Prudhoe Bay Tip of Alaska

As the books say, the bush is a vast area of Alaska that is not readily accessible. The Artic is listed as one of these areas so I guess we are heading bush. Leaving our RV in Fairbanks we hopped into Troopy for our trip to the tip of Alaksa. 490 miles along the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to Deadhorse near Prudhoe Bay. Deadhorse is very much about oil production, transport and support services.

A prearranged tour of the Oil fields was made when we arrived at Fairbanks visitors centre as a security check is required 24 hours prior to taking the tour. This tour is the only way you can access the Artic Ocean

The road was a mix of bitumen, rough gravel, corrugates, washes and ice heaves but in far better a condition than what we had expected making travel reasonably easy. This road is maintained as it is the only driveable access to Prudhoe Bay, the largest oil field in America and is where the Trans Alaskan oil Pipeline begins.  

The countryside was magnificent with the highlights being the Artic Cirle and our travels through Brookes range crossing Atigun Pass at 4752 ft. As we neared Deadhorse the country opened out to treeless plains covered in cotton grass and wildflowers. The sag river winds its way out to the Bering Sea and a Herd of Carribou grazed in the open. At many points the road followed the pipeline along before it would disappear under ground and we would come across it again few a mile further up the road. 

About 48 mile out of Prudhoe Bay we picked up a gentleman who had fallen off  his motorbike and had injured his leg and had concussion. We took him with us the rest of the distance into Deadhorse where we organised medical assistance for him leaving his bike behind but bringing his valuables.

We did not expect to get to the tip in one day so had to make changes to our hotel reservation and tour. We were lucky that there was an available room for Russ and I so we bought our booking forward a night. Geoff and Kienny camped in troopy in the car park. We were also able to change our tour to 8 am the following morning instead of 5pm which is what we had booked.

After the 2 hour tour was finished we headed back along the Dalton to Fairbanks. The return journey was just as interesting although we travelled through some rain and fog. We were lucky enough to see a black bear.

Arriving in town at 11.15pm, we had dinner at the northern most “Denny’s” before gratefully putting our heads on the pillows at the end of Two wonderful days.  Geoff and Kienny excited that they had travelled from the most southern to the most northern point in America and Russ and I equally pleased that we had the opportunity to experience the Artic.

We had a few things we need to do before leaving Fairbanks and as it was the 4^th July many shops were closed so we had a lazy day sharing in the independence day celebrations at Pioneer park, (and all conveniently located next door  to our RV). 

Pioneer park contains all the historical buildings that have been moved here from the town of Fairbanks and within the buildings is information, museums and gift stores.

Where to next ...  On our way back to Canada but first we will be going to the NORTH POLE...    





Artic Circle

Brookes range

Bus tour of Oil fields and Artic Ocean

Caribou



Brookes Range



Dalton Highway

Dalton Lake

Denny Diner

Dalton Highwy

Finger Mountain

Finger Mountain

Geoff & Kienny amoung the cotton flower

Historic Railway at Pioneer Park

Ice Machinery

Kitty Henley Historical House

Koyukuk River



Koyukuk River



Nilichik River

Pioneer Park lake

Pioneer Park

Pipeline



Dalton Highway and Pipeline



2 caribou



To Prudhoe Bay



Prudhoe Bay Hotel

Russ and Rob at Artic Ocean

Russ and Rob in the wildflowers

Lakes

Snow in Crevice

Squirrell

Troopy on the Dalton

wildflowers

Wildflowers

Snow capped Mountains

Sun through rain clouds

Wiseman

Historical home in Wiseman

Trucker on the Dalton

Anchorage to Fairbanks

The Parkes highway, 358 miles long winds its way between Anchorage and Fairbanks past Denali National Park which is the road we travelled.

On route we went through the town of Wasilla (home town for Sarah Palin, ex governor) before reaching the quaint town of Talkeetna where we spent a couple of nights. This rustic town with a mix of hand constructed log cabins and historic railroad buildings could only be accessed by rail until 1972. Loved everything about this town except that the largest mosquitos you have ever seen live here and the town was a town of cotton wood trees dropping cotton everywhere. Not good for sinus sufferers.    

We needed to stay where we could have reliable access to the internet as it was the end of the financial year.Russ had some WORK to do. It was also from here that we said goodbye to our travelling buddies Mal and Wendy who spent a further night in town before catching a train to Anchorage, then a flight to LA and then home to Oz.

While at Talkeetna we did a one hour flight over Denali National Park believing that there is no better way we could not have experienced the wilderness of Denali. Leaving the runway and heading off we flew over lowland forest and rivers and then flew between snow covered towering peaks and over many miles of glaciers. It was simply stunning! Denali National Park holds North Americas highest mountain Mt McKinley at 20,320 ft, but our views of this famous mountain were limited as it was covered in cloud.

Leaving Talkeetna we headed by road to Denali National Park entrance. As all the camping grounds were full within the park we went up to Denali township and stayed in an RV park for the night.  Car access into the park is only permitted for the first 15 mile and then access to the park is via a tour bus or shuttle bus (for a fee) for the further 80 miles into the park. As it was raining, and not a day to be taking photos we did the 15 mile in to get a feel for the park from the ground and then continued on to Fairbanks.  

We passed through Healy, the states only commercial coal mine, had lunch in the RV in front of Nenana Visitors centre before arriving in Fairbanks. Our first stop was at the visitors centre to arrange a safe location to leave the RV as the next part of our trip was the road north to the tip of Alaska and is one that the RV will not be travelling.

Pioneer Park car park became home for the RV and our overnight camping ground for the next four nights.

Looking back to runway on flight over Denali

Denali National Park

Glacier in Denali

Glacier





Green mountains of Denali



Gift store at Talkeetna




 


Homes in an RV park

 


Igloo City



K2 Aviation company we flew with



Nenana Visitors Centre




 


On route to fairbanks in the rain

 




Flying among the mountains




Entrance to Pioneer Park Fairbanks

 


Snow capped mountains

 


River views from plane

  



Rafters on the Nenana River

  





Russ on the flight over Denali



Ruth Glacier



Talkeetna Information Centre



Welcome to Talkeetna



Mountains of Denali



Views from Plane window



Wildflowers of Denali



Kienny-  sadly the smile did not last