Alaska/Canada 2017-5: The Dalton Highway, Chena Hot Springs, and North Pole

    Doug said it best: Alaska is beyond words.

Ford Traverse at the start of the Dalton Highway—the "Haul Road"—to Deadhorse on Prudhoe Bay. 

    That said, a bunch of words to try to describe our experiences...
    Going west through Fairbanks 9 days into our trip (14 counting the ferry), Doug asked tentatively if I’d like to head up the Elliott Highway toward the Dalton Highway, which ends in Deadhorse on Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s north coast. The 70 miles we’d be driving are paved, but they see a ton of heavy truck traffic, so the road is not only curvy but also very bumpy.         

    “When will we be here again?” I asked. “Let’s go!” 

Heading north on the Elliott Highway.

    

    We turned north on Alaska 2 and drove through boreal forests of spruce, aspen, birch, and alder. The skies were huge and blue with puffy white clouds, reminiscent of our beloved Georgia O’Keeffe Country but with shades of green instead of the earthen hues of desert buttes. 

Boreal forest of spruce, aspen, birch, alder. 

    I have to say, heading up the highway, I think Doug was the proverbial kid in the toy shop, only for him, this was exploring another blue highway.

 

In about 90 minutes, we reached the junction with the Dalton Highway, Alaska 11. Doug wanted to at least try the gravel road. 

    After about one mile of washboard, we stopped at the sign for the Dalton Highway.

    It would have been amazing to continue the 115 miles to the Arctic Circle, 60 miles south of Coldfoot, but the unpaved Dalton Highway is notoriously rough on vehicles.

Mileage on the North Slope from the beginning of the Dalton Highway, 78 miles north of Fairbanks.

After a few minutes of watching the big rigs head up at a rather hectic pace, we agreed that if we did this it would not be in our van. The trucks headed south were in no less a hurry.

Watching big rigs fly up the Haul Road.

There are tours that take you in large vans up to the Arctic Circle and Coldfoot, but we decided the $200 each was a bit much so smiled and returned to the paved road.

Ford Traverse on the Dalton Highway 

    As we retraced our route we encountered a handful of other vehicles and big rigs. I think every time I saw an 18-wheeler approaching I held my breath—and got ready to take a picture, as I was fascinated by their variety and cargo.

Trucks didn’t slow down for anything & their power was nearly heart stopping as they sped by. 

Watching Doug as the trucks flew by, it was obvious what he wanted to do: Co-pilot one to the North Slope!

    All along the Elliott Highway we saw sections of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which roughly follows Alaska’s north-south highways—Dalton, Elliott, and Richardson—from Deadhorse on the north coast to Valdez on the south coast, through the forest, up and over mountains, across rivers, and sometimes underground. 

Trans-Alaska Pipeline heading up over a hill north near the Dalton Highway. 

Trans-Alaska Pipeline crossing a river. 

I'd never thought to appreciate the engineering feat that is the pipeline.

Trans-Alaska Pipeline running alongside the highway. 

We decided to camp at Lower Chatinaka River Whitefish Campground a small state park with only 6sites just north of Fairbanks. It was a basic campground without showers.

Camped on the banks of the Lower Chatanika River.

    By then I was hot and sweaty, so we took our portable shower to the hand pump, and while Doug pumped, I pulled up the valve and held the bladder under the faucet. We hung the shower on the awning, and I luxuriated in a freezing cold shower!

Portable shower hanging from the end of the awning. It was freezing cold and felt great! Doug rigged the tarp for shade.

Relaxing in camp.

Sunrise 3:30 AM.

Fairbanks—Dalton Highway—Chena Hot Springs—North Pole. 

    Having heard that Chena Hot Springs, about 70 miles east of Fairbanks, is a must visit, we headed there the next morning.

Often where we've traveled in Alaska places seem uninhabited—until we see a row of mailboxes such as these along Chena Hot Springs Road.

 

    Not far up the road, Doug spotted (and I missed, as my head was in the Alaska bible, The Milepost) a bull moose eating away along the road and rather oblivious to the passing traffic. This was a good thing—moose are really, really big. Those pictures you see of incredibly long-legged calves next to their humongous moms are not an exaggerration. And the bulls are even bigger.

