June 31, 2003 - Day 3

We tried to fish a little, but it was pretty windy and we didn't have much luck, so we decided to keep going north.

Our first stop was in Coldfoot - the second small community on the Dalton Highway and the last services before Deadhorse. We had lunch there, got gas and visited a small, but very nice visitor center to get some information. There is also a small hotel, telephone and some other services over there. Four miles north is Marion Creek campground, the only organized campground on the Dalton. Twelve miles north from Coldfoot there is a road to another small community, Wiseman (about 3 miles from Dalton). There are no services in Wiseman.

At mile 235 the highway passes the last white spruce tree on the highway. At this point the Brooks Range is visible to the north, and the road is slowly going up.

At mile 247 we crossed the Atigun Pass and the Continental Divide. This is the highest point of the Dalton Highway and the highest highway point in Alaska (4,800 feet, or 1463 meters). There was still a lot of snow there, and it was  cold and windy. From this point the road begins the steep descent into Atigun Valley.

This is a good spot to watch Dall sheep, but we had no luck and didn't see any.

We drove another 88 miles through the tundra and stopped in the Happy Valley Creek camp. This camp is for the pipeline workers, and we met some of the people who lived there. We camped nearby, on the Sagavanirktok (Sag) river. We've heard that there was a good fishing in this river. Unfortunately, we came too early. There was a lot of snow still melting on the slopes of the Brooks Range, so the water was muddy, and we didn't catch a single fish.

There were some mosquitoes there, but much fewer than to the south of the Atigun Pass. This was probably due to the almost constant tundra wind in that blows mosquitoes away.