North Pole, AK - Flying to Deadhorse 1

And, we’re off - to Deadhorse. Where in the world is that, you ask? Well, how about if I call it Prudhoe Bay? of if I call it the North Slope? All these names are for one place: one of the northernmost places in Alaska, where we can dip our toes into the Arctic Ocean, where we can see the Alaska tundra, where we can see where the oil fields are. All of that. It’s a 3-day trip: the first day we fly up to Deadhorse, the only ‘town’ up there, stay overnight, drive half way back the next day to stay overnight in Coldfoot, and drive the final way back on the third day.

The plane leaves at 7:00 am and we’re supposed to be there at 6:00. Now count backwards: drive 20 minutes to airport, eat breakfast, get ready, and what time do you have for getting up? WAY TOO EARLY ! ! ! But, hey, it’s light out when we hear the alarm - remember this is Alaska. by the way, this picture was taken at 5:30, check out that brilliant sun.

They weigh us and weigh our luggage - small plane, you know and every ounce counts. Lots of planes in Fairbanks.

The flight was stupendous over the treed hills north of Fairbanks where there are thousands of lakes

braided rivers which change channels every year or so

over the fabulous 9000’ peaks of the Brooks Range

and then over the miles and miles of tundra until we landed in the airport of Deadhorse. So, why is it called Deadhorse? Isn’t that kind of morbid? Well, there was a hauler who wanted business and advertised that he would haul anything - even a dead horse. He put this slogan on his trucks calling his company ‘Dead Horse Hauling’. He got the contract to haul materials and supplies from the airport at the oil fields to where they needed to be. His trucks were often parked at the airport and the pilots began to call the airport Dead Horse and then the whole area.

Here are some views out of the window where I was sitting.

As we got closer and closer to Deadhorse, the skies filled with clouds. At times there were some over us and under us. The pilot was flying by instruments. But it was a very smooth flight. Note that we are all wearing ear phones to block the airplane noise and to hear the pilot’s conversations to us, to others flying in our group and with control towers.

Our pilot even had some in-air ‘magazines’ for us to read. Actually just some things he had put together for us: stories of the geology (you know I’m going to spend lots of time on this one, right?) some newspaper stories about a lost polar bear in the region and some gold finds in the hills, a write-up about Chris McCandless who died in a bus outside of Denali and about his favorite Alaskan animal - the caribou.

We flew in over the oil fields and could see a well being drilled and some of the other buildings. Bleak is the word that comes to mind. Dismal might be another. That blue building with the white stripes off to the right is the new hotel. the orange building in the middle of the picture is one of the newer hotels also. Did you know there were hotels up here?

Our van has its lights on.

We got into Deadhorse about 10:00 and drove over to our lodgings at Deadhorse Camp. lonely planet, the travel book, describes Deadhorse this way:

        ‘A sprawling industrial dystopia that supports the huge Prudhoe Bay Oil Field. It’s statistics make grim reading: 54 days of consecutive darkness in winter, a permanent population of less than 50, bitter winds even in July, and an architectural style best described as Stalinist Russia meets Mad Max 2. No right-minded traveler would come here if it wasn’t the end point of a truly epic journey - the Dalton Highway. That said, a night in the military-camp-like confines of the Prudhoe Bay Hotel with its industrial carpets . . . at the conclusion of an exhausting road trip is an experience you probably won’t forget.’

Because nature paints predominantly in grays and browns during the winter, someone decided to liven the color palette with bright blues and for the dorm buildings.

Or red. Note that all of these buildings are on skids so they can be moved from place to place. They also have those triangular ‘hitches.’ In the summer when it’s too warm and the ground is nothing but mud they are put off to the side for placement in the winter when the work commences on the frozen ground.

And, of course there’s heavy equipment to move these around.

Then we checked into our rooms.