The Dalton Highway is known to locals as the Haul Road. The Dalton Hwy was built in 1974 during the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. It is an unpaved road that winds through some of the most wild, rugged, breathtakingly beautiful land you will ever see.

• Travel the Dalton Highway beyond the Arctic Circle
• Enjoy your no-host lunch by the Yukon River
• Many stops for photos & sight seeing
• Stop at the Arctic Circle landmark

• Enjoy an Alpine Tundra Walk
• Travel on to the foothills of the Brooks Mountain Range at Gobbler's Knob
• Receive your Arctic Circle traveller's certificate

• Travel the Dalton Highway to the Arctic Circle for the Summer Solstice Midnight Sun
• Photograph the sun, still above the horizon, at Midnight!
• Enjoy the arctic mountain scenery

Arctic Circle Wanderings
The Arctic Circle is known to most people as the spot where the sun never sets on June 21st, the Summer Solstice, and where it never rises on December 21st, the Winter Solstice.

The Arctic Circle actually changes position over time, due to changes in the Earth's axis called the Milankovitch Cycle, named for Serbian climatologist Milutan Milankovich. Milankovich recognized that the tilt of the Earth's axis shifted from 22 to 24.5 degrees every 20,000 years, then the axis shifts back over another 20,000 years. University of Alaska Geophysical Institute professor emeritus Tom Hallinan said, "Earth is sort of like a spinning top that has a little bit of a wobble." That wobble is what happens during the Milenkovich cycle.

How does that wobble affect the Arctic Corle? The Milenkovich cycle equals about 25 feet of axial shift each year. T. Neil Davis, who wrote "Alaska Science Form" columns 20 years ago, pointed out that the Arctic Circle's location may change as much as 50 feet per year.

Our Arctic Circle day trip will take you beyond the 'official' Arctic Circle sign wayside and into the foothills of the Mighty Brooks Mountain Range.

Wildlife in the Arctic
The Arctic is home to a wide variety of wildlife. Keep your eyes open for arctic fox, grizzlies, black bears (look for them along streams or open tundra areas), musk ox (north of the Brooks Range), moose, wolf, caribou (watch for them on snowy patches), Dall sheep (they appear as white dots on the mountain sides until we get closer), eagles and countless varieties of birds. Your driver/guide is an old hand at spotting wildlife.

Departures:

• Ride along on an Alaskan Bush Pilot Mail Run flight
• Travel to the Athabascan village of Ft. Yukon, above the Arctic Circle
• Tour the village before your return