Off to the Arctic Wiseman, AK

Wiseman, AK

Surprise! The Best Western Plus was a real winner.  Sara only asked for a comforter, sheet and pillowcase and they had all three and more!  It seemed to be relatively new and everything was very nice.  We definitely could have done way worse.  We aren’t staying in very many ‘chain’ hotels this trip so I was glad this one worked out well.  We had our continental breakfast and loaded up Julie’s MM (it’s kind of like a Tetris game fitting in everything) and headed to pick up our second rental car of the trip, our Dalton highway vehicle from Arctic Outfitters.  Our final destination today was Wiseman, a few miles north of Coldfoot. Noel was our rental agent and did a great job explaining what we should expect to encounter, and this was the first rental car we’ve had in which a rock in a windshield was considered “normal wear and tear”.

She walked us through the CB Radio, our first aid kit, tools and our two spare tires.  Now, with one spare tire, the toolbox and the first aid kit all in the back of the Ford Escape, this truly was a game of skill to pack it with our “necessary” items for the Dalton.  We packed it in and away we went… in Tropicana (the official color of our vehicle).  The first stop was for a gold pan… and unfortunately they were all sold out.  No gold on this trip.  Just a few miles north of Fairbanks is a great spot to see the oil pipeline and read more about it so we made the obligatory tourist spot here and even did took some amazing action shots (to be posted later).

If you don’t know much about the Dalton Highway, I’d encourage you to… you guessed it!  Google it!  It’s become much more famous after the show Ice Road Truckers and being one of the most dangerous highways around the country during the winter months.  It is characterized as a rough, industrial road that begins 84 miles north of Fairbanks and ending 414 miles later in Deadhorse. In 1994, public access was allowed all the way to Deadhorse for the first time. Just leaving Fairbanks, there is a great informational display about the pipeline and a place for pics (yep, we did it!).

On we went… the Elliott Highway leads to the Dalton and you are actually on it for about 90 miles before you get to the Dalton.  Once there we stopped for pics and then brought out… Dalton Highway Bingo!  (pause for the roar from the crowd!)  The excitement was palpable.

We also began tallying the many things we passed and saw along the way for our trip.  The terrain along this portion of the Dalton was tree filled with lots of heavy brush, some decent hills and valleys and the road would move from pavement to gravel and back to pavement, with some of the pavement having a large amount of frost heaves.  It was fairly rainy and overcast most of the day but we made the best of it.  We stopped at Milepost 115 for our picture at the Arctic Circle sign.

A little info for you in case you didn’t know: The Arctic Circle is an imaginary line encircling the Earth at latitude 66 degrees 33′ North where the sun does not set on summer solstice or rise on winter solstice. As you travel farther north there are more days with 24-hour sunlight in summer or 24-hour night in winter. At the top of the world – the North Pole – the sun doesn’t set for 180 days. Well duh! Santa and the Elves have too much work to do to have nighttime!

We stopped at Yukon Camp for lunch and each had an amazing cheeseburger.  Then as luck would have it, just a few miles down the road there was the Hot Spot (which was actually the place we had planned to stop for lunch) and they had milkshakes (L.J., Melora and Sara) and ice cream (for me!).

We were glad we had made the mistake and stopped at the other location as it was really delicious and while the flowers and ambiance at the Hot Spot was very fun and festive, Yukon Camp had some friendlier staff.  Off we continued for many more miles of bouncing and driving and BINGO!  We made it to Coldfoot and stopped at the Interpretive Center.  This was an amazing center and they have a great summer intern program.

Each evening at 8 PM they have a Ranger Program and the night we were there it was

Did he find gold?

about the History of Gold in the area and an opportunity to pan ourselves.  Naturally, since L.J. missed out on buying his own gold pan, we wanted to stay.  After a quick call to our lodging owners, Uta and Bernie, we decided to stay.  L.J. and Melora went on a walkabout around the center and Sara and I enjoyed chatting and staying warm and dry. They did add to our wildlife spotting and saw two snowshoe hare on their walk.  The program was great, led by a University of Miami of Ohio student named Ryan.  Or is it Miami University of Ohio?  Anyway… he gave a great history of the Gold Rush and all about its effects on Alaska, particularly the Coldfoot and Wiseman area. At the end, L.J. and Melora each did some gold panning and each found gold!

 

Now… I couldn’t actually see it but they all swore it was there in the pan.  Nevertheless, we will still all have to return to our day jobs. After the program, because there was nowhere to eat in Wiseman, we stopped at the Trucker’s Café.

While the food wasn’t spectacular, my breakfast for dinner hit the spot and off we went the final fourteen miles or so to Wiseman.  Eagle eye wildlife spotter L.J. spotted a bull moose in a field behind some trees and we got to add another moose to our list, and my very first bull.  He spotted us and we had a stare off, he won and we let him be and headed on our way.

We arrived in Wiseman at the Arctic Getaway with Tropicana intact and a bit tired but still very excited from Day One.  The cabin was super cute.  I slept in the kitchen!  Well… a twin bed beside the kitchen but it was perfect.  There were two twins in another bedroom that Sara and Melora slept in and then L.J. in the second bedroom upstairs.  We shared a bath with an adjoining cabin… we’ll see how it goes!

Tropicana Driver – Melora drove the entire first day

Bingo winners – Melora & Bev

Final Count for Sunday –

• 37 Passenger Vehicles (there was some debate over counting cars and trucks separately, the person keeping the tally won)
• 32 Tractor Trailers
• 12 Motorcycles
• 3 Waves (to be fair, we did start counting these a bit late and yes, we waved to other vehicles and counted how many waved back!)
• 2 Bicycles
• 1 Moose
• 2 Snowshoe Hare