Page 224 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

222  ALASK A AREA B Y AREA

1 Dalton Highway Tour

Originally built in the 1970s to supply equipment to
the Prudhoe Bay oilfields and provide a service corridor
for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, the Dalton Highway is the
only road in Alaska that crosses the Arctic Circle. Also
known as the Haul Road, it was initially accessible only
to supply trucks, but in the 1990s, the full route was
opened to private drivers. While astoundingly scenic,
much of the highway is a bone-jarring gravel route
that should not be taken lightly. Services are available 6 Sukakpak Mountain
in a handful of places but supplies are not, and drivers This dramatic 4,460 ft (1,360 m)
peak was once a limestone
should travel with essentials such as food, water, a first deposit before heat and pressure
aid kit, spare tires, and fuel. metamorphosed it into marble.

5 Wiseman
The village of Wiseman was founded
in 1907 as a camp to service the gold
strike at nearby Nolan. Today, the
site is home to a historic church
an open-air museum.

4 Arctic Interagency Visitors’
Center, Coldfoot Bettles Dietrich Camp
An essential stop in Coldfoot, the center
has exhibits and interpretive programs Arctic Circle Middle Fork Koyukuk
on the Arctic. Also worth a look is
Coldfoot’s temperature sign, which Big Lake
describes the day in 1989 when Caribou Mountain Marion Creek
3,183 ft
the temperature dropped to
-63° C (-82° F), the coldest ever
recorded in North America. Five-Mile Camp
Dall City
3 Arctic Circle Wayside Yukon
The highway crosses the
Arctic Circle at Mile 115,
where there is a wayside
with a picnic area, a
basic camp site, and
interpretive signs.
DALTON HIGHWAY Trans Alaska Pipeline
Manley Hot
Springs
ELLIOTT HWY
Livengood

1 E. L. Patton Yukon Bridge
This 2,295-ft- (688-m-) long
bridge carries both the Dalton Fairbanks
Highway and the Alaska 2 Finger Mountain
Pipeline. Built in 1975, this is Distant views from the Finger Mountain
the only US bridge across the wayside take in the Caribou Mountain
Yukon (see pp198–9). and a lovely tor-studded landscape.

For hotels and restaurants in this area see p245 and p255

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