The Dalton Highway stretches 414 miles across northern Alaska from Livengood (84 miles north of Fairbanks) to Deadhorse and the oilfields of Prudhoe Bay. Built during construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline in the 1970s, this mostly gravel highway travels through rolling, forested hills, across the Yukon River and Arctic Circle, through the rugged Brooks Range, and over the North Slope to the Arctic Ocean. Along most of its length, you'll see no strip malls, no gift shops, no service stations—just forest, tundra, and mountains, crossed by a double ribbon of road and pipe.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages a swath of public lands along the highway from the Yukon River to the north side of the Brooks Range. Within the Dalton corridor, the BLM maintains campgrounds, rest areas, interpretive panels and an award-winning visitor center.

While the Dalton Highway remains open in winter, conditions can be extreme -- even life-threatening. Don't attempt a winter trip unless you are fully prepared for temperatures and windchills as low as -60 or -70 F.  Blizzards can reduce visibility to zero and snowdrifts can block the road for hours or days. Between Fairbanks and Deadhorse, a distance of 500 miles, the only services are at Coldfoot, about 250 north of Fairbanks. There is no cell phone service or public Internet connection along the Dalton Highway.

Contact Us

If you have questions about traveling the Dalton Highway, please contact us:

Central Yukon Field Office
1150 University Avenue
Fairbanks, Alaska 99709-3844
tel: 907-474-2200 or (toll free) 1-800-437-7021
email: CentralYukon@blm.gov

Download the Dalton 
Highway Visitor Guide

Click on the image above to download your copy of the 24-page 2011 Dalton Highway Guide (2.25 MB PDF) or pick up a copy at our office or the Alaska Public Lands Information Center in Fairbanks.