A new one for us: home heating oil at the gas station.

Chena Hot Springs is as touristy as one should expect. I, however, had on rose-colored glasses when I looked at the pictures of the ice house, thinking all was ice, inside and outside. Even in the pictures, however, the outside is clearly not made of ice but rather is a building with an extremely poor troupe l’oeil exterior. All the glitzy pricey icy things are inside. We didn’t go in, and we didn’t explore anything else at the hot springs. Well, except the DC-6 cargo plane that caught Doug’s attention.

Cargo plane at Chena Hot Springs 

Doug’s brother had visited Chena in September, which is apparently the time to go, as there are few tourists, and it is cool enough to want to go in the hot springs. Fairbanks folks go there in the winter to escape the cold—makes total sense.
    Back down the highway 20 miles or so, we pulled off at one of the many ponds and were debating whether to camp there. 

Moose scat is like large rabbit scat...

Doug went part way up a trail and came back reporting he'd seen moose scat. I was thinking the site was too exposed and too warm, when I noticed a moose feeding on the other side of the not-very-large pond, while her calf grazed nearby.

Mama moose in the water & calf to her right grazing.

Although Mama would almost completely submerge, she was aware of us, moving around the pond toward us as she grazed. Doug loved the spot, but mama moose convinced me to bail.

    A little further down the road, we pulled into Granite Tors Trail State Campground in the forest and found a campsite with a large grassy area.

Granite Tors Trail Campground along Chena Hot Springs Rd.

It was great, except for the presence of Alaska's biting flies—shades of Minnesota, says Doug, and New Jersey, says I. 

Thank goodness I'd made no see-um screens for the van's doors & windows.

    After setting up, Doug went off exploring and discovered abandoned beaver dams and homes, which he took me to see. 

Beaver dams in the stream.

Beaver work for dam building.

Beaver dam up river. Think all have been abandoned.

And a beaver house.

    While there, we spotted another moose in a pond, who also was quite aware of us. They say if a moose get curious about you, it’s time to run. He was quite far away, but we turned back up the trail anyway so as not to disturb him. 

Moose grazing in the bog. Note that's Marilyn's capped head in the foreground. Doug took the picture from behind her. 

Our Granite Tors Trailhead campsite. Alaska spruce are tall!

10:00 PM & all is well.

    I thought I didn’t sleep well that night, but apparently I missed the dark skies, thunder, rain, and lightning sweeping the warm day away. Doug rolled up the awning but kept the top up for me, as bending over a lot makes my back start to hurt.

Before Doug closed up the van & rolled in the awning.

    After doing his chores, Doug, too, felt the dark and decided it was time to sleep. The van’s plastic top enhanced the pitter-patter of the rain, which kept us both lulled in a sound sleep.
    It was sunny, dry, and beautiful the next morning. We stopped at the hamlet of Two Rivers, home to a number of dog mushers.

A number of dogsled mushers live in the Two Rivers area.

Pleasant Valley Store in Two Rivers has sponsored the Yukon Quest sled dog race a number of years. 

Yukon Quest is billed as the toughest sled dog race, 1,000 miles from Whitehorse in the Yukon to Fairbanks in Alaska each February.

Winners of the Yukon Quest sled dog race

    We had noted Trail Crossing signs along the highway. 

It turns out they are not hiking trails, as I first thought, but sled dog training trails. 

Alaska highways have paths running along them wide enough for ATVs--and sled dog training.

    We took a cutoff road to our next destination: North Pole. Yep, we stopped at North Pole, Alaska, at the Santa House, and I went in. Doug stayed in the van while I tried not to do tourism to the max.

North Pole, Alaska.

How many trinkets would you like?

    It ended up being just a 40-mile day. We camped at Eielson Air Force Base southeast of Fairbanks, where we walked, did laundry, showered, cooked our first “real” dinner, relaxed, read, and smiled, nestled among trees.

Eilsen AFB.

Among the trees, Eilsen AFB Family Camp.

Up nest: The Denali Highway.