The Dalton Hwy starts approximately 76 miles NW of Fairbanks off the Elliott Hwy, right after the exit to Livengood. The Elliott Hwy is paved until this point (after traveling the Dalton Hwy we drove the Elliott Hwy to Minto - it was unpaved, narrower and looked even more deserted than the Dalton). The drive was pretty, and we saw several moose right by the road. Right after we left Fairbanks we saw a big sign saying that there was heavy smoke on Dalton Hwy and that travel wasn't recommended. We’d been preparing for this trip for several months, so turning back wasn't our plan and we decided to take chances. In a restaurant we found out that there was a forest fire in the area and there was smoke for the first 27 miles.

The heaviest smoke was somewhere between the beginning of the highway and the Yukon border. We couldn't see much around us almost until the Yukon crossing. However, the smoke wasn't nearly bad enough to make driving impossible.

The road was unpaved, but not bad at all, and we reached the Yukon crossing (mile 56) without any problem. We had a lunch there and got gas. There was a good tire service station there, but luckily we didn't need any servicing, so we continued our trip.

The major portion of the highway between the Yukon crossing and Coldfoot (mile 175) was paved, but we didn't take advantage of it. The road was so beautiful that we drove quite slowly. At mile 95, the highway passed above the 2,500 ft (762 m) line into alpine tundra. At mile 97 we stopped by the Finger Rock to take pictures - this was one of the most spectacular places along the highway. This is also a place to pick blueberries in August. The Finger Rock points directly to Fairbanks, so aviators use it for navigation.

Soon Soon after wards, we crossed the Arctic Circle at mile 115.

We drove north until we crossed Prospect Creek at mile 135. We took a side road to the west to Jim River (about 1 mile) and camped there. We met some other fishermen nearby, since Jim River is one of the best fishing spots on the Dalton (see Fishing). We were greeted by clouds of mosquitoes. However, we'd been prepared, so we almost ignored them and started fishing. The fishing was slow at first, but started to pick up after 10 pm, and by 11 pm it was just excellent. We caught some pretty good graylings.

At night we saw our first animals - red fox and beaver. We also saw fresh grizzly footprints, as well as moose and snowshoe hare tracks, but didn’t see the animals themselves.

During the whole trip we didn’t see that many animals, at least compared to Denali. In addition to the red foxes and beavers, we saw several moose, black ferrets, and porcupines. Most animals we saw near Deadhorse - hundreds of caribou, arctic foxes, many birds - swans, ducks, geese, ptarmigans, etc. As could be expected, most wildlife we saw at night, early in the morning or late in the evening.