Dalton Highway
Photo: Photo by Micah Bochart, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
The James W. Dalton Highway (Alaska Route 11, the "Dalton Highway", "the Dalton", or the "Haul Road") is a 414 mi road traversing central and northern Alaska. It is one of only two roads in North America (the other being the Dempster Highway in Yukon, Canada) that cross the Arctic Circle and connect to the rest of the North American road network. It begins at Mile 73 of the Elliott Highway (Alaska Route 2) 84 mi north of Fairbanks and ends at Deadhorse near the Arctic Ocean amid the Prudhoe Bay oilfield.
The scenic Dalton Highway passes courses through boreal forests, across the Yukon river and the Arctic Circle, through the Brooks Range mountains, the Continental Divide at Atigun pass, and finally traverses the treeless North Slope tundra to the Deadhorse and the Prudhoe Bay oilfields near the Arctic Ocean. While travel up the entirety of this road is quite an undertaking, the journey rewards drivers with breathtaking vistas and the experience of America's Arctic, its wildlife and landscape.
UnderstandWhen oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in 1969, the state of Alaska operated as a "boom-and-bust economy" without any stable industries and, more importantly, America was critically short of oil and mostly at the mercy…
TalkEnglish is spoken by all persons living and working along the highway, including residents of the Native Alaskan villages accessible from the Dalton via the Yukon River.
Get inThe nearest major airport to the highway is in Fairbanks (FAI).
PrepareThe Dalton Highway has the distinction of (among other things) having the longest stretch of serviceless road in North America.
ItineraryThe Dalton Highway begins at Mile 73 of the Elliot Highway, 84 miles (134 km) north of Fairbanks, in the area known as "Livengood". The following points of interest along the highway are listed by mile from the start.
DoIn 2008, exploratory drilling for gold at Livengood, at the beginning of the highway, produced promising results.
Stay safeDue to the scarcity of services, the traveler on this road will need a certain degree of self-sufficiency while traveling along the highway on your own.
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "Dalton Highway" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: Photo by Micah Bochart, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons