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Dalton Highway View
The Dalton Highway crosses the continental divide at Atigun Pass; at 4,739 feet, it is the highest road pass that is maintained year-round in Alaska.


Gold Rush Days and Endless Nights at Alaska's Coldfoot Visitor Center

It's about as far as you can imagine driving. The Dalton Highway in northern Alaska stretches from Livengood (83 miles north of Fairbanks) to Deadhorse and the oilfields of Prudhoe Bay. This narrow, gravel highway travels through rolling, forested hills, across the Yukon River and across the Arctic Circle, over the rugged Brooks Range, and down the long slope to the Arctic Ocean. Is this why people travel here? Because it's the end of the road? Perhaps they come to experience the wilderness.

map
The trip along Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to Deadhorse and back is almost 1,000 miles long.

Over the Highway's 414 mile length, there are only three places where you can buy a meal, fill up your gas tank, or get a motel room. Almost all of the area bordering the highway is public lands, managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the State of Alaska.

National Park and Refuge boundaries are only a few miles from the Highway. Step off the road, climb over a hill, and you'll find yourself in wilderness. Along most of the Highway's length, you'll see no fast-food restaurants, no gift shops, no service stations. Instead, you'll see forest and tundra from horizon to horizon, and parallel ribbons of road and pipeline. In fact, that is why the road was built in 1974: to support construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and to supply the oilfields of Prudhoe Bay.

For a variety of reasons, people are coming to this American frontier. The road was only extended to Deadhorse in 1994, but the number of recreational vehicles, pickup trucks, sedans, and motorcycles making the trip grows each year. They come despite the ruggedness of the journey - or, perhaps, because of it. To help these adventurers plan their trips and understand the Arctic ecosystem, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service have created an interagency visitor center in Coldfoot, about half-way between Fairbanks and Deadhorse. This is a place where visitors can learn about the natural and cultural resources of the area.

Visitor Center
The Coldfoot Visitor Center is open from June 1 through Labor Day, from 10:00 am to 10:00 p.m., seven days a week.

 

Here, they can find out about the longest summer "day" in Coldfoot, when the sun doesn't set for several weeks, or conversely, its longest winter "night," when the sun doesn't rise for several weeks. The Center tells stories about the Gold Rush days of the early 1900's, when Coldfoot was founded, and the would-be miner who got the "cold feet" for which the site is named. It introduces visitors to tiny tundra flowers, which seem so delicate, yet survive temperatures to -80°F in the long Alaskan winters.


Arctic wildflowers, like this wooly lousewort, grow low to the ground. The wooly hairs of this lousewort help trap heat. This is just one of the many ways arctic plants survive.

Coldfoot got its name in 1900 when one would-be Gold Rush-er made it as far as Slate Creek, got cold feet, and hightailed it back home. Dilapidated cabins such as this remind visitors of the area's colorful history.

 

 

The Center also offers recreational information: where visitors should go to spot musk oxen, where the grayling have been biting, and where to hike to avoid the formidable Alaskan mosquitos. It's a place to learn which creeks are good for a little gold panning, where the best birdwatching sites are, and where visitors can put a canoe in the water for a short river trip. Safety counts, too: the Center's staff members keep up with road conditions, and know how to lessen the likelihood that a grizzly bear will enter your camp.

The Center is a place to learn about backpacking in the Brooks Range, and how to hike so that the area remains pristine. The Coldfoot Visitor Center provides all of this information and more, through one-on-one contact with visitors, through brochures and exhibits, and through nightly slide presentations. Federal employees work side by side with dedicated volunteers at this unique facility. Bears, the midnight sun, gold flakes in a pan, tumbled-down miners' cabins, traveling miles and miles without seeing anyone - these treasures are the reasons people travel the Dalton Highway through Alaska. And the Coldfoot Visitor Center enhances their journey to discover, understand, and enjoy this spectacular land.

Carabou
Visitors often see caribou from the highway, as well as Dall sheep, grizzly bear, moose, musk oxen, red fox, arctic fox, and the occasional wolf.

 


There are no backpacking trails along the Dalton Highway. Hikers must be prepared to find their own routes.

If you'd like to learn more about the new Arctic Interagency Visitor Center, which will replace the Coldfoot Visitor Center, please select this link.

Please also visit the following websites -

For information about travelling the Dalton Highway: http://wwwndo.ak.blm.gov/dalton/tour/default.html

For information about the Arctic environment, including lesson plans for teachers: Alaska's Cold Desert

For information about the early peoples of the Arctic, including lesson plans for teachers: Mystery of the Mesa

Last Updated: July 15, 2003

For questions about our programs contact Bibi Booth
This site is maintained by Kevin Flynn

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