Description: Meeting at 7am, we were 22 passengers in a small bus, with one guy as our driver and guide. The the first stop was at the Carlsons' Trading Post for an overview of an Alaskan homestead. On Dalton Highway, an unpaved road built for the construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline, we could see the pipeline and the pump stations along the road and even stopped for a closer look at the pipeline, which is 800 miles long, from the production areas in Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez at Prince William Sound.
We had a picnic by Yukon river, with sandwiches and cookies. It was over 30°C there! Still going north, trees became rare and we saw the tundra: short vegetation, starting to bloom in the short springtime.
At about 4 pm we finally arrived at the Arctic Circle! I was the first on the bus to step on the red carpet the guide had spred in front of the mark. Everyone took photos and then we had cake to celebrate the occasion.
On our way back to Fairbanks, we stopped for a "tundra walk". The soil was completely covered by plants and it was a strange sensation to step on it, as it gives way with our weight. Digging a little bit, we found the permafrost - an ice layer that exists at the Arctic region, right under the soil.
We stopped for dinner at a restaurant by Yukon river, then again at the Trading Post for refreshments, arriving at Fairbanks at midnight, where we received our Arctic Circle Adventure certificates.
The company's website is at http://www.alaskasarctic.com/
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