protection of the fragile tundra dn permafrost, special equipment had to be developed for the North Slope. Here are a few of these specialized pieces of equipment.

Snow cats.

More snow cats.

Even more snow cats.

This is a roll-a-gong. A huge inflated inner tube of a tire that allows the vehicle to float on top of the ice and snow without sinking in.

Trucks fitted with roll-a-gong tires.

Here I am dipping my noodle in the Arctic Ocean. We had all been promised the opportunity to do a nudie swim (and you know I was prepared to do it) but that was cancelled because of recent polar bear sightings. You wouldn’t want to be in the 33 degree water with a frozen willy when a polar bear came a munching.

I guess I am waiting for the polar bear to come.

This is the gas station in Prudhoe Bay. It is really self-serve. Even though this is where the oil comes out of the ground, all of this gas has been trucked up from Anchorage or Fairbanks. Virtually all of the vehicles up here are diesel. They have a small refinery up here that takes the crude oil and makes only diesel. During the winter, all vehicles are left on all of the time. So if you are interested in a low-mileage truck that was once on the slope be careful. It may only have 25,000 miles on it, but the engine has been on for 20,000 hours.

It’s something out of Andy of Mayberry. Where’s Goober?

Two grades – diesel or low-test.

Don’t spill anything – that’s $5.50 per gallon.

Do your windows sir?

Musk ox are indigenous to the region and were out in force along the road. They are only in the tundra areas and continue to move around during the harsh winters. You can’t get too close because everyday is rutting season.

A lone male trying to figure is all out.

I think it’s a pod of oxen – I’m not sure.

Where the women at? I’ve got two horns.

The only bush I’m gonna get.

Who knows what they are doing.

Now I’m really pissed. Pink flowers. I hate pink flowers.

Now were getting somewhere. Okay, I stole this from a post card.

On the way back a different view of some of the same locations. It’s all about the weather.

Every now and then a flag team in trucks will wave you down and have you pull over and wait for up to a half an hour. A big load is coming up the road and there is no room for you. The road is mostly 24 feet wide and this load is 22 feet wide. He is also going 50 mph. If you hadn’t pulled over and came around a bend and there he was, he ain’t stopping. This is how everything got to the North Slope over all the years – one piece at a time via truck.

Portage Glacier is about an hour outside Anchorage. To see the glacier you have to take a boat trip on the dog-legged lake to get around the corner. Once there you can see the result of global warming after you have seen the photos in the lodge of the glacier just a few years ago.

Just south of Anchorage

First look at the glacier on a cloudy day.

The Iceman cometh.

Closer view.

The blue color caused by the absorption of the other colors of the spectrum by the ice was amazing.

More blue.

Iceberg wanting to hit the boat.