Bye-Bye Bucket List Item #1

(2018 Alaska Ep 43)

When planning our Alaska trip we had a couple items on our bucket list –  one was to visit the Arctic Circle and the other to see the Northern Lights.

We set off from Fairbanks on August 22 in search of both.

We traveled north via the Dalton Highway.  The road extends more than 400 miles from near Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, the immense northern oilfield on the Bering Sea and start of the Alaska oil pipeline.  Due to the condition of the road, we decided to leave our camper in Fairbanks and drive to Coldfoot, an hour north of the Arctic Circle and halfway to Prudhoe (RabbiTRAILS Alaska Map, Pt. # 49).

The Dalton has sections of pavement with lots of potholes and other sections with a graded gravel-dirt mix.  When the gravel-dirt road is dry, you can actually travel faster than on the paved road.  When wet … more on that below.

The road is VERY remote with light traffic; there are few signs of civilization other than the pipeline.  We crossed the Yukon River after several hours, and welcomed the sight of restrooms and a gas pump.  We didn’t welcome the price of fuel – $5.49 a gallon!

We reached the Arctic Circle a couple hours later.  It was nothing really exciting other than a sign telling us we had arrived.

Had we been there on June 21, however, we would have experienced a day when the sun never set.  Instead, we were at a campground in Yukon on that date (see earlier blog post).

We continued to Coldfoot Camp.  Coldfoot is a major stopover between Fairbanks and Prudhoe.  It is in the Brooks Range, remote mountains that extend more than 1500 miles east-west across Alaska.

Inside, truck drivers filled themselves on a hot buffet, and outside, car drivers filled their tanks with $5.49 gallon gasoline.

We camped at Marion Creek BLM Campground, a few miles north of Coldfoot.  It was our home away from home away from home.  As we prepared dinner, it began to lightly rain.   We stayed dry on air mattresses and sleeping bags in the back of the truck. No Northern Lights for us that night.

The next morning we rose to remnants of light rain from the night before.  We cooked breakfast in the cold and noticed fresh snow on nearby mountaintops.

When we started back to Fairbanks, we discovered the gravel-dirt road was now slush. Our speed was much slower.  Before long our truck was covered with a VERY thick layer of dirt and gravel.

The first stop when we returned to Fairbanks was to a car wash!

We crossed the Arctic Circle off our bucket list but were disappointed we didn’t see the northern lights.