Haul Road Trip

I took my first trip down the Haul Road earlier this month. What an experience!!!! We were following a convoy of trucks down just passed Chandalar. This shot was taken about eight nine miles out of Prudhoe Bay. The dust reminded me of the Alcan Highway about 40 years ago but overall the road was in pretty good shape.

Prudhoe is a pretty desolate place but a fascinating place when you think of how the oil and gas industry provides Alaska with most of its general fund dollars.

This shot shows truck coming down off Atigun Pass toward Fairbanks. It is hard to imagine how these trucks make it down the Haul Road in the winter at forty below when there are white outs and they can't see the side of the road. The truckers biggest complaint about the road is the lack of delineators that show them both sides of the road. They said they'd rather put up with potholes than not have delineators along the road.

Here the trucks are approaching a DOTPF maintenance work creww as you see the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the background running along the Haul Road. The pipeline switches back and forth on both sides of the road as a portion of the pipeline is above ground and in many places it is under the ground and not visible.

The Haul Road is not that wide and it is pretty crowded when two trucks pass or in this case a truck passes a road grader. All the truckers have CB raidos and alert each other of oncoming traffic.

The truckers said they wish motorhomes were required to have CB radios when they travel the road, so the truckers could tell them to slow down and warn them about traffic.

Unique and colorful Mountain Range stands out solo in a flat valley along the Haul Road.

Here we are approaching the Yukon River heading south toward Fairbanks.

Here we are heading north toward Prudhoe Bay across the Yukon River Bridge. THe Trans-Alaska Pipeline
runs parallel with the bridge suspended above the Yukon River.