Prudhoe Bay-The North Slope (08-15-14)

Everything changed for the residents of Alaska when oil was discovered on the North Slope. I am sure a lot of debate took place, and a lot of arguing back and forth, but the decision was made to utilize the oil, to build a pipeline to bring it to market, and to share the rewards with every resident of Alaska.


The result is Prudhoe Bay, or the North Slope- sometimes referred to as Deadhorse, AK although apparently Deadhorse refers to the area of Prudhoe Bay that is open to the public, and that’s not much. This is definitely an industrial area.

Life is different here.  As a start, the average temperatures in the summer are in the 30s and 40s.  We sure found that out.  It was 38 degrees when we arrived here at about 3 pm- it was foggy, and the wind was blowing at about 30 mph. It snows here 12 months of the year.  It snowed here last week- six inches- and the truck drivers had to chain up. There’s all kinds of snow removal equipment here.

There is no RV park here and the places that were suggested to us as good parking spots were completely open to the wind.  We ended up parking behind the building that houses the tour company that we were taking a tour with the next day.  After we got settled, Paul timed how often the furnace was coming on and the answer wasn’t good.  It came on about every 20 minutes.  That meant that we couldn’t leave the furnace on at night or it would kill the batteries.  When we woke up in the morning, it was 45 degrees inside the rig, but we were toasty warm.  I am really glad we decided to bring our down comforter!

Deadhorse isn’t really a town- its a supply station for the workers on the oil rigs.  There are no houses, no grocery stores, no restaurants and no regular hotels.  You can rent a room in a “hotel”, but they are really the dormitories for the workers.  Summer is their slow time up here.  They are gearing up for winter, when the ice makes it easier to move around and do the work that is needed.

  Most of the buildings have an area with electric plugs outside, so you can plug in your truck battery to make sure your truck will start. There aren’t many cars up here, at least, not that we could see.








There is one store- it has most of the necessities and not too many luxuries- although you can buy souvenirs.







The arctic temperatures mean that special provisions need to be made that most of us have never seen before-  The gas and diesel pumps have their own little houses that they live in so they don’t freeze.





All of the structures sit up on pilings so that the permafrost they sit on won’t start melting due to warmth.

With the wind blowing, and I am guessing that’s the norm, dust is everywhere.  There are signs asking people to wear their booties when they come inside a building, to keep the dust and mud to a minimum.

We kept ours because we figured they’d be handy if we want to go in the rig on a sloppy muddy day.








After our night rocking and rolling in the wind, it was time for our tour.  I didn’t want to come all the way to the Arctic Ocean and then not set foot in the Arctic Ocean.  Access is controlled by, I am assuming, the oil companies.  No one gets to the ocean by themselves.  For security reasons, you have to be with a licensed tour company and you have to be checked out ahead of time.  We had made our arrangements and were ready to head out.





We piled in a van with about 15 other people. The first thing we passed was the Prudhoe Bay National Forest.  At least someone has a sense of humor!

Most of the area is an industrial setting but we were reminded of the fact that this is a natural environment several times.  We watched the Tundra swans as we drove by, and our driver had to get confirmation that the Polar bears had been relocated before we could proceed. Seriously?? I think everyone on the bus would have paid money to be taken where the polar bear are!

Eventually we made it to the Arctic Ocean! I had to put my foot in, even though it was still 36 degrees with a 30 mph wind.

Paul managed to stick his finger in, but I can’t blame him, since my foot hurt for an hour or so after I dipped it.

There being nothing much to do in Deadhorse, we didn’t stick around once our tour was done.  We started the multi day trek back down the Dalton Highway.

Random thought:  I brought 7 jackets with me on this trip and I have worn all of them-and sometimes several of them at one time.

The Haul Road (08-14-14)

  The Dalton Highway may be more commonly remembered as the “Haul Road”. It follows the Alaskan pipeline all the way up to Prudhoe Bay.

In it’s heyday, 2.1 million barrels of oil a day flowed through the pipeline. Right now it runs about a half a million barrels a day.

The road was built in the 1970s to service the pipeline and it’s crews, and in fact, it didn't open to the public until the 1990s.

\








Its 450 miles of dirty, dusty, muddy sometimes gravel, sometimes dirt, and sometimes paved road, traveled very heavily by truckers. In fact, it was made clear to us several times that the truckers have the right of way and we should stay clear of them.  These guys fly down the road at the speed of light, so we were happy to pull over and let them do their thing.





There are very narrow areas and very steep areas, and sometimes very narrow steep areas.  This one is called the Ice Cut and its one of the more dangerous hills.

This section is appropriately named the roller coaster. There wasn’t always a spot to pull over and take a picture, and this is one road you don’t want to stop on.  As it is, they say to keep checking in your rear-view mirror- one minute there could be no one there, and the next, a huge truck could be breathing down your neck.  It happened to us several times.  We got passed by a truck we didn’t even know was there.

 
  When it rains, the road turns into a slippery, mushy, muddy mess in some places. There were a few places where I was holding my breath, although Paul never lost control of the truck.

Along the road we saw a bunch of stuff, and learned a bunch of stuff.  This bar is called a headache bar.  It’s designed to stop any vehicle that is big enough and tall enough to damage the pipe. There are a lot of these along the way.

