Dalton Highway (Livengood to Deadhorse)

Here you’ll find a good view of Trans Alas­ka Pipeline and remote-oper­at­ed valve site. At 151 points along the pipeline, pres­sure relief valves are used to relieve pres­sure and keep it below a des­ig­nat­ed lev­el or stop the flow of oil if nec­es­sary. These valves are designed to open auto­mat­i­cal­ly. They are locat­ed at stream cross­ings, pop­u­la­tion areas and major uphill sec­tions of the pipeline.

To the west is Pump Sta­tion No. 6. There were orig­i­nal­ly 10 pump sta­tions along the Trans Alas­ka Pipeline, only 6 are used to move oil today. These pumps move the oil through the 800 mile-long pipeline from Prud­hoe Bay to Valdez. Most sta­tions have three gas-tur­bine-dri­ven main­line pumps. Each pump can move 22,000 gal­lons of oil a minute, that’s 754,000 bar­rels a day.

This ½‑mile-long span is one of only four vehi­cle-car­ry­ing bridges across the mighty Yukon, the longest riv­er in Alas­ka and the Yukon Ter­ri­to­ry, and a pri­ma­ry means of trans­porta­tion dur­ing the Klondike Gold Rush.

Wood­en obser­va­tion deck pro­vides sweep­ing views of the Yukon Flats Nation­al Wildlife Refuge. This 9 mil­lion acre refuge was estab­lished to con­serve fish and wildlife pop­u­la­tions and their habi­tats includ­ing; nest­ing water­fowl, migra­to­ry birds, dall sheep, bears, moose, wolves, wolver­ines, cari­bou and salmon. Offi­cial pro­tec­tion of this area began in 1978, stem­ming from a pro­posed hydro­elec­tric project for the Yukon Riv­er. If the dam had been…  ...more

Look for Fin­ger Rock point­ing the way to Fair­banks. Rumor has it that ear­ly bush pilots in the area used this 40-foot gran­ite rock as a nav­i­ga­tion guide. Fin­ger rock is actu­al­ly a geo­log­ic for­ma­tion called a tor. Tors are rock for­ma­tions caused by weath­er­ing; in this area, the extreme freez­ing and thaw­ing of the ground caus­es the rock to be pushed up into these dra­mat­ic for­ma­tions. There are sev­er­al tors vis­i­ble in this area; Fin­ger Rock is…  ...more

This is a good place to stop and stretch your legs. The scenic view­point has plen­ty of park­ing, two out­hous­es and inter­pre­tive signs. Take the ¹⁄₂ mile inter­pre­tive trail to the sum­mit of Fin­ger Moun­tain for an up close view of the alpine tun­dra. Look for gran­ite tors, the jut­ting rock for­ma­tions caused by the freez­ing and thaw­ing of the ground.

This Lev­el Park­ing area was once the site of Old Man Camp, a for­mer pipeline con­struc­tion camp. There were a total of 31 con­struc­tion camps oper­at­ing dur­ing the con­struc­tion of the Trans Alas­ka Pipeline from 1974 – 1977. These camps were tem­po­rary facil­i­ties to house the thou­sands of work­ers who build the pipeline. 

Wel­come to the Alas­ka Arc­tic. Be sure to take a pic­ture in front of the sign dis­play­ing N 66 33’W 150 48. You are now cross­ing the Arc­tic Cir­cle. This is the place where the sun does­n’t set on sum­mer sol­stice and does­n’t rise on win­ter sol­stice. The sea­sons are a lit­tle stranger up here, with extreme sun, extreme dark and extreme cold. Pull into the Arc­tic Cir­cle Way­side to learn about how the dif­fer­ent sea­sons affect life in the arctic…  ...more

This is one of the spots where two sep­a­rate con­struc­tion crew met dur­ing the build­ing of the Dal­ton High­way. The high­way was built in 1974 to allow for the con­struc­tion of the Trans Alas­ka Pipeline and fin­ished in only 5 months. This high­way, orig­i­nal­ly a haul road allow­ing access to Prud­hoe Bay, opened to pub­lic trav­el in 1994.

