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Dalton Highway/Alaska 11 (Corridor 24)
Routing
Corridor 24 is the Dalton Highway is a long, desolate roadway from Alaska Route 2 northwest of Fairbanks all the way north to the Arctic Ocean. This route follows the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline and is mostly away from human development. In fact, the roadway veers close to (but does not enter) a national park or two, including the Gates of the Arctic National Park.
Although most maps show the Dalton Highway without a state highway number, the route is designated Alaska 11. This is currently the highest-numbered highway in Alaska -- although there may be some 100-series numbers being assigned on some not-necessarily-current maps to some roads around Nome.
Oscar Voss, who has been on a van tour to Prudhoe Bay and the remote stretches of northern Alaska, has seen the Alaska Route 11 signs. Apparently they are among the few rural highway signs not pockmarked with bullet holes.
Alaska 11 is a recent designation for this road, as the state of Alaska just obtained maintenance responsibilities. This changeover from private to public is the main reason why the Dalton Highway is a high priority corridor. It used to be that traveling the Dalton Highway required a permit: Until December 1994, motorists needed a special permit to drive north of Disaster Creek.
According to Oscar Voss, north of Coldfoot (home to the "northernmost truck stop in the world"), it's 240 miles north to the nearest services in Deadhorse, with only one town along the way (Wiseman, a few miles north of Coldfoot). There is hardly any sign of civilization at all except for the pipeline running alongside. (Alaska 11 is a really rotten place to have a breakdown, and travelers are advised to carry at least two full-size spare tires, tools, and extra fuel.) This is certainly a candidate for the Nation's Loneliest Road, even moreso than U.S. 50 in Nevada. It may also be one of the most costliest for a breakdown: in 1998, it cost $5 PER MILE to have a car towed.
Jim Williams also recently took the Dalton Highway trip:
My wife and I drove the Dalton Highway last summer (around 1 June 1999) over its entire length, and there are State Highway 11 signs on the road, but not many of them (not too many places to turn off of it, I guess). I got pictures of the signs as well as the signs as you leave Deadhorse to return to the south, including NEXT SERVICES 240 MILES.
I drove a 1994 Pontiac Bonneville, and it took 14 hours for the drive from Fairbanks to Deadhorse. It took us about 14 hours on the return trip, too. I thought that the poor condition of the road was seriously overstated in the Milepost. I stopped at the Alaska DOT info center at Tok when I drove into the state. They didn't provide much more information that what I had found out before I left. They reiterated the need for spare tires (I had two full size spares).
However, I did the entire trip from Arlington, Texas, to Alaska (including the Dalton Highway and the road to Eagle) with virtually no vehicle damage. I picked up a rock in the windshield in a construction zone on the Alaska Highway in the Yukon and somewhere on the Dalton Highway I threw the weights off one of my tires. I had them rebalanced at Sears in Fairbanks (I noticed that they were not balanced when I got back to pavement). I still have the two full-sized spares (they take up WAY too much space in the car to carry them around), and they are used mostly by our cats as a place to nap.
According to Alaska DOT, the average daily volume of traffic is about 200 vehicles when you get up to Prudhoe Bay. North of the Brooks Range, there is limited traffic, and most of it consists of commercial vehicles. As The Milepost and other sources make clear, Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse is very much a "company town" -- it focuses on oil production, transport, and supporting services, and is not set up to handle a lot of tourists (though there is some lodging available).
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