Arctic Illustrated, Swimsuit Edition

I probably should have mentioned that I was heading out on another major expedition. Relatively major anyway. With only a few detours I went right from Homer to Deadhorse. Deadhorse is about 500 miles north of Fairbanks and It's about as far north as a person can drive in North America. 414 Miles of the drive are on the Dalton Highway. The road was built to maintain the Alaska Pipeline which it Parallels. It's a road for rugged men to drive rugged truck and do rugged things, ruggedly. Most car rental companies won't let you use their vehicles on the road. More on that later.


Back to when I was in Homer... Homer is interesting, especially if you like fishing. I saw a lot of big halibut at the docks. I didn't want to spend a lot of time there though since I lost some time on St. Paul and I wanted to get up to Deadhorse. I did take a little birding excursion around the harbor and I added a few birds.


I didn't get many photos on the boat, but I got a few shots of these Sea Otters. They tell me that Sea Otters just started returning to this area some time in the 80's. We saw a lot of them on this trip. Pretty cool. If I ever get back there I'd like to go kayaking. We say some kayakers getting really close to the Otters.


I found this female Spruce Grouse on one of the stops along the way.


These Common Loons were right along the road and relatively cooperative.


I found this Marmot At Hatcher's Pass north of Anchorage


Here's some of the Hatcher's Pass scenery.


The road north brought me right past Denali NP. It was one of those rare semi-clear days in the area so I stopped to get some shots of McKinley. I also got some info for my stop there on the way back down. I wanted to wait until the colors started to turn more. I was told they peak in mid August but I think it's really a bit later than that.

I got to Fairbanks in the afternoon and I didn't know how long it would take me to prepare for the trip. I had read a lot of warnings about the road. They say you should have two spare tires, a CB radio, road flares... I talked to some people and found out that a lot of that stuff is overkill. I Picked up a few Items and took off on Tuesday evening.


I made it as far as the Arctic Circle that night. It was around 9:00 but still daylight. There was a primitive little free campground there. There I was, Camping at the Arctic Circle! What fun!



Here's some examples of the scenery along the road. Alaska is so BIG. Photos and words will never be sufficient to describe what it's like up there. I just kept saying wow! God is good! I actually sang the Doxology a couple of times. A "joyful noise" :).


The road starts out through hilly spruce forests and the trees gradually get smaller as you approach the Brooks Mountains and after that it's the area they call "The North Slope". That's hilly in areas but by the time you get to Deadhorse it's pretty flat. It would take a book to really describe it all for you. We'll have to talk about it someday.


My timing wasn't the greatest. I was late for a lot of the birds and early for the color and the caribou migration. This is one of the birds I was looking for, a Northern Wheatear.


These are Spectacled Eiders. A female with her young. The males in breeding plumage actually look like they're wearing glasses. I found it on a hot tip from another photographer.


The same guy told me where to find this Yellow-billed Loon. The brown blob on the left is a chick.


There were a few Caribou around but not many. These were smart enough to hang out by the buildings, where people can't hunt them.

The "town" of Deadhorse is just a big oil drilling "outpost". It's more like an industrial site, with a few concessions for tourists.

The Arctic Ocean is only a couple miles from town, but for security reasons you can't go there on your own. I signed up for a short tour and went there the evening of the day I got there. At first they said they needed 24 hrs to do a security check on me but since I was there alone they got it done more quickly.

The tour consisted of a little talk, a short oil company propaganda film, and a ride to the Ocean. The highlight of the tour for me was an opportunity to take a dip!


Here I am running into the Arctic Ocean.


Here I am running out of the Arctic Ocean, wet head to toe!

It really wasn't that bad. I hit it on a good day. The air temp was in the 50s or low 60s. and the water temp didn't seem to be any colder than Lake Superior in August. I almost wish I had spent more time out there... almost.

I found another highlight on the way back down.


Musk Oxen! They were maybe 50 yards off the road. At first they were all sleeping. a couple of them stood up after a while but they didn't do much. And I wasn't sure about the temperament of these guys. How close can I get? One of the started walking closer to me rather quickly so I got nervous and started to pack it up.

As I stared to do that a group of Caribou hunters pulled up and got ready to cross the nearby river. It turns out that they had a lot of past experience with Musk Oxen. One guy said he had a biologist tell him that every Musk Oxen charge is a bluff, and they usually just huddle up when they feel threatened. Just like on TV. The animals were moving around much more too and that was enough for me to get the camera back out. It was good move.


A male and a female I assume.

After a while it looked like they were moving to an area quite close to where I parked. I moved to a spot near where they were heading. It worked great.


I started getting some great close ups.


Little ones too. No Mom, I don't think it will be a good idea to bring one home with me.



Everything was going great until the family vacationers showed up. This is the Dad with his camera and his youngest daughter with a disposable camera. They were soon followed by his wife and teenage daughter. He pasted right by behind me with his little daughter and the animals didn't seem to mind too much. The wife and teen stopped right about where the Musk Oxen were going and I could see were on their way downhill.

The guy kept going around to my right getting closer to the animals. I said something to the wife about that not being a good idea. They would feel surrounded and get scared. I told the ladies to come over by me so it wouldn't look quite as much like we were trying to pen thm in. Finally the guy got way around to the other side and, sure enough, they started to huddle up. The wife yelled for her husband and we all backed off until the critters relaxed again.

I had already been there for quite a while so I wasn't too upset. I said I was going back to the truck hoping that the family would do the same and give the critters a break. The teenager said she was going with me. Her little sister ran up to her and asked what she was doing. She replied "I'm following the nice man who knows about Musk Oxen". That made me feel good. If only she was two or three times her age. I guess she wouldn't be quite as impressionable then would she? Still it felt nice. I didn't tell her that I learned most of what I know about Musk Oxen about an hour before.


I made it back to Fairbanks Saturday night. I'm glad I didn't get caught smuggling out all this Dalton Highway dirt on my truck. It was also good to get gas for 2.99/gal instead of 3.89 along the Highway. It was especially good to get back with the truck in one piece. It made it through that so maybe that means it's finally cured. I'm not going to take it off my prayer list quite yet though.

The road was pretty bad in spots, but it's getting better all the time. I think about half of it is actually paved now. Maybe not quite half, but quite a bit, and they're paving more as I write. There are even tours that go up the road now. I saw a number of buses with "Princess Tourlines" on the side. If you want to experience the wild Dalton Highway I'd suggest you hurry. It's getting tamer all the time.

Church was good enough yesterday at Denali Bible Chapel. It was about the same at Glacier View Baptist in Homer the week before.

I lingered here in Fairbanks so could get this blog posted and so I can check out a few gift shops. Yes, I've been frequenting gift shops. I really like Alaskan art. You can get things carved out of walrus ivory, mammoth bone teeth and ivory, and all kinds of other bone, horn and antler. Pretty cool.

Anyway... It looks like I got a bit long winded here. I better get going. I'm going to take my time going down to Denali. I might take the long way. I'm still a bit ahead of the color so I want to give it a little more time to catch up. Take care and thanks for reading.

Steve