24 June. Drive to the Arctic Circle

We split off from John and Pam for a couple of days. They went ahead to Fairbanks, while Mary and I stayed back to make the 270-mile drive up The Dempster Highway to the Arctic Circle. The highway is one of the very few roads in North America that transits the Arctic Circle.  A second goes from Fairbanks to Prudoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean.  What is hard about this?  It's dirt and gravel the entire way.  The first gas stop is 230 miles in.  There is no more remote road in North America.  Yet, we (I) decided this was a bucket list item.  We drove it.  We made it.  
Along the way we saw some mammal life, but still not the grizzly we have been looking for:  Moose, Red Fox, Snowshoe Hare, Some other Bunny species, Porcupine, American Red Squirrel, Some sort of ground squirrel, 4 Dahl Sheep (2 adults, 2 lambs), Otter, and Wolverine. 

We got on the road by 6:30AM.  There was plenty of light, since sunrise was at 3AM or so.

The scenery was absolutely stunning as we drove across the Ogilvie Range and alongside the Richardson Mountains.

Here I am on the tundra with Bean trying to flush out a Willow Ptarmigan.  No luck.

Fortunately Mary saw this family of Willow Ptarmigan crossing the road in front of us.  They were all very cordial, with little fear of humans. They posed for photos with their new family members. This was a life-bird for me.

The road condition was generally very good. We were able to drive at 40 or 45 MPH for most of the route. We were very lucky that it wasn't raining (it was the day after we got back). 

The interpretive sign at the Arctic Circle is supposed to have a huge arch with a sunrise and such. Just our luck, it was "under construction."  That means some ugly 2x4s were holding it up against frequent gale-force winds.