Leaving Lowe’s this morning, we drove North out of Fairbanks.  We soon reached a roadside exhibit where the Alyeska Pipeline comes up next to the road.  We are at the red “you are here” text, and we intend to reach Prudhoe Bay tomorrow:

There’s quite a bit of technology that goes into making the pipeline work.  The support posts are filled with ammonia which acts to transfer heat from the ground to the heat-radiating fins on the supports.  This stops the permafrost from melting, which would result in the pipeline sagging towards the ground and rupturing:

Hard to believe this 4-foot diameter ribbon of stainless steel extends another 500 miles North to the Arctic Ocean:

A modern pig was also on display, working its way through a cutaway length of pipe.  The pigs clean the pipe walls as well as stabilize the flow of oil.  Some of them have instruments for measuring pipe wall integrity:

We drove North on the Elliott Highway for about 70 miles until we reached the turnoff to the Dalton Highway:

The Dalton starts out as a pretty poor dirt road, then transitions to poor pavement.  Of the 180ish miles on the Dalton today, about 120 miles will be paved.

We crossed the Yukon River:

We passed under the pipeline and arrived at a BLM information hut:

The visitor area had a nice view of the river:

We continued North, having to drive pretty slowly as the pavement kept transitioning to gravel and back.  The pipeline paralleled the road:

Eventually, we crossed through 66.55’ North Latitude, where the sun doesn’t set on the summer solstice and doesn’t rise on the winter solstice. At our Northernmost destination, Prudhoe Bay, the sun doesn’t set for 75 days from May to August and likewise doesn’t rise for 75 days in the winter!

We continued another 60 miles North to Coldfoot, population 10.  All the slowing for rough patches reduced our fuel economy to 7.8MPG, and the gas station at Yukon Crossing was out of fuel, so the truck was plenty thirsty by the time we reached Coldfoot:

We’re overnighting at Marion Campground, 4 miles North of Coldfoot.  We’re doing this so we can leave the RV here tomorrow and drive just the truck the 250 mostly-gravel miles to Prudhoe Bay.  It will be a 500 mile day over the most remote and unforgiving “highway” in Alaska.

The mosquitoes here are unbelievable!  I broke out the mosquito head net we brought with us.  After 30 seconds standing outside, I literally look like a bee keeper in a bad situation.  I’m not kidding, it’s that bad!

Check out the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.