We accomplished what we wanted at The Chena Hot Spring, and that was to see the Aurora Borealis. We still had a few days left on our trip so why not think of doing some exploring. What better idea than to visit the Arctic Circle.
What the Heck, we've the time - Let's Go!
You can locate Fairbanks on the map, and so we were off to the Yukon River which was about 140 miles, but with lots of view stops. The Yukon River was our home base for a couple of nights.
The map is of the complete Dalton Highway, and is some 500 miles from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. The total length of the Pipeline is 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. From Fairbanks north the Dalton Highway parallels the pipeline.
This is the unbelievable openness of space. This view isn't for 20 miles or 50 mile or even a 100 miles, but for the full 500 miles. This is farther than traveling from Savannah, SC to Miami Fl. But it is on a gravel road; and you will not pass a town, a city, a farm, a ranch or even a plantation. It is just 500 miles of open space. If one could jump 800 miles to the Pacific Ocean or 4,000 miles to the Atlantic, the scenery would be the same. Not a town, not a farm, not a ranch, just a space of wonder. It is just as you see pictured above.
In 2009 and 2014 we drove up the Dempster Highway in the Yukon Territory which parallels the Dalton, but that is 400 miles east in Canada. These isn't a pipeline to follow on the Dempster, but the magnificent wonder of open space is still the same.
The first 50 miles of the highway from Fairbanks to the Yukon was paved, as you see here. What steals your heart is again the open space, and the view of the meandering pipeline is just an added touch.
The Dalton Highway was built to support the Alaskan pipeline, The Dempster in the Yukon was just a Canadian road from Dawson City, YK to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, and it is now being extended to TUK on the Arctic Ocean. Both are gravel roads across the tundra from somewhere to maybe nowhere.
The 800 miles of the Alaska Pipeline, 52% or some 420 miles, is above ground; and the other 380 miles is under ground. It all depended upon the foundation of the earth beneath the line. If the ground was tundra and or permafrost, then the line was above ground with cooling towers to keep the permafrost frozen; and if the terrain was solid rock or not effected by thawing, then the line went underground.
Oops, slow down as the pavement is ending, and that ole gravel can be slick.
Why is that ole pipeline so crooked zigging here and zagging there. These zig and zags were engineered to accommodate expansion. Remember this country goes from 80 degrees F to a minus 80 degrees through the season.
Here we observe the line going underground.
This stretch is where the line is completely underground. Again, why is some overhead and some buried. When the terrain stability will support the line, in other words the surface is solid rock orthe ground is not subject to thawing such as in the permafrost, the pipe line is below ground.
The vertical radiators, or towers you observe, add extra cooling to the permafrost in the winter and let heat escape in summer to keep the permafrost solid.
Pipline facts: 800 miles in length and 380 of these are buried. It takes 9 million barrels of oil to fill the line, and the oil from Pruhdoe Bay enters the line at 145 degrees. It is still at 115 degrees, 800 miles down the road at the Valdez Terminal.
Too, here you can see that the insulated pipe line is mounted on a bolster or 'shoes' at each support structure to allow movement in the line. The pipe is 48" in diameter, and the casing is plus 1/2 thick. The covering you see is covering some 4" of fiberglass insulation.
My traveling partners are Kyle, Robin, Dottie, Renee and James.
The Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech along with 70,000 men and women built this marvel in three years. What an orchestra leader he was to organize such an undertaking dealing with Legislators, Native Alaskans, Environmentalist besides the elements of temperature, terrain, weather, and remoteness.
We've come to our resting place, which is 140 miles north of Fairbanks at the Yukon River. You are now crossing the Yukon bridge. Notice that on the right side of this photo the pipeline is also being supported by the same bridge structure.
The mighty Yukon River flows 1980 miles. Beginning at Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, then into Alaska meeting the Pacific Ocean below Nome. In our RV trips we've crossed the Yukon several times, in fact we're now just old friends.
The Yukon River Camp has a small convenience store, plus lodging which includes a self service kitchen. It was actually a work camp, when the construction of the Pipeline was progressing. We enjoyed a very quiets night under the stars next to the mighty river.
There were at least 200 pick ups and trailers all parked at this location, and it kept us wondering why and where were all these campers. We quickly found out they were primarily moose hunters, for whatever might be available such as Bear, Caribou or Moose.
Then the questions came t mind, where are these hunters, and why are we not seeing them in camp.
When we approached the boat ramp, we came across this rather irate group of hunters reloading their boat. They pulled the mistake that all boaters make. They forgot to bring the drain plug, and in this photo are reloading to drain, and then their search of finding or fashioning a new drain plug.
The pickup driver shared with us that they had driven 5 days to get here. Now we begin to absorb why there were so many rigs in the parking lot. They are floating the Yukon to find their Moose.
It wasn't 10 minutes later that these two Moose hunters puled to shore. I should have said two Successful Moose Hunters. But Wow, what a story. They had traversed down the Yukon, and then up a tributary for a total of 575 miles. Talk about a boat trip - 575 miles each way to their hunting spot just to get their moose. This was their 8th year to come home with each bagging their moose. These two hunters were 75 years old.
Notice the saw cut on the horns. This was done by the Game Department.
Their Bulls this year yielded about 400 pounds of meat each. They related than one year, they mistakenly shot a Big Bull and could not handle all the meat; so they gave most of it to an Indian Tribe. They slept in the boat and said the hardest part of a good nights sleep was one keeping keeping the bears away from their Moose meat. I ask what does moose meat taste like....... response MOOSE.
Note the two white plastic fuel tanks, as for this trip they carried an extra 200 gallon to make the journey and only had to fill up once. But Wow! 1150 miles on the river to get their Moose. Pretty healthy fellows.
Different cabins on these boats but all are geared to be living quarters when hunting.
Robin and Renee slipped out at midnight, when we were at the camp to capture the Aurora from this location. Too the Kp index was still low at 2. Regardless, when in Aurora country the Skies will display their magnificence glory.
You reach the Arctic Circle 200 miles north of Fairbanks. Before saying WOW! remember Prudhoe Bay is 300 miles farther up this ole gravel road. For us the Arctic Circle was our destination.
I added this photograph of looking down form the top of the World at the Arctic. When we were in Inuvik in 2014 on our trip up Canada's Dempster Highway, we happened to meet a very interesting and informative 'North Person'. That is what he called himself. He told us of an North People Association that meets somewhere within the "Circle every couple of years". He lived in Inuvik but has made two or three of these gatherings, one in Russia and one in Finland. He told a fabulous story and we left rather in awe of the North People, whom we just call Eskimos.
70% of the Arctic is in Russia, but s our 'North Person Friend' related the North People don't really care about nationality. They don't consider themselves Russian, Swedes, Green-landers or for that matter Americans. They just are just the North People.
The Canadian Jay
Our hearts were captured by there Canadian Jays. They reminded me of our dog Sammy. He loves us, as long as we have something for him to eat.
Hey Guys, Me To
It was quite interesting that these birds would eat any crumbs from your hand; but if it were a larger piece of cracker, then they carried it off to their nest to store. But they returned immediately, to see if you had the time to recharge their lunch supply. Notice the Jay watching the bag in Renee's hand.
Oh, So Big is this country. We just stopped to smell the flowers and stare in amazement at the vastness of space.
Remember this is a 500 mile gravel road, and with that must come some dust. A special delivery from
Mr. Eighteen Wheeler.
Oops, somebodies foot might have been a little heavy on that ole gas peddle.
. 
Yes, even in the open spaces accidents happen. The driver of the small automobile was evidently driving too fast and in rounding the curve intersected with the Hood Ornament on this transport truck. We were about 3rd in line behind the accident, but did not see the impact. But in our two hour wait we were able to observe the action of the Police, the accident investigators and paramedics all of which were very coordinated and organized. As soon as they arrived the paramedics knew exactly how to pry open the driver's door and remove the driver. By the time they had him ready to load for transportation, a helicopter was on the ground to fly him to a Fairbanks hospital.
At the time of the accident the driver actually turned away from a head on with the truck and caught the full impact on the driver's door. This bounced the car back; the truck then caught him a second time, as you see it. Of course all this happened in 5 or 10 seconds. This was information the investigation team shared to we by standers.
Thanks for joining us as we drove the Dalton Highway along the pipeline to the Arctic Circle. But now all good things must come to an end. Our flight out of Fairbanks via Dallas and then Albuquerque didn't leave till 10:30 pm, so we enjoyed a full day. The seven hour flight got us to Dallas just in time for breakfast.
Come on Willie sing us another verse, and we’ll move on down the road toward the House.
Fantastic Journey, but one can't beat heading HOME!
