2010 - July 14 (Day 29) Dalton Highway to the Arctic Circle

We were at the designated pick-up point at 5:45, but the shuttle wasn't, so I took a picture of a flower. The shuttle was only a couple of minutes late and the four of us piled on, ready for our adventure. After a few minutes of orientation and a cup of coffee at the tour company, we were headed north out of town toward the Dalton Highway, formerly known as the Haul Road, which ends in Prudhoe Bay, 400 miles to the north, but we were only going about 125 miles.

We stopped at Joe Carson's Yukon Trading Post in Joy, AK, both on the way up and on the way back. Marsha and I bought T-shirts and a BIG homemade chocolate chip cookie there. Joe and his wife, Nancy, have lived here for 32 years and raised 23 (mostly foster) kids here.

We stopped near the TransAlaska Pipeline a couple of times, but saw it many times along the way as it snaked its way over mountains, across and under streams and rivers. We at lunch at the Yukon River Camp where the pipeline uses the only bridge across the Yukon River in Alaska to make its way to the port of Valdez.

When we got to the Arctic Circle our driver and tour guide, Barbara, put down a mat to show precisely where the Arctic Circle was located. After many pictures were taken, we ate out Tundra with Permafrost icing to celebrate the occasion.

It was back to the Yukon River Camp where they had dinner waiting for us. The place was kind of a dump, but they sure had good food! When we got back to the tour depot at 10:00pm, each of us was presented with a certificate stating that we had, indeed, crossed the Arctic Circle on July 14, 2010. The shuttle took us back to the campground where we passed out with the sun still out there behind the rain clouds.