We got up early this morning to take a bus ride to the Artic circle. It was an all day adventure. A bus was scheduled to pick us up at the campground at 5:45 AM! When it arrived at around 6:10, it took us to where we would board another bus for the trip. This was a great mid-sized tour bus with the driver as the guide who narrated the tour. In addition, the bus was equipped with many monitors on which our guide showed 5 movies that explained the history, geology, heritage, culture and wildlife of the area. Our trip started out on a very nice 4 lane divided highway. Soon, it was down to a 2 lane paved road with the undulations of the frost heaves as seen in the second photo. Notice that the white line at the edge of the road is wavy. This is caused by the freezing and thawing of the ground beneath the road.
Then the road became more curvy and hilly. Eventually, we were on dirt and gravel road. Frost Heaves and potholes were in all types of roads, but became more prominent the farther north we got away from the city. It actually wasn’t too bad in the bus, just bumps and shakes, but we were glad we weren’t doing the driving.
Some scenery on the way to the Arctic Circle. The Sawtooth Mountains are in the background of the first picture and the silver line in the second photo is the Trans-Alaska Pipeline going up the hill.
"There are some critters up ahead,” said our driver. So we all got ready for some great wildlife photos. “Oh, they are some dogs. They probably belong to one of the campers in the area.” What a disappointment! They were cute dogs though. We never did see any large wild animals.
Our first stop was at a store called the Wildwood General Store in Joy, AK. There were hand made Willow branch chairs on the porch.
As we went inside, there were some interesting signs. First is warning that there are mosquitoes big enough to carry a person away. You can see the rest of the signs on the door. The map drawing also refers to the local mosquitos.
This was also our first potty break stop. Here are the beautiful restrooms that were available. Men’s on the left and women’s on the right I know, the men’s is much more decorative that the women’s. Both were glorified outhouses and very clean..
The Dalton Highway is called the “haul road” because it is the only road to the Arctic communities and Prudhoe Bay. It is the road that the Ice Road Truckers use to take all of the supplies to the outreaching areas in winter. Then there are the tours and private cars that use it Also, it is the highway that was used to build and is used to service the Trans-Alaska (Alyeska) Pipeline. Here is one of the trucks now. The gravel causes a lot of dust when traffic runs on it. It gets a lot of use, but it is still a rugged road. The winters cause a lot of the damage from the freezing, then when spring comes, the daytime thawing and refreezing at night causing frost heaves and pot holes to form. Road construction, repair and general fixing is going on all of the time up here in the far north.
We finally are on the Dalton Highway. The roads that we have been on so far were leading up to this one. I thought that this was a very pretty sign and did a close-up of the state that shows the Dalton Highway as a blue line. We are not going all of the way to the end of it, only to the Arctic Circle.
The Alaska pipeline and the road follow each other fairly closely. Here they go across the country, off into the distance, almost parallel to each other. The pipeline zig-zags to give it room to expand and contract as needed, without compromising its integrity.
There was an above ground run of the pipeline where we stopped. We walked right up to it and our guide told us about what we were seeing. The actual oil carrying pipe is encased in a thick insulation and is wrapped in steel . You can sort of see the pipe (black) inside the hole in the first picture. That whole assembly is attached to runners that slide on the cross bar of the “H” shaped frame, so that it can slide a little, if needed, with weather changes and earthquakes.
You can see in the following photo what it looks like for a distance. The “H” frame is very strong, to keep the pipe from falling off. We learned that the oil coming directly from the ground is very hot. I did not think about that before, but that is another reason for the insulation. You do not want the heat from the oil to cause the permafrost to melt, because it would cause instability and threaten to collapse of the pipeline. Protecting the environment and the pipeline are of utmost importance to the whole system. The white pieces above the brown poles are radiators to cool the oil as it travels through the pipe. As we crossed the Yukon River, the pipeline went right along with us in the cage looking area at the side of the bridge.
Above, I mentioned that road construction is an ongoing project in Alaska in general, especially in the far north. Our tour bus couldn’t avoid it either. We got stopped and had to follow the pilot car through the construction area. There are areas where the pipeline goes underground, if the ground is stable enough and there is no problem with permafrost melting. You can see the pipeline emerging from underground and continuing up hill in the upper left of the first picture.
We finally made it to the Arctic Circle. Our guide brought the “official Arctic Circle” and carefully placed it in the “exact spot” where the Arctic Circle boundary was. Earl and I each crossed over the Arctic Circle, as you can see.
And to prove it, here are our certificates.
On the way back to Fairbanks, we made a stop at Finger Rock. It is a tor, or a boulder of granite that formed 110 million years ago. Over time, water seeped through the ground and the freezing and thawing caused lighter rocks to be washed away, leaving these large granite tors exposed. Finger rock is about 40 feet high, one of the largest in this area. The rocks to the right are also in the park where Finger Rock is located. There is a geocache up a trail to the top. A faint rainbow, in the picture on the right, shows that there is rain in the distance. We had rain later on the way home. It was nice that it waited for us to be able to see all of the sights.
We had dinner at the Yukon River Camp, on the way back to town. It is a work camp for the construction workers in this remote area. The food was really good. I even had homemade rhubarb pie for dessert. It was delicious. The Bridge is the same one that I showed earlier over the Yukon River, just the other side, and it is not far from the building.
We got back to our trailer about 10:30 PM. It was a very long day, but very educational. Plus, we have been to the Arctic Circle.
