RR108: The Dalton Highway, 2026

The Dalton Highway in Alaska is a bucket-list dream ride for adventure motorcycle riders. I had been reading about the Dalton in magazines, reading the ride reports on AdvRider and watching the YouTube videos and the Instagram posts since 2011. I knew I wanted to do this someday, and I’m so happy that it finally happened in 2026.

I guess I should start with this aerial drone picture on the Atigun Pass – credit to Praveen, a rider in our group. BTW all of the nice photos in the post are copyrighted to the riders and the amazing drone photos are copyrighted to Praveen, so please do not use without prior permission.

With this stunning picture I hope I was able to grab your attention, and so I guess I can begin.

The idea for Dalton 2026 came from my friend Vijay. He had always wanted to do it, but kept putting it off like me and the others. But one fine day in February he says he has booked his trip to Alaska and asked if anyone wanted to join. I quickly checked the dates with Shruti it would work out fine! It was the week of Anushka’s birthday, but luckily I would be back in the Bay Area in time. The plan was to fly into Fairbanks, Alaska, rent the motorcycles there, ride out to Prudhoe Bay and back and then fly back home.

I invited a couple of my friends – Shobhit and Suraj, while Vijay invited a few others – Shahab, Praveen and Jithu. Eventually Jithu dropped out, so it was 6 of us finally – Praveen, Shahab, Shobhit, Suraj, Vijay and me.

Vijay had arranged his motorcycle rental from “Last Frontier Motorcycle Adventures” in Fairbanks Alaska. James Yogi was the name, and he had a bunch of bikes available to rent. Shobhit, Suraj and I took Kawasaki KLR650s – the Gen3, Vijay took a Gen2 KLR650, the carbureted one, Shahab chose a newish Honda Transalp and Praveen chose a Yamaha Tenere 700. There were a lot of emails flying back and forth, money exchanged over Venmo and Zelle and finally around March, we had confirmed reservations for our bikes. James was very disorganized in the communication and approach to business, and often confused bikes with riders, e.g. giving me a short seat height KLR650S, while giving the regular to Shobhit.

I booked myself on Delta Airlines, flying out of San Jose to Fairbanks, Alaska, connecting through Seattle. Suraj booked the same flight. Vijay, Praveen and Shahab flew out of SFO, and then we were all on the same flight from Seattle to Fairbanks. I got a nice picture of Mount St. Helens on the way to Seattle.

We had a quick beer at the Seattle airport “Mountain Room Bar”. I wanted a hazy IPA and the server recommended one, but it was way too milky for my taste, especially at 10 in the morning – lol.

We landed in Fairbanks, picked up our bags and took 2 taxis to our hotel – the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel & Conference Center.

One of the taxi we hailed was a pick up truck, an older guy running his taxi by the name of Badger Cab. We asked the guy to take us to the motorcycle rental place which was about 18 miles South East of Fairbanks in North Pole, AK. Shobhit, Praveen and Suraj actually sat in the bed of the truck as we drove to North Pole. This small town leans heavily on the Santa Claus theme – candy cane light poles, Christmas trees and a giant Santa. While riding in the back of the truck, Praveen’s glasses flew off in the wind onto the side of the highway. Amazingly, Shobhit and Praveen were able to ride back to that same spot and pick up the glasses that were still in one piece.

By the early afternoon we got to our motorcycle rental place, the Last Frontier Adventure Motorcycles, and we met the famous James Yogi. He had all the bikes prepped up and ready to go waiting out front. We go over the bikes, the luggage, the accessories, the tools and tubes, etc. Everything looks like it is in good condition, and we hand over our deposits (in the form of a $2500 check, each) and off we go.

We only realized later that we never actually signed a contract with James or his company. More importantly, he never mentioned that we had to return the bikes in the same condition we received them: cleaned up after riding the Dalton Highway, which leaves them pretty muddy & dirty.

We got back to Fairbanks, and went to a late lunch at the only Indian restaurant in town – Hari Om Cuisine Of India. The food was great (+ we were hungry) and Praveen even asked the manager to pack us some samosas for the trip. We picked up a few bottles of whisky from a liquor store next door. Had a few drinks and then turned in for the night.

Day 1, July 12th 2026: Fairbanks to Coldfoot

On Day-1 we started off from the hotel around 9 in the morning. We gassed up the bikes near by and took Alaska Highway 2 (Elliott Highway) North towards the Dalton highway. The weather was perfect, sunny with high 50s to low 60s and remained beautiful for the rest of the day. There were a few spotty clouds, but there was no rain for the day.

The Elliott highway meets the Dalton Highway (Alaska Highway 11) at a small town called Livengood. The 80 miles from Fairbanks to the Dalton are mostly fully paved. The tarmac is rough in a few places along the way, but the road is nice and twisty, a great easy “street” introduction to the Dalton. We made quick work of this stretch of road and took our first break at the start of the Dalton.