Part of the pipe is buried under the ground and part of it is above ground.  Sometimes it dips under the road itself.

Some sections are raised and some are put underground to allow large animals room to get past the pipeline.

There are several types of large animals that roam this area.  Musk Ox are pretty common in the northern sections.

We saw several herds of Musk Oxen and I had never even heard of them until we got to Alaska.

 

   This guy was a riot.  He was trotting down the road in front of us ..







…and he kept stopping to look and see if we were still following him.

Finally he turned  and took off into the tundra.  We saw a fair amount of hunters while we were driving down the road. Mostly they were after the caribou so lucky for this guy, his rack isn’t big enough.

In areas where there is permafrost, the pipe has radiators that move the heat generated by the oil from the ground up to the air.  Once permafrost starts to melt, the pipeline would sink.

There are just a couple of small towns situated along the pipeline- and by small, I mean populations of 15-25. Other than that, its pretty much the only road for hundreds of miles.


Coldfoot is the only place to get diesel  along the 450 mile road, until you reach the end.  Its conveniently located at about the halfway point. The story about the name is that the first miners in the area had intended to stay here through the winter, but they got “cold feet” and left, so it was referred to as the “Coldfoot guys’ place”. There is no cell service except at the beginning and end of the road, so we used their phone to make a call.  In order to actually get to the Arctic Ocean, you have to call and make a reservation 24 hours in advance and give your driver’s license number, so we needed to get that taken care of.



Coldfoot has a small “hotel”, a restaurant with pretty good food, and a bar.  There are no signs.  I guess when you are the only bar and restaurant for 240 miles, you don’t need to put a sign out front.












There are plenty of places to pull off and spend the night.  This was one of my favorites.









The road starts out in a spruce forest, loosely following a couple of rivers along the way. 

The salmon actually travel 1100 miles to spawn in these gorgeous rivers.

Sometimes the views got monotonous, but before we got a chance to get too bored (I am not sure Paul ever got bored, between watching for trucks, ruts and potholes) the scenery would change.

We got closer and closer to the mountains- the Brooks range.

Before we knew it we were going up and over them through Atigan Pass, one of the more scenic areas along the road and the highest pass in Alaska.

Soon after we came down out of the mountains, the terrain changed again.  Gone were the spruce trees- we had already passed the “furthest north spruce tree” a few miles back.

The colors are vibrant- miles and miles of yellows, oranges and reds.
The Arctic tundra is what grows when the ground underneath is permanently frozen-permafrost.

This area falls within the Arctic Circle- we passed a signpost for it quite a while back.  The Arctic Circle is an imaginary boundary line set at about 66 degrees …..anywhere north of the Arctic Circle the sun does not set on June 21, and it doesn't rise on December 21.  When you get as far north as the North Pole, the sun doesn't set for 180 days in a row.

After several days of driving and exploring, we reached the end of the road...

Random Thought: When I commented at the grocery store in Fairbanks that the outside of the bread bags seemed wet, an employee responded that except for a few types of bread from a local bakery, ALL the bread products coming to the interior/Fairbanks, are frozen because of the long trip.

Chena Hot Springs (08-12-14)

Post delayed due to lack of internet

Chena Hot Springs is a few hours from Fairbanks.  We drove most of the way there, then pulled over by a nice river, to spend the night.  Why is this important?  Well, the river was great and we got there early enough in the day to enjoy sitting outside for a while.

Even Dozer enjoyed exploring.  And then the mosquitoes arrived.  We moved inside, assuming that would help, but it didn't help enough.

  First we thought we had brought some in with us and we soon realized that Paul’s powerful LED flashlight (Thanks, Kirk!!) was the best way to find them. They actually cast a shadow!  After plugging all the holes we could find and chasing them all down, we went to bed. What’s worse than the buzz of a mosquito when you are trying to sleep?  The harmonious multi-tone drone of many mosquitoes. In the end, we killed about 40 and got an hour or so of sleep.  We both agreed that this is the worst night sleep we've ever had.

The next morning we headed to the hot springs and got there just in time to have lunch in the restaurant.  One of the attractions here, in addition to the hot springs, is an ice museum. We booked a tour to see that after lunch.

The museum is really a way to showcase the work of world class ice sculptors Steve and Heather Brice.  This is where they work and practice for competitions.

The first thing I saw was an ice staircase.

The ice Christmas tree had a lot more intricate details than this picture shows.  The tree sits in a “hotel room” that you can  actually rent.  That’s right folks, for the paltry sum of  $600 a night, you  can spend the night in a ice room, right here in the ice museum. 

Your room of course comes with a completely unusable ice out house. Actually, they give you a regular room at the inn to use for anything that requires water…..

One of the rooms has an ice xylophone. Can’t say that the sound was great, but it was unique.

Luckily the LED was invented, so the whole place could be lit up very brightly with colorful lights.











There was even an ice fireplace to “warm” your hands.  The museum is kept at a cool 20 degrees, so any type of warmth was welcome.















Once we were done with the tour, we bellied up to the Aurora Ice bar.  The only drink they serve is an Appletini.












They serve it in an ice martini glass that is yours to keep (yes, we did, and Paul used his a few days later.)

       

Cheers!