While staying in Fairbanks, we decided to make the drive up to the Arctic Circle. We had always heard of the Arctic Circle, and Denise had even been there before this trip. What makes the Arctic Circle special is that the area inside the Arctic Circle has 24 hours of sunlight on the summer solstice and 24 hours of darkness on the winter solstice.
As an aside to this trip, living with 24 hours (almost) of sunlight is a unique experience. You don’t realize how much your body depends on the cues that darkness gives you. Suddenly you aren’t sure if it is bed time or time to get up in the morning. A clock becomes very important. You also don’t realize how much you miss seeing a sunset or the stars. As we headed back south on our trip we were very excited the first time we saw the faint glimmer of a star in the sky. That said, we also enjoyed being able to just keep going and doing whatever we wanted without regard to the time of day.
We headed north on the famous Dalton Highway, which was made famous by the television show “Ice Road Truckers.”
We were warned there is a lot of gravel along the way. Occasionally, when assisted by other drivers, that gravel is capable of flight.
The long and lonely road….
Welcome to the Arctic Circle.
Even this far north they still have colorful plants. Actually, the weather was quite pleasant this day. The temperature was 72 degrees as we arrived.
The Alaskan Pipeline is up here.
Remember that road gravel I mentioned a few paragraphs ago? One rock hit our windshield on our return back south to Fairbanks.
This sort of windshield marker is common here in Alaska. This mark made us look and feel like a local driver.
Fifth Wheel Follies! 