As soon as I pulled off my helmet at our first break, a swarm of huge mosquitoes attacked my face and started biting me all over. I had never encountered such a large group of mosquitoes in my life! I had ordered a mosquito net from Amazon, but that was so long ago that I actually forgot to carry it to Alaska. Thankfully Vijay or Praveen had an extra mask and gave it to me, I put it on and that gave me instant relief from the mosquito attack.

The Dalton highway sign is just a mile from there and we stopped for a few pictures.

From this sign post the road is mostly gravel till the end of the highway near Deadhorse. Since this was our first taste of the Dalton dirt, we were all taking it easy.

About 55 miles from the start of the Dalton we came to the Yukon River Crossing. This is a really tall bridge, that is a scenic outlook across the wide expanse of the Yukon River. Although this was not recommended, we did stop on the bridge to take some photos. The surface of the bridge is made of these wooden floorboards, and I guess they use wood there because of the extreme weather. Interestingly, the bridge is built with a down slope in the northbound direction. So we came across a couple of big rigs barreling down the bridge from south to north across the Yukon river. They were going pretty fast for their size and I just thought to myself that if these trucks need to stop for any reason like in an emergency, they are not going to be able to stop and something is going to go over that bridge.

Across the bridge on the northern bank of the Yukon River, is the Yukon River camp, where we stopped for a break. There is a restaurant and some lodging accommodations on site, there is also gas available.

We had a nice long, relaxed lunch there, walked around the property and took some pictures along the Alaskan pipeline. There was a large European expedition truck there that was also refueling. It was either a Renault Kerax 4×4 or a Mercedes Unimog, I don’t quite remember, and they were a European couple coming back from Deadhorse.

At the Yukon River camp we met a popular Alaskan YouTuber by the name of Silas Hessler. This guy is pretty famous for riding a KLR650 up and down the Dalton Highway. Here is a video he made, one can see our bikes specifically at 26:00

After gassing up, we slowly made our way more North, taking breaks along the way. Mosquito nets were needed at every break.

About 60 miles north of the Yukon river crossing is the Arctic Circle sign. We start there took some pictures and had a couple of Samosas to eat. There were a surprising number of tourists there, mostly families in lifted SUVs and over landing vehicles, traveling across Alaska.

Finally we rode the last 60 miles from the Arctic Circle sign to Coldfoot Camp, which was our stop for the night. Along side of the road there was a constant bloom of wildflowers of various colors. I stopped at one point and took some pictures of these beautiful pink flowers. Gemini identifies them as … “These magenta-pink flowers are Fireweed, one of the most iconic wildflowers in Alaska and northern climates”. I didn’t know.

Coldfoot camp is approximately midway between Fairbanks and Deadhorse. That makes it a convenient night halt along the Dalton Highway. There is a restaurant serving some good food and beer. There are motel rooms and a post office, etc.

I had originally booked a twin motel room for Shobhit and me. These rooms are pretty expensive, at $260 a night. I thought that Shobhit and I will share a room but when we saw how small the rooms actually were Shobhit decided to get a room for himself. There were lots of other motorcycle riders is going up and down the Dalton, but I’d say a majority of them were tent camping.

We had dinner at the restaurant, a few drinks also, and turned in for the night.

Day 2, July 13th 2026: Coldfoot to Deadhorse

We started the day off with rain. It was not very cold, probably in the 50s, so we were comfortable with the rain gear that all of us had on. The rain was light, but the road became muddy and slick. Especially slick in a few places where they apply Calcium Chloride to the compact the road and keep the dust down.

Here is a pic of the Coldfoot parking lot. Lots of trucks there, also a couple of helicopters in the background. We saw them fly out at the start of Day-4.

The first stop of the day was on “the Chandelar Shelf”, which is about half way up the Atigun Pass. It wasn’t much of a climb, literally a couple of miles up the road from the valley. But the road was muddy, it was getting cold and we had to take it very very slowly.

Not a bad time for a samosa.

We were quite muddy by then.

From the Chandelar Shelf, it is again maybe just 3-4 miles to the top of Atigun Pass. A fairly steep climb, but nothing remarkable really. I have been riding motorcycles in the Sierras and the mountains of California for long enough, that this felt like a fairly benign pass to traverse. It was just very cold up top, probably is the low 40s by then. The road is rough, not BDR hard split levels, but one needs to be careful. We could see snow on the sides of the mountains.

The way back down the other side of the Atigun is also short. We had to follow a pilot truck through the construction zone for about 5-8 miles. We were going slow, but the muddy terrain made it quite tricky. None of us actually dropped our bikes, but I’m sure we all came pretty close to that.

