July 7

This was the big day where we would see the Arctic Ocean. Starting out I did catch and photograph the sun peeking out from behind a mountain.

We had only 100 miles to go to reach Deadhorse and the plan was to travel slowing looking for wildlife then catch the 3:30 shuttle tour to the ocean. Afterwards we would head south and camp somewhere. Here’s a partial view of our campsite before taking off. The netting covers our picnic table and gives us a fighting chance of managing with the mosquitoes.

We still had hopes of seeing some caribou having given up expecting to see musk oxen. As you head north trees disappear and the vegetation gets shorter and shorter. We started climbing through a cut in the hill when Marsha spotted a musk oxen not far away but mostly hidden by bushes!!!!  We drove ahead, turned around and I got some photos. It made the entire trip! We continued northward and soon we spotted 4 more male musk oxen following the Alaskan Pipeline marching along in a row. More photos!

The pipeline is at the top of the photo

We started joking that we came all this way knowing we would not see musk oxen but just about assured we would see caribou. Now there were no caribou to be found. Finally we stumbled upon a few not far from the road. More photos! Next we noticed many greater while fronted geese. More photos!

 

Within 10 miles of Deadhorse we came across a small caribou herd of at least 500 and very likely 1000. I say small herd since it can be tens of thousands. More photos!

We arrived in Deadhorse which is hardly a town and it is unlike any town either of us had ever been in before. We managed to find some unattended gas pumps were we could refuel. Our last gas was in Coldfoot more than 200 miles south. That gas was a bargain at $4.60 a gallon. In Deadhorse it was $4.99 a gallon. Still a great deal since we could not make it to the next place to refuel without it.

As we waited for the tour we drove around then decided to drive south to look for the caribou herd again. We were hardly out of Deadhorse when we spotted yet another musk oxen up close. More good photos! Next we looked for the herd of caribou but then were not to be found. Did did see some jaegers, an arctic bird, but no photos.

The tour was interesting. It was a bus holding about 16 of us. Everybody was in their 20’s or 30’s and then there was us. The tour was a drive through the Prudhoe Bay oilfields to a spit of land out into the Arctic Ocean. Marsha and I both stuck our hands into the ocean while all the others on the bus went in to a quick dip or swim. It was quick since there was ice visible in the water!

After the tour we headed south making it to Marion Lake where we had camped the first night. After leaving Deadhorse we saw one moose. Rolled into the campground after 10 pm, set up the tent and crashed. We had driven 399 miles that day. I have not talked about driving the road but I should. I’ll leave it for now but let’s just say it is interesting.