Planning a Journey to Deadhorse

June 10, 2024

The Yearning for More

Last year, my friend Jake and I embarked on a trip from east coast to west coast in the spirit of the Cannonball Run. You can read about our road trip in my 3-part blog series (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3).

During the trip, Jake and I both genuinely believed that the Cannonball Run that we had worked about a year to plan would be the ultimate adventure. After a few months though, we both felt that we wanted something a bit more unconventional and potentially even a step further into questionable decisions. So we started brainstorming...

Breaking Down the Options & Choosing a Path Forward

When we started thinking of what to do next, our criteria was:

• Unique in not following in the footsteps of other journeys before
• Scenic drives
• Safety above all else
• Budget-friendly
• 10-12 days

We developed a few options ranging from completely insane to relatively reasonable. Here were the options that we came up with in increasing order from least crazy to most:

1. Option 1: Key West to Nova Scotia
   
   
   
   
   Summary:
   Key West to Nova Scotia may sound crazy, but this was by far the easiest of the 3 options with the least moving parts and shortest drive. In terms of how challenging this trip is, I'd probably say a 2 out of 10.
   
   Challenges:
   The largest hurdle on this trip is the rental car, which can be driven into Canada but cannot be returned in Canada due to Avis policy (I receive a great corporate discount highly encouraging us to use Avis). This means we would have to fly home from Maine or other Northeastern state at the end of the trip.
   
   
2. Option 2: Key West to Deadhorse, AK
   
   
   
   
   

   Summary: 
   Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay, AK is the northernmost point of the United States and subsequently in the Artic Circle. This drive would offer beautiful scenery of entire regions that we have never seen, offer the longest drive possible north America (not counting Pan-American Highway), and offer a safe option without political or demographic fears. In terms of how challenging this trip would be, I would rate this a 7 out of 10.
   
   Challenges:
   - Similar to the Nova Scotia trip, Avis will only allow us to rent and return in the continental United States, meaning we cannot drive from Atlanta and return in Anchorage (this includes northwestern states like Washington, which are also excluded).
   - 4-wheel drive and car reliability. Roads in British Columbia and Alaska are known to not be in the best shape.
   - Fuel. There are hundreds of miles without fuel stops which requires planning ahead to ensure we know when to stop and thorough understanding of our range at all speeds. Auxiliary fuel tanks or jerry cans will be required to successfully make it.
   - Time. This trip may theoretically be possible to complete in 10 days, but you wouldn't want to do this in 10 days.
   
   
3. Option 3: Nordkapp, Norway to Tarifa, Spain
   
   
   

   Summary:
   If you weren't already questioning our sanity, now you are. I won't even try to breakdown what this drive would potentially show us because there's WAY too much to even list; essentially this trip would go through the entirety of Europe. In terms of how challenging this trip would be, this is pretty easily a 10 out of 10 (frankly, this may be an 11).
   
   Challenges (where to begin):
   - Routing and rental car. The policy for Avis is bizarre in Europe allowing us to only pickup and return a vehicle in a small number of places. One of the few ways this is possible is to pickup in Germany, drive North to Nordkapp, and then South to Tarifa. This routing is entirely circuitous and looks ridiculous on a map, however this is theoretically the only way to do this in a rental.
   - Political issues. There's quite literally war in Europe right (Ukranian Conflict) either forcing us up and down the same way (boring) or doing a loop around northern Europe taking you as close as 15 miles to the "Mother Land." The best idea we had was essentially driving in one day from Finland to Warsaw to see the area, but quickly go through it.
   - Language barriers. Jake can speak Spanish, but outside of that we can only speak English
   - Border crossings. Similar to political issues, some borders are more difficult to cross than others potentially requiring hours to complete. May not sound that bad, but when you are crossing through most countries in Europe you have to account for this...
   - Time. This is a 2-3 week trip. While epic, finding time for this when not in retirement is difficult
   - Cost. This option would hands' down require the most money (estimating $10,000 or more per person).

Based on those 3 options, we felt that the most compelling road trip is Option 2: Key West to Deadhorse. It offers the safety of being on our own continent in two countries known to be safe, while being some of the prettiest driving in the world.

Initial Planning for Deadhorse

First and foremost is planning the actual route to follow and a realistic timeline to do this. There are a number of cities and sites that we would want to see on the way. Here's that list (please note this list is open to suggestions/recommendations and will change based on our continued research):

• Denver, CO
• Glacier National Park (Road to the Sun)
• Banff National Park
• Jasper National Park
• Moraine Lake & Lake Louise
• Fairbanks

Here are a couple of pictures from those listed locations:

Now for the updated route incorporating those stops/areas:

Based on prior discussions that we've had, we have both been to Key West and therefore feel that a ceremonious start there is not necessarily required. This would save us a day and some headache if we nixed it. Our updated route would begin in Atlanta instead, bring our total number of hours down from 108 to about 96 and a total of about 5,500 miles.

Your probably thinking, why not just fly to Denver or even further north to reduce the number of hours/miles even further. That leads into the next major callout of the vehicle. I previously mentioned that a rental car is essentially ruled-out for this trip (turns out that no rental company, not just Avis, wants their car going through Canada to the northern tip of Alaska). This means we need to use a personal vehicle. Here's the criteria for our chosen vehicle and I'll state in advance that it will not be another Mustang:

• Reliable. We're not buying a $500 beater vehicle to do this and we aren't using a Chrysler product. Realistically, we'll be buying a Toyota of some type for a journey like this.
• 4-wheel or all-wheel drive. Many of the roads we're potentially looking at taking are not ideal for anything that's not spinning all 4 wheels. Could it be done with 2-wheel drive? Probably, but we would rather not risk it.
• Ground clearance. Similar to the 4-wheel/all-wheel drive comment above, we need something that won't high-center like a Subaru WRX would. We need clearance over sporty driving dynamics.
• Fuel economy. We either need a vehicle that achieves 400 miles of range or need to sort out a way to carry more fuel. More than likely, we'll sort out a way to carry more fuel as a Toyota product (even the new hybrids) are not known for their fuel economy.
• Space and comfort. 96 hours in a car is a LONG time. The vehicle needs to be as comfortable as it is capable.

Of course there are other things I am not mentioning, such as maintenance upon purchase and potential upgrades for capability/comfort, but these criteria are the baseline for what we're looking for prior to building it out. Fortunately we do have some ideas for how to make all of this come to fruition; here's one example:

Now you're probably wondering why we aren't intending to use my Lexus GX470 or Jake's Lexus GX460, which are both capable of completing this road trip. Shipping would be roughly $3,500 per Alaska Transport's site from Fairbanks, AK to my door in Atlanta:

The compelling part of purchasing another car is to sell it in Fairbanks prior to flying home. Alaska vehicle values are significantly higher than our in the continental United States due to cost of shipping cars there. For example, a $5,000 Toyota Sequoia here in Atlanta is worth $8,000-$10,000 reducing the overall cost of a trip like this.

On the flip-side, $3,500 really isn't bad considering this is door-to-door shipping of my primary vehicle. I'm not ruling out this idea but showing that there are a couple of options. It would be pretty cool to know that I'm daily driving a car that went to Deadhorse....

Conclusion

As of now we have no formal plans to for this journey yet, but we are conceptualizing what something like this would look like. Everything has to start somewhere. If we continue down this path, many more updates are to come. Would be pretty incredible to see a sunset in the Artic Circle (even though the sun doesn't go down during summertime)...