Thursday, July 4, 2014 – North Pole, AK

As long as we are this far north, we decided we should drive further north to visit the Arctic Circle. This is just something you have to do. The location is about 200 miles north from Fairbanks.

We left at 10 AM and followed the Elliot Highway. About 10 miles out of town, we found a roadside access point for the 800 mile Alaska Pipeline. It is amazing that this pipeline was built by 70,000 workers in two years!! The pipe is 4' diameter and insulated as the crude oil is 100 degrees. The pile supports range in depth from 15' to 60' because of the permafrost. We saw portions of the pipeline for the next 4 hours.

We drove on another 70 miles where the Dalton Highway begins. This is the north slope haul road to the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay, where the pipeline begins. This is also the location where the pavement ends.

The next 120 miles, from this point north, had short sections of pavement,and gravel, but it was mostly unsurfaced. The unsurfaced roadway is treated with dust control and is regularly graded. (The grading process also includes watering, which makes a real mess of your vehicle.) Even at that, the roadway was riddled with soft spots and chuckholes (small to large). The further north we went the worse the road became. The steeper grades were 10%-12% both up and down.

At 134 miles, we crossed the Yukon River. We thought the Yukon was big at Dawson. Boy were we wrong. This river is HUGE. The bridge is about ¾ mile across and maybe 200' above the river. This is the “spring runoff” time of year. All of the streams are bank-full, including the Yukon. At this crossing, the river is probably ½ mile across and running very fast.

As we traveled along, we were able to see the pipeline at various locations, as well as other sites. We stopped at a rest area at a location called Finger Mountain. We are not sure how it got its name.

We arrived at Latitude 66° 33' – the Arctic Circle – at 2:30 PM. There is a BLM sign and roadside camping area for visitors. To our surprise, there were a bunch of people there. A 20 passenger tour bus, several motorcycles, and cars, of course. The camp host said they had greeted 130 people so far today. We took photos, got our official “Arctic Circle Crossing” certificate, ate lunch, and headed back at 4 PM.

We got back to town at 8:30. We were both exhausted and felt beat up from the rough roads. We had dinner and showered. By this time, it was 12:30 AM, but still pretty light outside. Gayle has hung towels over the windows of our bedroom to give us a little darkness.

What a great way to spend the 4^th of July!!! We had a good night of rest!!

Wednesday, July 3, 2014 – North Pole, AK

When we arrived at Chicken, we had to reset our clocks as Alaska is one hour behind the Pacific Zone.

Although the shadows were long, at 11:30 PM, the sun was still shining down on Chicken. When we went to bed, we had to hang a cover over the window to shut out the light.

Today we drove from Chicken, AK to North Pole (a town just east of Fairbanks). We anticipated a slow beginning – 80 miles of roadway similar to that we drove on yesterday plus 200 miles from Tok to Fairbanks. So...we decided to leave at 8 AM – we got up at 6 AM and were on the road by 7:45 – what a great beginning. Gayle finally got cell service in Tok, where she was able to talk with Heidi. During their conversation, they discussed the time difference from Mountain Zone – 1 hour??? Ooops!! Instead of moving the clock back from Pacific, I moved it forward. We were on the same time as Denver!! We actually left Chicken @ 5:15 Pacific. No wonder no one else was up and about!! We arrived in North Pole earlier than expected, too. Funny how that works. Our clocks are now on the correct zone :-). (Oh yah – about the sun at 11:30 last night – it was only 9:30. And we got up at 4.)

We were right about the first 80 miles. It took about 2½ . On the way, we were able to see Mt McKinley – from about 300 miles away. Even at that, it was awesome!!

The rest of the trip was interesting but routine. We saw 2 moose and we stopped at a local shop that has yard art constructed from burl wood. Very artistic, I must say!!

We arrived at the very well maintained Riverview RV Park. We will stay here for 4 nights before moving on to Denali. Tomorrow, we will visit the Arctic Circle – about 150 miles north of Fairbanks.