Alas­ka is the land of the mid­night sun and Gob­blers Knob pro­vides a stun­ning loca­tion to view this amaz­ing phe­nom­e­non. The mag­nif­i­cent Brooks Range blocks the sun for a short time. But, if you take a hike up the hill on sum­mer sol­stice you can expe­ri­ence 24-hour day­light. Make sure to bring your cam­era to cap­ture this shin­ing moment.

Pump Sta­tion No. 5 is unique from oth­er pump sta­tions because it is actu­al­ly a pres­sure relief sta­tion. While oth­er pump sta­tions keep the oil mov­ing, this sta­tion slows down the oil as it speeds through the pipeline after its decent from the Brooks Range. Oil is drained to relieve pres­sure and then re-inject­ed. Pump Sta­tion No. 5 does not have main­line pumps and can­not boost the speed the oil is trav­el­ing through the pipeline.

There are 579 ani­mal cross­ings built into the Trans-Alas­ka Pipeline Sys­tem. This allows for free move­ment of large game across the pipeline right of way. There are 554 ele­vat­ed cross­ings and 25 buried cross­ings, like this one. Two of the buried ani­mal cross­ings are actu­al­ly refrig­er­at­ed to keep the per­mafrost from melt­ing and the ele­vat­ed cross­ings are a min­i­mum of 10 feet high.

This infor­ma­tion cen­ter is a part­ner­ship between the BLM, the US Fish & Wildlife Ser­vice and the Nation­al Park Ser­vice. The Cen­ter is open dai­ly from noon to 10 p.m. late May — ear­ly Sep­tem­ber. Here you will find infor­ma­tion and inter­pre­tive dis­plays about the regions his­to­ry, nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment and recre­ation oppor­tu­ni­ties in the area. There’s also an Alas­ka Geo­graph­ic Asso­ci­a­tion bookstore.

Cold­foot (Pop. 12) This set­tle­ment was estab­lished in 1898 by min­ers and orig­i­nal­ly named Slate Creek. The name was changed to Cold­foot in 1900 when a group of new prospec­tors got ​“cold feet” at the idea of spend­ing the win­ter here and head­ed south. By 1902, Cold­foot was bustling with two road­hous­es, two stores, sev­en saloons, a gam­bling house and a post office. Like many oth­er boom­towns, Cold­foot was a ghost town by 1912. The town experienced…  ...more

Wise­man (pop 20) This his­toric gold rush town was estab­lished in 1907, Wiseman’s hey-day was from 1911 to 1915. There was no min­ing in the actu­al town, how­ev­er Wise­man attract­ed prospec­tors from out­ly­ing creeks wish­ing to pro­vide or receive ser­vices. The town grew very quick­ly; a few cab­ins, a school and even a post office were brought upriv­er by sled from Cold­foot to sup­port the pop­u­la­tion swell. In the grand tra­di­tion of min­ing towns, as the…  ...more

A unique­ly Arc­tic phe­nom­e­non, pin­gos are caused by water intru­sions into per­mafrost that then freeze and expand, forc­ing soil and oth­er sur­face fea­tures to rise and split. This pin­go field is prob­a­bly caused by melt­wa­ter from Sukak­pak Moun­tain sink­ing into the ground through the rub­ble pile at its base, then resur­fac­ing in this swampy area and freezing.

The Koyukuk Gold Rush is one of the most remote and old­est min­ing booms in Alas­ka. Word got out that gold had been found at the Koyukuk Riv­er and min­ers stam­ped­ed to the area in 1898. Today, the Koyukuk Min­ing Dis­trict is one of the largest in the Yukon Riv­er region. Both life-long and recre­ation­al min­ers still find gold in this area today.

