The Dalton Highway stretches 414 miles (666 km) from Livengood, AK (a ghost town ~70 miles north of Fairbanks) to Prudhoe Bay, AK (an oil town on the Arctic Ocean). The high point is Atigun Pass at 4,739 ft (1,444 m) in the Brooks Range. The Dalton Highway was built from 1974-1977 to parallel the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. According to wikipedia, the Dalton Highway is one of the most isolated roads in the United States, and one of only two major roads in North America that traverse the Arctic Circle (the other being the Dempster Highway spanning 736 km (457 mi) in Canada). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalton_Highway
There are only three towns along the Dalton Highway: Coldfoot (pop. 34) at Mile 175, Wiseman (pop. 12) at Mile 188, and Deadhorse (25 permanent residents, 3,500-5,000 or more seasonal residents depending on oil production) at the end of the highway at Mile 414.
The northern terminus is the intersection with Colleen Lake Road at Deadhorse. The southern terminus is the intersection with the Elliott Highway (Route 2) at Livengood. The one-way FKT may be attempted in either direction; we will track both directions under the single one-way variation.
Historical route notes from Jenny Hoffman:
A small number of people have bicycled the Dalton Highway, e.g. https://pedalpowertouring.com/world-cycle-tour-blog/united-states/alaska/bicycle-touring-the-dalton-highway/, and an even smaller number of people have traversed the Dalton on foot.
Of note, 2 possible male supported FKTs:
- Wataru Iino (2023) - Wataru’s GPX tracks from strava show elapsed time 9d:5hr:38min:06sec (including a zero day in Coldfoot), but he skipped 3 sections totalling 19.9 miles - maybe construction zones that he drove through?
- Devon McLaughlin (2025) - Devon’s GPX tracks from strava show elapsed time 17 days (including 4 zero days hanging out near Fairbanks in the middle), but he didn’t do the last 1.1 miles from the sign to the Livengood junction.
