Dalton Highway – Northbound – Part 1

July 8^th, 2026

Coldfoot, Alaska

Woke at 8am and sat around for a bit to let the body catch up to the time of day.

Showered and geared up, and then packed everything up.

Walked over to the office to get breakfast, skipped the bagel and cheese and instead did the hard-boiled eggs and string cheese stick with a bottle of water.  Grabbed a banana as well.

Uncovered the bike and started loading the bike.

While loading the hotel maintenance man came over to talk.  Turns out he grew up in Tucson, AZ and had seen the license plate the other day.

Spent 20 minutes or so talking with him and then finished loading the bike.

Did final check of the room and brought the rest of the gear out and laid it out on the bike.

Went over to office and checked out of the room and then put on the rest of my gear and connected the devices I use to navigate with.

Left the parking lot and headed across town to where the highway heads north.

I had seen a Circle K there the other day, so figured it would be a good spot to fuel up and then could use restroom and get some food if still hungry.

Arrived at the station and filled the tank, and then filled my spare full bag so I had that extra if needed.

Went inside to use restroom and then bought a breakfast pizza from the deli bar.  Godfathers’ pizza as well, never heard of breakfast stuff, but wasn’t too bad.

Finished the bottle of water from this morning and then got back onto the bike.

Left the station and went down to the highway and then headed north.

The first 10 miles was same route I rode the other day, so familiar.

First thing was the temperature dropped by about 6 degrees from when I was loading the bike.

I pulled over to put on another layer, which involved taking everything off the top so I could put on the under-layer shirt, thought temps might stay for a while, but guessed wrong.

Back on the bike we passed the turn I used the other day and was now heading north to the start of the Dalton Highway.  The actual road does not start for about 40 miles; you first travel the Elliot highway which head out to several remote towns around the area.

Roads were decent, other then a few sections of gravel near just before reaching the Dalton.

Stopped to photo the Dalton sign, though so covered in stickers you really cannot see it.

Pavement ended about 200 feet after the road started.  Now 400 miles of gravel road.

Stopped soon after for the bigger Dalton highway sign on the side of the road.

About 20-30 miles in and the road was paved again for a good distance.  Bit of a surprise, but was a nice change and allowed faster travel, though not much faster as it was not the smoothest pavement and lots of pot holes.  You cannot do much looking around, must keep eyes on road, it changes without warning and quite violently at times.

Just before reaching the Yukon River, it was back to gravel leading up to the wood planked 2200-foot bridge over the river.

On the other side was the fuel station, but first I went to the other side of road to visit the restroom at the visitor center.

Once done I looked at some of the signage about the road and bridge and then rode over to the fuel station.

Pump was off in a corner, easily missed.

Pulled up to check price, 7.50 a gallon!

I saw the pump was locked, so rode over to building and went inside.  Like some other places, you have to leave your card with the cashier and then they give you key to pump

Another guy had just taken the key, so she told me to get it from him.

He was filling a large pickup, so took a bit, and then handed me the key, which was attached to a full-size canoe paddle!

Filled up the bike, only about half empty, so at least made the cost bit less.

Rode back to the building with this paddle across my tank bag and turned it back in and paid for the fuel.

Got back on the road and heading north again.

The road condition was much better than I had hoped. Besides repeated sections of pavement, there were some older pavements under a light layer of gravel, so it still allowed faster rate of travel.

Much of the road was just very hard packed dirt, and then a few sections of light gravel, though some loose spots, so still had to be alert.

I was fearing I would be riding 30 mph the entire route, but was able to keep up around 40, and even 45 at times on the gravel parts and up to 50 (the speed limit) on the pavement sections at times.

So far, I had been lucky and there were no cars ahead I had to pass or anyone passing me.

Stopped for a moment at the Finger Mountain viewpoint, mainly for the restroom, but took some photos and talked to some people that pulled in coming south, their truck was covered in mud.

