2005/07 Alaska Trip - North to Alaska - Arctic Circle |
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By the time we left the Yukon River, a fire had started off to the west, but the wind was blowing away from us so we carried on. The forest was thinning now, with more rocks and scrub, and starting to look more like the tundra we had expected. There were also rock pinnacles in the distance, rather like Dartmoor’s tors. We stopped for a walk at a trail that wound around a 
group of these. This would have been a perfect place to have the Arctic Circle displays, but the circle was still ten miles north of us. I hiked over to Finger Mountain, the most spectacular of these tors. I could see the picture I wanted but I could only take it from close up. The others waited patiently while I splashed and clunked through bog and rocks, very difficult terrain if you were going any distance.
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Dalton Highway (3.15) |
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The countryside looked empty but there were birds, squirrels, mice and of course a few mozzies. We ended our trip at the Arctic Circle parking lot, which is in a forested area. There is a of course nothing special about the circle at 66º 33’ except that it’s the point at which the midnight sun begins. But it’s a good place to take pictures in front of the Arctic Circle sign and to have some soup and enjoy the sunshine and warmth. We even took pictures of the poor old truck that had got 
us all there!
It was nearly 7pm when we left, and we had a long bumpy 200 miles to go back to Fairbanks. The fire to our west had got bigger and we were also getting some smoke from another fire somewhere to the east. My passengers were getting nervous about a long walk as the fuel gauge slid down towards empty, but I wasn’t worried as I know that Christina drives most of the time with the gauge well below empty. We filled up at Fox just north of Fairbanks and I think we still had about a gallon and a half to spare. Of course, that's only 15 miles or so ...
We were all hungry and tired, so we took the easy way out and ate at the Fairbanks Denny’s, famous as the most northerly Denny’s on the planet. They weren’t famous for fast service though and it was 12.30 am when we left, and the sun was just setting.
It was still twilight when we went to bed at 1 am, a good point at which to end part 2 of our Alaska story. Part 3 will cover our return trip from Fairbanks to Chilliwack.
All the best from Pete and Sandie