Home Overview Itinerary Driving Fishing References

Overview

Beginning of Dalton HighwayThere are two roads in North America that go to the Arctic Ocean - Dempster Highway in Canada and Dalton Highway in Alaska. Dalton Hwy starts about 76 miles NW of Fairbanks and goes north to Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay) along the Alaska pipeline. The total length is 417 miles (671 km).

We decided to travel the Dalton in June, because this is a late spring in the Arctic, and we wanted to see the tundra flowers that are abundant at this time of the year. Also, it never gets dark at the end of June, so we could do whatever we wanted to, 24 hours a day.

I think we picked a good time. The weather was good: mostly sunny or mixed clouds, warm during the day (15°C - 25°C) and cooler at night (7°C - 15°C). There were only a couple of pretty short rains. The tundra was beautiful; fishing was also good. However, next time we would probably go around the middle of August. First, there were a lot of mosquitoes. Although I admit I have seen more mosquitoes in some other places, they were really annoying. The DEET repellent ("BugOut") that we had worked pretty well, but never provided 100% protection. Another problem was that there was still a lot of snow melting on the northern slopes of the Brooks Range, so the rivers there were muddy. As a result we had a good fishing south of Atigun Pass, but no fishing at all north of Brooks Range.

Tundra north of Atigun PassThe number of mosquitoes starts to diminish at the beginning of August, and the fishing must be better up North. Also, we've heard that in the middle of August the blueberry season starts, and the northern blueberries are exceptionally tasty.

There is only one "competitor" of the Dalton Highway in North America  - the Dempster Highway in Canada. We drove both roads, and it's hard to say which one we enjoyed better. The Dalton is probably more spectacular because of the Brooks Range. Also, it stops just a few miles from the Arctic Ocean (you have to buy an oil fields tour to get there), while the Dempster in the summer stops about 90 miles from the ocean, so you have to fly to Tuktoyaktuk to get your feet wet. On the other hand, while both roads go through the real wilderness, there is no pipeline going along the Dempster Highway, and there are even fewer cars and trucks on the road. You can also find more local people on the Dempster and to see more local culture. If you enjoy wilderness and have time - travel them both, you won't regret it.

Flowers in tundraFlowers in tundraFlowers in tundra

In our report we won't be describing in detail each and every place we visited - there are some very good books to read about Dalton Highway and web sites to visit (see References). If you are serious about exploring the Dalton, we would highly recommend that you to read some of them.

 

*  Click any picture to enlarge. Hover your mouse over picture to see the description.
Home Overview Itinerary Driving Fishing References
Email me