Alaska: Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay on the Dalton Highway

From Alaska’s largest city to the Arctic Ocean. About 1,300 km north: the Parks Highway from Anchorage past Denali National Park to Fairbanks, then the Dalton Highway – one of the most remote roads in the United States – across the Yukon River and the Arctic Circle, over the Brooks Range at Atigun Pass (about 1,450 m) and across the tundra of the North Slope to Prudhoe Bay at the Arctic Ocean. Allow three to four days; the Dalton Highway is partly gravel.

The route. Anchorage – Willow – Denali – Nenana – Fairbanks – the Yukon River – Wiseman – Atigun Pass – Prudhoe Bay (Deadhorse).

On the way. On clear days the Parks Highway has views of Denali, at 6,190 m the highest mountain in North America. The road follows the Nenana River and passes the entrance to Denali National Park. From Fairbanks the Dalton Highway runs beside the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which carries oil 1,300 km from Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez. Wiseman is a small village of about 10 people north of the Arctic Circle. North of the Brooks Range there are no trees at all.

Good to know. Fuel is sold at only three places on the Dalton Highway (Yukon River Camp, Coldfoot and Deadhorse): fill up whenever you can, carry a full-size spare tire and let someone know your plan. Mosquitoes are bad in June and July. The midnight sun lasts in summer; in winter the road is dark and very cold.

Picture: The Dalton Highway and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, Arthur T. LaBar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.