August 25, 2008
We got up the morning of the 25^th, went to Sam’s Sourdough for breakfast, bought the extra spare tire as recommended, loaded a weeks worth of groceries, and late on the afternoon of Aug 25, 2008 started the adventure. The plan was to drive as far as the Arctic Circle and stop at Coldfoot. We got to the junction, at mile 73, of the Elliot Highway and the Dalton Highway and right away the pavement ended and the gravel began. The road is very dusty but hard surface and just barley two lanes wide. It goes up and down hills, steep 7% and 8% grades. The forest is black spruce, and birch. The birch trees are starting to turn very golden. Because of the late start we stopped the first night at mile 23, near Hess creek, at a beaver pond. It was well past the summer solstice but the twilight lasted until midnight and the first wildlife sighting, that night there were beavers working on their house on the opposite shore.

August 26, 2008
We left Hess creek around 10:00 AM and drove about 56 miles to the Yukon River. We stopped at the Yukon River Camp, a general store, café, and gas station,  bought a tee shirt and other souvenirs, all say something about the Arctic Circle. After filling the gas tank I talked to a man who had just come south on the road. He told us the road is good and we must go to at least mile 311 for best scenery and a small herd of musk ox. We continued on and crossed the Arctic Circle at 4:16 PM, stopped at the information pullout, about 200 yards past the actual point according to my GPS, and took pictures at the Arctic Circle sign. There was also a tour bus and about 30 people at the sign taking pictures. After getting our picture taken at the sign we went on to Coldfoot, arriving around 7:30 PM. It’s very interesting with big trucks, a café and lots of people from the same tour bus. Saw some people we had talked with earlier in the day one of them an older man had worked on the pipeline, he had some interesting stories. All day long the road followed the pipeline; the sky was clear and full of sunshine. We camped a few miles past Coldfoot at Marion Creek around 8:30 PM. We had pizza to celebrate the crossing on the Arctic Circle.

August 27, 2008
We left camp at 10:00 AM and drove back to the visitor center at Coldfoot, our original plan was changed. We saw a movie on the Brooks Range and got information about continuing North to Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay. We called ahead and made reservations to tour the oil facility and get to the shore of the Arctic Ocean. We had to give our passport information for a background check 24 hours before the tour. We left the visitor center about 11:00 AM driving north. The road was hard packed “chip seal” and very rough with lots of potholes. We passed the last spruce tree along the pipeline and crossed into the arctic tundra environment. We went over the Brooks Range through Atigun pass, very much like Tioga pass in Yosemite Calif. The road was paved and not bad, changing to good gravel down out of the pass. The landscape is now all tundra, very desolate and barren looking with interesting colors. The day was bright and sunny but colder. We stopped at Galbraith Lake BLM campground around 5:00 PM.

August 28, 2008
We left camp about 10:15 heading north to Deadhorse. The morning was overcast and misty, the rest of the day was cloudy, a high of 45 degrees. The landscape continues to be Arctic Tundra, very desolate but fabulous fall colors. The very low, 6” to 8” shrubs, grasses, and plants are bright yellow, orange and red with some brown. We saw a couple of Caribou and two herds, 8 to 12 animals, of Musk Ox about 100 yards off of the road. We had to stop and pull off the road twice to accommodate trucks carrying wide loads, 14 and 18 feet. We arrived in Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay, at 4:30 PM. It is a collection of construction companies spread randomly over an area about 2 or 3 square miles. There is much hustle and bustle with trucks and equipment going every which way. Some of the buildings are two and three stories but set on wood or steel blocks above the ground, so as not to melt the perma frost. Everything here is in support of the oil industry. There are 3 hotels for oil workers and tourists, built from doublewide mobile homes connected together and the restaurants are all cafeteria style with family seating. We had dinner, $20.00 each, all you can eat pizza, fried chicken, salad, and a large selection of deserts. We camped near some kind of lake close to the entrance of town.

August 29, 2008
Got up about 9:00 AM and drove around Deadhorse taking pictures. Mailed some postcards then went on the tour. It consisted of driving the same roads we did but went through a security checkpoint and on out to the oil fields. A guide narrated and told about the various buildings and the process for getting the oil. We stopped at the shore of the Arctic Ocean and were able to put our hands in it. No one was allowed to swim because a polar bear was seen recently in the water around there. I picked up two pieces of drift wood a couple of rocks for souvenirs. After the tour we got back on the road and drove south back to Galbraith Lake to camp.

August 30, 2008
Slept in until 10:30 AM, it had rained over night but the day was bright and sunny. We sat in the sun and drank coffee before starting out. We were on the road by 12:00 noon, traveled south seeing the same scenery backwards. Once again, beautiful fall colors. Arrived in Coldfoot about 6:00 PM and ate turkey dinner at the restaurant. We camped again at Marion Creek BLM campground. I got up at 1:15 AM to see the aurora borealis. It was white and wispy like the vapor trail of a rocket launched from Vandenberg AFB. After a few minutes different areas began to light up more and the classic vertical lines showed up. Also saw 5 or 6 shooting stars. I watched it for 20 or 30 minutes then back to bed.

August 31, 2008
Woke up around 9:30 and drove into Coldfoot for breakfast at the café. The waitress said other people had seen the Aurora also. We left Coldfoot around 11:30 diving south. We stopped at Grayling Lake to take pictures of the fall color and stopped again at the south fork of the Koyukuk River to pan for gold, no luck. We drove on and stopped at finger Mountain, a 40 foot spire use as a landmark for early travelers. Continued on into Yukon Crossing and filled the gas tank. We camped near there at 5 mile BLM campground. We were up at 2:00 AM and we saw the northern lights again, but not as intense as last night. Because we are further south, the sky was much blacker and there were millions of stars out.

September 1, 2008
We got up around 9:30 AM and drove 5 miles south to Yukon Crossing and had breakfast at the café. Some local characters were in there with their six guns and Winchester rifle eating breakfast. We left about 11:00 AM and headed south, arrived in Fairbanks about 5:30 PM, the fall colors continued to be gorgeous where they didn’t exist a week earlier on the way up. We stopped at Denney’s, the most northerly in the world, for a hot fudge sundae to celebrate a successful adventure then went to a car wash and washed the mud and dust off the truck with the high pressure nozzle. The dirt roads are sprayed with calcium chloride to keep the dust down which creates a lot of mud and it is very corrosive. Then went grocery shopping, and camped at Wal-Mart. The day was bright and sunny about 68 degrees in Fairbanks.