Wildlife galore on the tundra

The second day got me up to Prudhoe Bay and along the way I got to see some of the iconic Alaska wildlife...

The first caribou of the day.

This small herd of musk ox were right off the road and they had several babies. These were the animals I hoped to see most so how lucky am I!

Santa's Reindeer heading up to meet him at the North Pole.

And this was Charlie, a well known trouble maker in Deadhorse. I was talking with one of the cooks who told me Charllie surprised him while on a smoke break the night before and he had to duck back into the building asap.

He was playful and ornery with the local geese population. You could tell was just having fun;-)

Big Blue was looking a lot more like Big Gray after 500 miles of this northern "highway"...

Coming down off Antiguan Pass in the Brooks Range it was still winter.

Waiting for the shuttle. They don't allow any public access through the oil fields.

The Arctic was still frozen all the way to the North Pole 1200 miles (due north of course;-)), that's a pretty crazy realization when you're standing there. They said this was one of the latest thaws they had ever seen.

So no dip unfortunately, just got to stand in a puddle of melted arctic ice.

Trumpeter Swan.

White fronted geese were pretty prolific.

Due to oversize tires I have to add about 10% to mileage making my total mileage to the Arctic Ocean 4,118 miles. Fortunately I also get to add 10% to my mpg, 10.2...woo hoo!