Dalton Highway

By Nick Lawrence- Most rental car agencies in Alaska put a special clause into their rental agreement, with the intention of protecting their vehicles from costly damage.

It reads something like this: "Don't drive on the Dalton Highway, you idiot."

Okay, the term "idiot" doesn't actually appear on any of these clauses, as far as I know. But trying to rent a car to drive the Dalton Highway is almost as difficult as renting one to raft down the Yukon. Rental car agencies just don't allow it. And why should they? Any dirt road can damage a shiny new rental Daewoo, but at five hundred miles in length, the Dalton is special. Tires go flat with the regularity of freshly opened bottles of soda. Flying gravel quickly turns windshields into cratered surfaces resembling the moon. Frost heaves pound unfortunate drivers senseless.

All the guidebooks are basically in agreement on two points. Point number one is: Don't drive the Dalton yourself; fly to Prudhoe Bay or take a shuttle bus. Point number two is: If you are actually stupid enough to drive the Dalton, be prepared for every variety of road disaster imaginable. Since the nearest service station is hundreds of miles away, for example, towing bills quickly reach four figure sums.

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