This is it, your last chance to see a tree on the Dal­ton High­way. Wel­come to the arc­tic tun­dra, the word tun­dra actu­al­ly means ​“tree­less uplands”. The sub­soil in this area con­sists of per­mafrost, which is per­ma­nent­ly frozen soil. Only veg­e­ta­tion with a very shal­low root sys­tem can sur­vive this far north. Take a break and check out the inter­pre­tive signs with infor­ma­tion on the tran­si­tion from the bore­al for­est to the arc­tic tundra.

Ati­gun Pass, elev. 4739 ft. This is a very sig­nif­i­cant point of your jour­ney. As you trav­el over Ati­gun Pass, you are cross­ing the Con­ti­nen­tal Divide. Rivers to the north emp­ty into the Arc­tic Ocean, while rivers to the south emp­ty into the Bering Sea. North of the Ati­gun Pass, the per­mafrost grows deep­er (over 2,000 feet in the Prud­hoe Bay area) and is present almost every­where. South of the pass, per­mafrost areas become thin­ner and less…  ...more

The Dal­ton High­way is open year-round, rough­ly 3,700 large trucks trav­el the road each month, even dur­ing the arc­tic win­ter. There are 40 to 50 avalanche paths along Ati­gun Pass and a mas­sive avalanche could close the pass dur­ing win­ter months and shut down the trans­porta­tion of sup­plies to Prud­hoe Bay. The depart­ment of trans­porta­tion uses 11-foot-long avalanche guns to shoot down poten­tial slides, keep­ing the road clear and the truck drivers…  ...more

There are 554 ele­vat­ed cross­ings built into the Trans Alas­ka Pipeline Sys­tem. These cross­ing are a min­i­mum of ten feet high, and allow the free move­ment of large game across the pipeline. Watch for cari­bou and musk ox on these north slope crossings.

Pump sta­tion No. 4 has 2 unique qual­i­ties; first, it has the high­est ele­va­tion of all 11 sta­tions stretch­ing from Prud­hoe Bay to Valdez, sit­ting at 2760 feet. Sec­ond, this is one of the launch­ing and receiv­ing sta­tions for devices called pigs. Pump Sta­tion 1 is also a launch point. There are two types of pigs, named for the squeal­ing sound they make as they move through the Trans Alas­ka Pipeline. A clean­ing or dump pig trav­els through the…  ...more

This large glacial lake was dammed by a ter­mi­nal moraine locat­ed to the north. This area has beau­ti­ful views and good hik­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties into the Brooks Range. This is a great place to stop for infor­ma­tion about this region. There are inter­pre­tive pan­els with infor­ma­tion about the for­ma­tion of the Brooks Range, his­toric uses of the area and major archae­o­log­i­cal dis­cov­er­ies; the Arc­tic Nation­al Wildlife Refuge and Gates of the Arc­tic National…  ...more

Here you will find Too­lik Field Sta­tion, an arc­tic research sta­tion oper­at­ed by the Insti­tute of Arc­tic Biol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Alas­ka Fair­banks. This is the US’s most impor­tant arc­tic research sta­tion and the site of the Nation­al Sci­ence Foundation’s Arc­tic Long-term Eco­log­i­cal Research Site. The mis­sion of the Too­lik Field Sta­tion is to facil­i­tate and enhance arc­tic research as well as increase research and man­age­ment efficiency,…  ...more

There are 25 buried pipeline ani­mal cross­ings on the Trans Alas­ka Pipeline Sys­tem, and this is one of the two refrig­er­at­ed cross­ings. Refrig­er­a­tion keeps the hot oil in the pipeline from melt­ing the permafrost.

Dead­horse (pop. 4 per­ma­nent, 3000 — 6,000 part time). This is a town with a sole pur­pose — to sup­port pipeline and oil­field oper­a­tions for the Prud­hoe Bay oil­fields. The pub­lic road ends here, but you can take a two-hour tour with wildlife view­ing, a vis­it to the oil­fields and access to the Arc­tic Ocean.