1000 miles in 40 hours: Experiencing Prudhoe Bay and the North Slope

Two months ago we planned a weekend get-away to the Arctic Circle. Less than 72 hours before we were planning on leaving, Marshall told me that he would be leaving that weekend for a two week field exercise with his platoon. "Well darn!" was my thought, as this trip was the one  thing I had wanted to do since before I arrived in Alaska. I wanted to experience 24 hours of daylight where the sun never dips below the horizon. Trying to be optimistic, I sent my husband off on his trip with a kiss, and looked forward to the weekend we would be able to go--because I wasn't letting another summer go by without making the trip.

The Yukon River

Fast forward to the weekend of July 25th. We had just spent the past month moving and traveling down south to see family, and we had finally gotten settled into our new place. Marshall had the weekend free from work and though it may have been nice to have a quiet weekend at home, we decided to drive up north. Friday was a long work day for him and we did not leave our home until 8:15pm. Our destination was the Arctic Circle, 197 miles north on the Dalton Highway, also known as the Haul Road (it was originally built as a supply road for truckers while working on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the 1970s).

We were looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Or so we thought. We only drove for about 2.5 hours the first night, and pulled over on the side of the road, past the Yukon River. We found a nice, grassy spot where we pitched our tent and called it a night. I was so grateful for my awesome sleeping bag that kept me warm, as it probably dropped into the mid 30s that night (We had some frozen water in the back of the truck in the morning).  We slept in and had a relaxing morning in the tent and didn't depart until 10am. That was about the last relaxing thing we did for the next 26 hours.

The Arctic Circle sign was only a two hour drive away from our camp on Saturday morning.

Climbing on signs is fun :)

Thank goodness for the delay feature on our camera, or these pictures wouldn't have been possible!

We drove 60 miles north to Coldfoot, an old town of about 10 (2010 census), and stopped at the BLM Arctic Visitor Center, which was actually pretty legit. We were planning on turning around there and heading home after eating our picnic lunch, but then Marshall and I got to talking.

We were halfway to Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse.
We were so close to the North Slope Borough.
We didn't want to regret not going all the way to the Arctic Ocean.

I really wanted to go all the way, but that would mean spending a couple hundred extra dollars on gasoline and many more hours in the car. Then Marshall reminded me of a previous conversation: we are not "things" people. We value experiences more. I was sold.

The extra gas we brought with us to avoid paying $5.50/gallon was not going to suffice, so we just bit the bullet and buckled our seatbelts for an adventure waiting to happen!

The experience of paying $5.50/gallon 

The north is something completely different. I have never seen such a vast array of scenery than in the state of Alaska. It is so beautiful and full of the unknown mystery of nature!

The Trans-Alaskan Pipeline, 800 miles of man-made wonder.

My favorite spot of the drive was through Atigun Pass in the Brooks Range.

Snowball fight in July!

No laughing. This snow was so dense and delicious!!
I literally ate that entire clump.
And enjoyed every bite. 

During the entire drive, I was following along in The MilePost, an extremely useful guide to the highway systems in Alaska and Canada. It highlighted various types of wildlife along the route, so I kept my eyes on the scenery to try and spot my animals. No caribou. No moose. No bears. No dall sheep. Really? Don't I live in Alaska for a reason? What. the. heck.

"Wouldn't it be cool if we saw some musk-ox?" I asked Marshall, figuring these would be the least likely of all the animals for us to see.

"It would make my day!" he responded.

Not more than 10 minutes later I spotted a herd of Musk-ox! Maybe I should have been more optimistic about the other animals :). We ended up spotting a total of three herds within 30 minutes.

Welcome to Deadhorse, Alaska!
Most of the population here are oil field workers, so we felt pretty out of place!

Re-fulling at a super funny gas pump in Deadhorse. 

Our celebratory picture. 498 miles later and we can finally say we've been on top of the world!

It would have been cool to actually see the Arctic Ocean. But the road leading to it is restricted to oil field workers and tour groups with permits. Since we didn't even plan on going all the way until the day of, we couldn't really book a tour. Plus, we didn't arrive until 7pm Saturday night. But that's okay, we can pretend the lake above is the Arctic Ocean, instead of Lake Colleen :).

Beautiful views on the drive back south.

By the time we were finished (12pm on Sunday morning), we had driven 1000 miles in approximately 40 hours. 1000 miles of mostly dirt road full of potholes. This is how I felt:

Finally done!! 

But it was SO worth it.