Dalton Highway (the Haul Road)

[David and Nancy]

We just found a stack of pics from June 2003. We were living in Anchorage and pulled our 1989 Scamp up to Deadhorse at the end of the Dalton Highway. This pic shows the pipeline, the foothills of the Brooks Range, and a very dirty rig. Highway maintenance crews were spraying water on the dirt road to keep the dust down. Great trip but would do it differently now.

[Marsha D]

What would you do differently? We're interested in going, but I'm afraid our egg will be damaged.

[Bill K]

Looking at that trailer I would suggest mud flaps.

00106 | Enkay Rock Tamer Adjustable Mud Flaps

Bill K

Originally Posted by Marsha D

What would you do differently? We're interested in going, but I'm afraid our egg will be damaged.

[David and Nancy]

The main thing to do differently is to not take a trailer on that road. We have done it four times and only taken the trailer once. The other three trips we did a combination of tent camping and staying in commercial lodging.

The road can be extremely washboarded which is hell on a little single-axle trailer on rubber suspension. The extreme bouncing scrambled everything in the trailer and we also had to get a break in the frame welded when we got back to Fairbanks. We got a lot of dings in the fiberglass from flying gravel. Some of it from our own wheels. (Bill, we got mud flaps right after this trip.) Lots of semi-trucks blasting by throwing rocks and mud.

We were only willing to abuse the trailer like this because we bought it used and cheap and it was already beat up. I think the previous owners had been on this road or others just like it.

We saw no other travel trailers on these trips. What we did see were truck campers and a few small, sturdy class C and class B motorhomes. And these were also people who were willing to put up with some rock dings and mud.

Some highlights:
We saw caribou, grizzly, moose, black bears, and Dall sheep.

We celebrated the Solstice around an all-night campfire with some research biologists we met at a pull-out known as Happy Camp. The sun circled around and never went below the horizon.

[Mary F]

Wow! Such a nice pic. Were there more?

Thanks for sharing!

[jen b]

I am considering a trip with the Burro on the Trans Labrador Highway, which is mostly gravel - sounds like it could be similar conditions - has anybody here done that trip?

[Cyndi B.]

We always wondered if we could get a "bra" for the front of our 13' when we had it. We didn't take it to New Mexico one time because we knew we would be going up the mountain to meet our son on gravel. In New Mexico on a gravel road you are lucky to keep your dental work in, permanent or removable. Got up to the bear infested campground and there sat a Scamp which had came in through the more asphalted route we assume. We spent the next four days in intermittent rain, a bear and sleepless nights wondering if that was a bear outside the tent.

[Ken C]

Protective Film : New Car Paint Protection : Paint Protector : Automobile Paint Protection : BuyRoadWrap.com might be an idea to try.

[Cyndi B.]

Like wrapping your car in Siran Wrap.

[David and Nancy]

After taking the Scamp up the Dalton Highway, we haven't quit traveling on unpaved roads. The Dalton is unique in many ways. First, its primary purpose is for semi-trucks hauling heavy equipment. There are 100-200 big rigs using this road every day. Unlike your average Forest Service road, this one is over 400 miles one way. A hundred or so miles has been chip-sealed, but you will still travel over 600 miles of gravel surface in a round trip. So the cumulative effects of that many miles are very hard on trailers. The speed limit is 50mph, but you will literally beat a trailer to death at that speed on those sections that are severely washboarded.

[David and Nancy]

Wildlife watching north of the Arctic Circle. This is a very blonde color-phase grizzly, and a bull caribou with antlers still is early summer development.

[David and Nancy]

A few milestone spots on the Dalton.

The Arctic Circle is marked at a BLM wayside.

The farthest north spruce tree is south of Atigun Pass in the Brooks range. From here north to the Arctic Ocean, the growing season is too short to support trees.

This is the bridge over the Yukon River and the view of the river from it. This is the only bridge over the Yukon in Alaska.

Mile zero on the Alaska Pipeline is where the North Slope oil begins its 800 mile trip to the Port of Valdez.

The frozen Arctic Ocean in June.

[MyronL]

We did a mere 7 miles on washboard roads in Montana last summer, pulling da Scamp, that were so bad I couldn't drive faster than 10-15 mph on them, if it was that. It's locked door opened three times. At our destination the inside wasn't upside down, but it was close. Several cabinet screws even unscrewed themselves!

We had rode the Dalton Highway down from Deadhorse in a big bus a few years previous and the road isn't that bad, but doing a couple hundred-plus miles on dirt pulling a light trailer at 40 mph seems to me like a sure way to wreck it.

[Adrian W]

Our son took us up to the beginning of it, end of September, only went about 3 miles on it.




Not taken the Scamp up North yet, don't think I'd do the Dalton with it if we do.