Wiseman to Deadhorse

After a good breakfast, we were off to the end of the Dalton Highway. The day started off good. The weather was nice and the road was still good.

This is just a picture from the road. You can kind of see the pipeline on the right of the picture.
This is a view as we went over Atigun Pass. This Pass is always made out to be very dramatic for the Ice Road Truckers. I'm sure it is tough when the road is covered in snow and you're driving an 18-wheeler, but it really wasn't too tough. It may not have been tough but it was really pretty. In fact, the scenery along the entire road was very pretty.

You can see the pipeline a bit better in this picture. It's on your left here. It would switch from one side of the road to the other. Sometimes you'd go over the pipeline on a bridge. Other times, the pipeline would go underground and pop up on the other side of the road.

We didn't see too much for awhile. After we got over Atigun Pass, it got really foggy. You really couldn't see much of anything. I bet there was a herd of muskox right along the side of the road and we missed them!!

It did clear up eventually. We stopped for a lunch along the side of the road. Contrary to what you may have expected, the farther north you went, the worse the mosquitoes got. As soon as we'd get off the bike and take our helmets off, the mosquitoes would converge. We didn't get bit because we'd brought OFF with 98% deet. This is a picture to try and give you an idea as to just how many there were (look closely). During our lunch break I had the pleasure of using a shrub as a restroom. Luckily I'd had the forethought to bring some TP just for this stretch of the road. There was one outhouse close to Coldfoot but I didn't have to go then!! So, I can just imagine the mosquitoes on my tush as I went to the john!!

As we got closer to Deadhorse, the road became pretty slippery and tough to drive on. Road crews were putting down fresh...stuff, don't know for sure what you'd call it. We got right behind the machine that was putting it out and it hadn't been scrapped across the entire road yet.

This is the work crew. We did at one point get stuck on the right side of the pile. That stretch wasn't too much fun.

This is a pretty sad picture of Prudhoe Bay.


We did finally make it to Deadhorse. This is Mike getting gas. I like the gas pictures because you can see the quite unique gas pump.

Just to prove it, this is the bike in front of the famous sign at the Deadhorse General Store.

This was our room at Deadhorse. The hotels are expensive because you have very limited options. This little slice of heaven cost $190/night!! These were originally housing for the pipeline workers. It appeared that the oilfield workers stayed here as well. Not only was the decor excellent, the smell was to die for. The whole place pretty much smelt like pee. Oh well, what are you gonna do? We did have a bathroom in the room and surprise, surprise...a TV!

The only option for dinner was the buffet offered by the hotel. This too was expensive. It was $20/person. That night was Mexican night. It wasn't too good. The cafeteria did have a very large TV and it was showing the NASCAR race at Daytona!! That was kind of humorous. All the way at the top of Alaska and we're watching NASCAR!

This was a fun day and was just exciting being there. We didn't actually see the Arctic Ocean. I know, I know, we went all that way and didn't even see the ocean. If you want to see the ocean you have to take a tour of the oilfield. We didn't plan on doing this but inquired about it once we got there. You have to allow 24 hours in order to clear security. Apparently many a tourist has tried to sabotage the oilfield?? We decided to pass.