Welcome to the Dalton Highway -- Yukon-Koyukuk Borough, AK USA
N 65° 29.831 W 148° 41.252
6W E 421911 N 7264913
This artistic welcome sign is a cheerful greeting on one of the world's most dangerous highways, the Dalton Highway
Waymark Code: WM1736F
Location: Alaska, United States
Date Posted: 11/30/2022
Views: 2
The Dalton Highway is very well known for its dangers. Built as a haul road to serve the needs of the Alaska pipeline construction project, this road is primarily used by professional truckers, who do not necessarily appreciate tourist vans and other users on this highway.
The unpaved yet well maintained Dalton Highway was opened to the public in 1994, after being the exclusive province of professional truck drivers for almost 20 years.
The Dalton Highway, immortalized in the TV show Ice Road truckers as the most dangerous road in the world deserves this reputation: at the Hilltop Truck Stop near the end of the Dalton Highway closest to Fairbanks Alaska, several walls of the store are lined with individual and collective memorials to every trucker who has died on the Dalton Highway since its creation in 1974.
This pullout and welcome sign has clearly been created for the tourists. The truckers know they are on the Dalton Highway. They don't need these little photo ops - but now that multiple tour companies operate Aurora viewing tours, Arctic Circle visiting experiences and the like, the Alaska Department of Transportation created this artistic welcome sign and a safe pullout for the tourists.
The Bureau of land management has created a historical marker about the namesake of this highway and some of the engineering achievements it took to create not only this road but also the Alaska pipeline.
This artistic welcome sign is enhanced with Arctic Lupine flowers that bloom here in abundance during the very short summer months. A map of Alaska with the city of Fairbanks and the route of the Dalton Highway traced in blue paint names the towns along this road from here to Prudhoe Bay.
The sign reads as follows:
"[Arctic Lupine Flower] WELCOME TO THE DALTON HIGHWAY [map] [Arctic Lupine]
Gateway to the Arctic - the Road to Prudhoe Bay"
Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and brief account of your visit - something more than, "Drove past this today." You are encouraged to add a new photo, but this is not mandatory. If you can add any further information about the sign or community, that would be appreciated.