The weather cleared up completely on the other side of the Atigun pass, and would remained clear for the rest of the day. The scenery is absolutely dropdead gorgeous on the other side of the pass. We stopped for lunch by a creek, and ate a packed sandwich lunch that we had picked up at Coldfoot camp. The skies were clear the temperatures were mild, and the weather was perfect. We had an excellent relaxing time and it more than made up for all the soggy weather that we had had earlier that day.

From here onwards it was easy going to the end of the road in Deadhorse. We took a few breaks along the way. There is no real deadline to arrive in Deadhorse because there is sunlight 24 hours a day.

We crossed lots of trucks along the way, most of them hauling equipment to and from the oil fields in Prudhoe Bay. The last 60 miles of the Dalton into the town of Deadhorse are perfectly paved. Nice wide road, mostly flat and straight. Surprisingly all 6 bikes, including the 3 KLR650s, were able to make it from Coldfoot to Deadhorse on a single tank of gas.

As we pulled into town, we first went to the Prudhoe Bay General store for the customary and congratulatory photo opportunity. Cell phone signal is pretty strong there, so I was FaceTiming with Shruti – triumphant about having conquered the Dalton, reaching the end of the road!

Our hotel for the night was the Eagle Lodge Hotel in Deadhorse. All the hotels in this town cater to the temporary workers who fly up to work in the oil fields. Most of the workers have a schedule of three weeks on and three weeks off, working 12 hour shifts seven days a week for the three weeks that they are on the oil fields. The roads in Deadhorse are not paved, they just have a deep layer of gravel, probably because of the severe weather during the winter. Because of all the dust that is created, hotels required shoe covers while walking inside. Interestingly, the cafeteria at the hotel was self-serve and required everyone to wear plastic gloves. The manager on duty told us that because of the high traffic in and out of the area, it is very easy to transmit infectious diseases there like the flu or Covid, and that’s why they enforce wearing gloves in common areas like the cafeteria.

The rooms were clean, spacious, and had plenty of space for our gear. In the cafeteria, they served traditional American fare alongside plenty of vegetarian options, plus a few refrigerators stocked with grab-and-go items like fruit, eggs, snacks, and sandwiches. The staff, including the manager and cafeteria team were very friendly and often stopped to chat about our trip up to Deadhorse. Interestingly, hotels in Deadhorse typically don’t use room keys; you can lock the door from the inside while you’re in, but there’s no need to lock up when you leave for the day.

Praveen got some nice drone footage of the town of Deadhorse

It’s crazy to see how far I was on this location pin.

Day 3, July 14th 2026: Deadhorse to Coldfoot

We started our day with a tour of the Arctic Ocean. Most of the land around Prudhoe Bay is leased to oil companies and so accessing the Arctic Ocean means going through private lands. We had to buy tickets to a tour from North Alaska Tour Company – at $80 per person it was quite an unusual experience to go visit a beach.

Our hotel manager gave us a ride in his truck to Deadhorse Camp in the morning. We waited there for a little bit till everyone gathered. The tour company then took our IDs – very high security apparently – and checked everyone off the manifest. They put us on a small bus and drove about 12 miles from Deadhorse Camp to the “East Dock, Arctic Ocean”. We were repeatedly told that the oil companies take security very seriously. As we entered the private oil, security briefly checked over the bus and gave us the go ahead. The tour bus driver asked us to keep our phones away and not take any pictures and he also asked everyone to wear safety goggles. It was a bit hilarious, especially since the bus itself was stalling out every few miles with a weak battery.

The bus operator and his assistant gave us a historical account of Prudhoe Bay, the various companies there and the life they all live there. Fascinating stuff. We saw a little bit of wildlife there even – an arctic fox and a moose.

It was a warm 52F and a fully sunny, absolutely gorgeous day. We could not have been luckier. Just the day before, it was in the 40s, cloudy and raining.

We got to the beach in about 20 minutes and dipped our feet in the cold arctic waters. The gave us towels. Shobhit and I got into our undies and took a full body dip in the water. Yes, we have pics, and no, I’m not going to post them here. The water was cold for sure, but not quite freezing. Maybe a touch cooler than a California beach, but nothing extreme. I feel that flowing cold water always feels MUCH colder than still water, having felt that many times in Yosemite. The dip was enjoyable and peaceful. A culmination of a journey to the northernmost point I will probably ever go in my life. It did feel special and I will remember this day for a long time.

We got back to the hotel by about 11AM. We had lunch at the cafeteria, packed up our bags and gear and made our way back towards Coldfoot.

The ride back towards Coldfoot was uneventful and easy. The weather on the Atigun Pass was cold and wet, so we were all geared up. It was rainy for most of the distance between the Atigun and Coldfoot, so we took it easy. I was able to exchange my bike with Shahab, so I got a chance to try out the Transalp. Wonderful bike I say, it was like a luxurious and smooth Rolls Royce compared to the KLR.