They said it was the road I was heading toward, but not rain related, just where the road had been treated with the crap they put down to control dust.  It leaves road wet and muddy for hours, so knew I get some of that.  Similar to stuff we saw over in Yukon Territory in Canada where road construction was being done.  Makes a mess of your vehicle, that is for sure.

An hour north of the Yukon crossing we reached the stop for the Arctic Circle marker.

Did the obligatory photos and then used restroom before heading back to the road.

Not long after I heard a loud horn and a large truck was passing me.  Road as a bit rough here, but he just barreled down it.

Bit later 2 motorbikes passed me, though 20 minutes later I passed them as they had stopped on side of road.

Few other cars passed me as I made my way north.

One odd thing I noticed as I was heading north, the temperature had continued to go back up not long after I left Fairbanks.  So, while it has rapidly cooled close to down, about 20 miles north it started to slowly warm up, and by time I reached the Arctic Circle marker it was 80 degrees!

It started to rain a bit on my last bit of road, but not too hard.  Enough to get my face shield wet, and could feel few drops getting into jacket, but not enough to bother me or alter the road conditions.  Might have kept dust down a bit, but not much.

In finally pulled into Coldfoot, Alaska, which was my next fuel stop.  Only used about quarter tank, but the next stretch is the longest without fuel, so definitely need to top off again.

Pulled in and like most of these remote places, you cannot pay at the pump, need to leave card with cashier.  At least this place could activate the pump and see it (unlike last place where you had to photograph the read out and take it back inside).

Once fueled I pulled over to the café as I figured I should eat something.  It was coming up on 7:00pm, so been 9 hours now since I left the hotel. 

The campground I was looking to stay at was another 20 minutes or so up the road, so good place to stop for food.

The only have a buffet right now, guess they do that till 9pm, and then you can order from menu till midnight.

I had the $28 buffet, and filled my plate and that included the fountain drink as well.

Sat outside on patio and ate so I could keep eye on bike as this was a much busier place, so never know what some people will do.

Once done eating I was feeling tired, and I had noticed some tents pitched on a grass field between the café and the hotel. (I was going to ask about rooms, but as I was finishing eating, they hung up the no vacancy sign)

So, turns out the grass field is where tent camping is allowed and you have access to the bathrooms in the café or the hotel lobby. (The hotel looks like a bunch of trailer houses connected together, did not go inside yet, but looks pretty basic.)

I asked and it costs nothing to pitch a tent.

So, I decided to just stop here.  Was tired and while 20 minutes is not much, figured I could save that time and get started on pitching the tent.  Also, the other place would have cost me $12, and not exactly sure how to pay, and I did not have exact amount either.

Rode bike over to the edge of lot and walked over small bridge over a creek to the grass field.  Picked a spot and pitched the tent and unloaded the bike.

By time I was done I was drenched in sweat and I still had several layers on and the temps were well over 80.

Got changed into shorts and got out of tent which was like an oven and let the breeze dry me while I dug in a bag for my towel to finish drying.

Put on a light T-shirt and put out the mosquito device and they were starting to gather.  Lots of fly’s and small gnat like bugs as well all over the grass area.  Lots of dragonfly’s as well. (They have been thick on the road, and lots of them getting killed by cars and even on the bike I probably wiped out half a dozen of them).

Setup the camp chair and sat for awhile and talked some with the couple next to me.  They were online doing stuff, but I have zero signal.  Turns out only 1 Alaskan cell network works up here and they must not allow roaming, much like what I saw in McCarthy.

Café does not have Wi-fi either, so will just be offline for a while.

Walked over to café to check out the menu, see if they had something I could snack on, but nothing jumped out at me, and was quite expensive as well.

So came back to the tent and pulled everything inside to upload footage from today and write up the blog, even if I cannot upload it yet.

So stuffy in this tent, hoping the breeze would blow through, but I must have set it up in wrong direction, not feeling much.

Think I will just go to bed now, get some sleep and then perhaps get up very early and hit road sooner.  They do have a breakfast buffet at 5am, so might wait for that at least.

Guess we will see.

Catch ya down the road.

Todays Route: