Arctic Expedition:

Sunday August 26th: We left the Northern Moosed RV Park (dump) for our epic 1000 mile drive to the Arctic Ocean also known at the Beaufort Sea.

We left the RV in the park and drove the truck. The weather outlook was poor with rain, snow and cold temperatures so we stayed in "Camp Rooms". Not the tent.

The mandatory picture with the Hwy signs.

Yup, we have now crossed the Arctic Circle.

We followed the Alyeska Pipeline for much of our 1000 mile drive.

 I am trying to show how red the landscape was in this picture.

We got to see a lot of fall colors on the drive.

Beautiful fall colors in August.

 Musk-oxen.

A rare stretch of paved road. Strangely the pavement was more treacherous than the the gravel because the potholes could easily break something.
                                         

 Above is Yukon Camp. It's a place where the pipeline workers stay overnight. It's much like Coldfoot and Deadhorse Camp's where we stayed but I don't think I got a picture.

They are made of prefab mobile home types of things. Lots of mud, everywhere.

Our truck in front of Coldfoot Camp. I know right?? we slept there and liked it. It was good. Way better than our tent in the rain and mud with temps in the 30s.

The building above is where we had dinner in Coldfoot.

A lovely buffet.  

This is the buffet area at Deadhorse. A very small venue right next to the kitchen.

This is the hallway where you enter the building and put booties on your feet. Mud is a huge problem so you wear booties inside all buildings.

My booties.

This is one half of the room in Deadhorse. It was like a dorm room. 

Dinner was pasta, we were happy.

Yeah, I drink beer now.

 

We drove through the Atigun Pass elevation 4800 ft. On the way up it was snowing.

On the way back it was sunny.

We were gone 4 days. Each day we drove 250 miles. We slept 2 nights in Coldfoot, our favorite of the 2, and one night in Deadhorse. In Deadhorse we did not have a bathroom in our room. We had to go down the hall and around the corner. Still better than the tent.

 

Picture by "the sign".

Below are pictures of Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay on a tour we took to the Arctic Ocean:

We hoped aboard this van for a ride thru the oil field buildings to the edge of the Ocean.

Burning off the natural gas they couldn't get rid of. Apparently over a third of what comes out of the ground in Prudhoe is natural gas, but there is not pipeline for it, so they just burn it or pump it back into the ground.

Lots and lots of buildings, rigs, pumps, pipes and I know not what.

30 degrees, and snowing. Brrrrrr

And here it is, the Arctic Ocean.

Arctic cold

I'd planned to "put a toe in the ocean" but my feet were freezing at this point so I put a finger in.

Arctic driftwood, could have been from Russia. Bob Mueller would want to know.

The drive back to Fairbanks was much better weather. The sun came out and wow the fall colors were gorgeous.

Just in case it wasn't obvious

We got a bit dirty. But it was fun.