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I got up a little later that I would have liked today and made it to the airport just literally at the last minute for my flight to Barrow, Alaska. I was able to speed through security because I didn’t have any bags because I would return tonight. Getting on the plane was interesting. It wasn’t a little puddle jumper, but a nice big 737, however half of the plane was used for cargo and the other half was used for passengers. Because it was the front half that was for cargo it was impossible to connect the jet way, and so we walked out onto the runway to board the plane.

The flight stopped in Prudhoe Bay, another northern slope settlement to pick up workers looking to return home to lower Alaska. The flight in was just frozen tundra as far as I could see broken only by what I presumed to be an oil pipeline (if not oil then another big above ground pipeline). It was then a quick 30 minute trip to Barrow.

The Barrow airport is remarkably small. Basically, imagine a single room to handle a waiting area, ticketing, and security that is all on the ground floor where the only option is to walk out onto the runway to get to the plane. Instead of trying to rent a car or just walk around I got a tour package, and Eli, my tour guide was there waiting for me. To my surprise, I was the only person in the tour group, whereas the previous day he had 40 people.

Frankly it’s amazing that people can live somewhere like Barrow. There are no roads into Barrow so everything must be flown in, driven in off road vehicles, or barged in when the weather permits, however they did have fresh bananas in the grocery store (for a price, but still it was an option). The roads were all unpaved and there wasn’t any grass to speak of in town, and outside of the town the grass appeared to be dead, but the guide said it comes back later in the summer. In the course of the tour (which was excellent by the way), I was able to see basically the entire town and visit a beach off the Arctic Ocean, no I didn’t swim in it The ocean itself was still frozen over actually.

The tour also included a lot of the whaling history and history of the native people of the Barrow area which was extremely interesting. Many of the Barrow public buildings have big whale bone decorations in front of them, however the most famous one is just off the Arctic Ocean and came from a whale that was over 70ft long.

For lunch, I ate at Pepe’s. With dining choices limited the guide suggested this also because it was the only restaurant to issue Arctic Circle Certificates, which admitantly is just a way to attract tourists, but it worked The food was not as bad as I feared actually. Pepe’s is a Mexican restaurant and I ordered the taco plate. It’s actually amazing that in a place as remote as Barrow you can have Mexican food whenever you want. Near the end of the tour I bought some soft serve icecream at Browers Restaurant‎, which is the only place in town that has such a thing. The building that the restaurant is located in was a former whaling post which was very cool.

With the tour over I caught my flight back to Fairbanks, but then I realized that I didn’t have my rental car anymore. I was going to be in Barrow all day so why did I need a rental in Fairbanks? Well, to get back to the hotel of course. This was not an insurmountable problem, but with two hiking days coming up I thought why not just walk instead of calling a cab. My hotel was the Super 8 in Fairbanks which is about 4 miles or so from the airport. The walk itself wouldn’t have been so bad if I had a reasonable pair of shoes, but my brand new hiking shoes are in the car in the Seattle airport, and my tennis shoes are in a state of disarray. The only good thing that came of walking was that I noticed that right next to the hotel there was a Denny’s that was the most northern Denny’s in the world. I went in and ordered a giant omelet with a side of pancakes. I’ve been to many Denny’s before, but this one was probably the best service I’ve ever had there, and the food was excellent. This is all on top of the novelty of it being the furthest northern Denny’s. After eating I retired to my hotel after 11pm (and the sun was still shining in Fairbanks). Alaska was extremely fun, and I’m very happy I got a chance to see Barrow, Denali, Fairbanks, and Anchorage. The crab legs and salmon chowder were absolutely wonderful and the scenery just can’t be beat (so far). Tomorrow I’ll fly to Maui by way of Anchrage.

Tags: Big Road Trip