We went to the Arctic Circle......

We actually drove through a town called the North Pole on our way to Fairbanks. I think it might be a suburb of Fairbanks and Alaskan's don't bat an eyelid when they say they live in North Pole, but Stu and I found it hilarious every time we heard it.   North Pole is actually not "The North Pole", but the streets are decorated with candy sticks and there is a big shop that sells everything Christmas....not my cup of tea!

We decided to treat ourselves to a night in a hotel, May 31, so once we arrived in Fairbanks we went online to check out some places.  We found a place for $80, so thought that would be adequate....when we arrived at the place we couldn't believe it!  A huge apartment.....with lounge room, full kitchen, dining room, bathroom and bedroom AND free wifi...which is always a bonus. It was so good we decided to stay 2 nights....but it turns out, the "Season" that I keep mentioning, that hasn't started yet, actually started on June 1st, and prices doubled, so our $80 a night became $160 for the 2nd night.  So we enjoyed the space for a day!
While we had use of the wifi we thought we should make plans for when we drop the RV off in Anchorage.  Our thoughts were to fly from Anchorage to Juneau (which is the capital of Alaska).  The only way to access Juneau is by plane or boat..there are no roads in to it.  Then we'd catch the ferries from Juneau to Bellingham,Washington (state).  It would be 3 days on the ferry, so we looked at booking a cabin...the only ones that were available were outside, bunk beds, bring your own linen and food.  Total of $1200.  We were shocked by the price so decided to look at cruises.  Now I publicly declared that after visiting Skagway I would never do a cruise.  Well, when we saw a 7 day cruise to Vancouver for $250 each, all food (and linen!) included we had no choice!  So we have booked it and we leave on the day we drop the RV off. 
Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior Region of Alaska and is only 190kms from the Arctic Circle. We figured we were that close to the Arctic Circle, we had to go up there.  We thought about hiring a car, but it is a really rough road,....so we went on a small tour bus instead, with 6 others.

The road follows the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and is truly the man-made wonder of the Last Frontier, traversing 800 miles (or 1300 km) of frozen tundra, boreal forest, 800 rivers and streams, three major earthquake faults and three rugged mountain ranges. The corridor includes more than 550 wildlife crossings for moose, caribou and other wildlife. Alyeska Pipeline Service Company completed the pipeline in 1977 at a cost of $8 billion for the two-year project, the largest privately funded construction effort at that time. The Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) was built as a means of transporting crude oil from the oilfields at Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's North Slope to the marine and northern most ice-free port in Valdez, where it is loaded aboard tankers for the journey to U.S. refineries. 
The highway is called The Dalton Highway

and is made famous by a TV show called Ice Road Truckers....where truck drivers battle harsh, difficult roads and conditions to transport their cargo.  They slow down for no one, you aren't supposed to pull off the road, and it is being graded constantly.

It's used throughout the entire year, so in the winter it would be very dangerous.  There are a few tiny communities north of the Arctic Circle and the road is there as a supply road.

It took us 6 hours to travel 190 kms with minimal stops along the way....to check out the scenery....

and the road varies between bitumen and gravel, with potholes, corrugation and mud.

We didn't see any wildlife, but it was a great experience to be driving the furthest north we are ever likely to be. We were pretty excited as we got closer

and then we were there....a small carpark with a sign!  Is that the Arctic Circle?  I wasn't sure what to expect, but I have to say it was a bit of an achievement to find ourselves so far up North.  I thought Darwin was a long way North!!!  So like any good students, we were awarded certificates for our achievement....

we enjoyed a delicious bowl of moose stew, which gave Stuart the strength to actually hold up the Arctic Circle!!

We were then carried away by the biggest mozzies, before we got back in the van, stopping at the most "unique" gift shop I have EVER been to. 

The lady who owned it was such a character and her son who was about 40 yrs old made the jewelery they were selling along with other "birch" products. She told me about the log cabin she and her husband built about 2 miles up stream on the Yukon River. The only way to access it was by boat, then walk 1 mile....it had been burnt twice by bush fires, they had encounters constantly with bears, there was no power and they can't get out for about 8 months of the year because of snow!  She showed me photos of her late husband, photos of bears they'd trapped and shot, photos of the cabin....all while we were standing in this tiny "shed" that was her gift shop....

She wasn't trying to impress me or exaggerate anything...it was just the way it was. It was such a surreal experience for me and her story would make an amazing movie.  Some people do it tough.
Here's a quick video of our short time in the Arctic Circle....Arctic Circle
We eventually arrived back in Fairbanks to the RV, which was parked up at Walmart, where we spent another night in the Walmart carpark, listening to "doof doof" music most of the night followed by street sweepers in the carpark at 6am!!  They joys of Walmart carparks!  The next morning I was able to get my hair done before we headed off on our way to Denali NP.