Here is a nice pic of Suraj as a truck is passing, a well timed shot by Shobhit.

At one point along the way, I suddenly noticed that my shifter is jammed and I cannot downshift into any gear. I stopped and looked down – there was a small rock jammed exactly between the shifter and the frame.

We saw some muskox along the way.

Somewhere between Deadhorse and Atigun we saw a guy on fully loaded Harley Pan America 1250 go down in the gravel. That bike is almost 600 lbs and he easily had 150 lbs of stuff on him – luggage, fuel and more. He was shaken up a little, we helped him gather his stuff and he was able to make it on. We chatted with him and his buddy at a later stop along the way.

Along the way we also met a couple of interesting folks. First was Elias Perez (@parapentrix on IG) an Argentinian rider who was coming up from South America, going to Deadhorse and then eventually going to Florida. He was riding a Chinese F800 BMW clone (“VOGE DS900X”) and he was carrying less luggage on his 4 month trip than most of us! Argentina was playing England in the FIFA world cup semi finals the next day, so he was excited about that, and the possibility of a second consecutive World Cup title.

At the top of the Atigun Pass, we met another Argentinian rider on a Honda XR250. Didn’t ask his name, but we should have. He too was making his way up from South America, and he had even lesser stuff on him than Elias. He probably had just a couple of clothes, a few tools and some basic camping equipment. The XR had a big gas tank, so he could probably do 300+ miles on a single tank.

We made our way to Coldfoot camp in good time. We had packed some food from the Eagle Lodge cafeteria, so we had that for dinner. We then went into the bar at the camp for a few drinks and chatted with a couple of Brazilians from Southern California. They were excited about tomorrow’s game.

At Coldfoot camp we also came across this German guy Wolfgang on a DR200. He was originally from Maine, but lived in Washington now. And he made it to Deadhorse and back (500+ miles) on his little DR in 1 day. Impressive. There were a lot of impressive folks there.

Day 4, July 15th 2026: Coldfoot to Fairbanks

This was the last day of the trip, and thankfully everything went by uneventfully. As we were leaving Coldfoot the helicopters there were out flying.

The ride was smooth sailing from Coldfoot to Fairbanks. It was raining and muddy the whole day, so we took it easy. There were a couple of pucker moments, coming in a bit too hot in a muddy section, but none of us went down thankfully. We were all pretty tired by that time and the constant rain was taking its toll. We were riding in pairs mostly, to keep company and not fall back alone. Praveen was exhausted and riding slowly so Vijay was staying with him. Suraj and I were mostly together, while Shobhit and Shahab were leading.

As we reached the outskirts of Fairbanks, my KLR started to overheat. The radiator was completely caked with mud and as I picked up speed on the highway, the temperature light came on. I pulled over to the side, cleaned off some of the mud with a stick and waited for a little bit for the bike to cool.

Eventually we made it back to the rental place in North Pole, AK. All 3 KLRs overheated and needed a short break to make it back.

When we got to Last Frontier Motorcycle Adventures we had a bit of an altercation with the owner. James Yogi was not there, it was the other business partner and he was expecting us to wash the bikes before we return them. The Dalton leaves these bikes VERY muddy, and it would be a huge job to pressure wash them. We were not told of this requirement when we picked up the bikes, so at the end of a tiring 4 day 1000 mile adv trip, we were all super irritated. Tensions rose and few sharp words were exchanged. Eventually we did take the bikes to a nearby pressure washing station before turning them in. Vijay’s carbureted KLR had a hard time starting after the wash, but it eventually did run and we were OK. Nonetheless, this incident left a bad taste at the end of such an amazing trip. I DO NOT recommend Last Frontier Motorcycle Adventures – terrible business!

From there we took Badger Cab back into Fairbanks. Dinner and a few beers at Red Fox Bar & Grill and we were off to the airport for a 1AM flight. Shahab, Vijay and Praveen stayed on an extra night in Fairbanks and took their return flights the next day.

Looking back at the whole trip, pushing through 1,000 miles of gravel, slick calcium chloride mud, freezing rain over the Atigun, and swarms of giant mosquitoes was a genuine test for all of us, but it was also an incredible adventure. Dipping in the Arctic Ocean at Deadhorse after decades (haha) of reading about the Dalton on forums and watching YouTube videos was a huge personal milestone, and sharing the road with a great group of friends made it an awesome experience. I am so glad I finally made this trip happen and checked it off my bucket list. That said, I can safely say I won’t be doing it again. The physical toll, the non-stop focus needed on those unpredictable roads, and the sheer grind of the route make it really a once-in-a-lifetime ride. Beyond that, I just feel an immense sense of gratitude. It feels great to be alive and to have the health, time, and resources to pull off an adventure like this, along with full support from Shruti to let me head off to Alaska and chase a dream ride. It was an unforgettable trip that I will always look back on with a lot of pride.