Where's the farthest north you can drive? The rule: the road has to be open all year and connected to the main road network, so no ferries, no seasonal ice roads and no island-only roads like Svalbard's.
The hunt:
• Tuktoyaktuk, Canada: 69.4°N, on the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, open since November 2017.
• Deadhorse, Alaska: 70.2°N, at the end of the Dalton Highway. (The public road stops there; the Arctic Ocean shore is inside the oil field.)
• Utqiagvik, Alaska: 71.3°N. Farther north, but no road goes there; you fly in. Out.
• The road to Yuryung-Khaya in Russia's Anabar district: 72.8°N, but it's a winter road, open only in the cold months. Out.
• North Cape, Norway: 71.17°N, at the end of the E69, through the North Cape Tunnel, which dips 212 m below the sea. The winner.
So Utqiagvik, a town you can't drive to, sits about 13 km farther north than the winner. (Some winter days the last stretch to North Cape runs as an escorted convoy, but the road stays open all year.)
The teal line on the map is 71°N.
Have you driven any of these roads?
Sources:
• Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, opened 15 November 2017: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuvik%E2%80%93Tuktoyaktuk_Highway
• Dalton Highway ends at Deadhorse, no public road to the Arctic Ocean: US Bureau of Land Management Dalton Highway guide, https://www.blm.gov/visit/dalton-highway ; Deadhorse, 70°12′N: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadhorse,_Alaska
• Utqiagvik, 71°17′N, no road connection: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utqiagvik,_Alaska
• Yuryung-Khaya, 72°49′N, winter road only: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuryung-Khaya ; Dangerous Roads, https://www.dangerousroads.org
• North Cape (Nordkapp), 71°10′N, end of the E69: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Cape_(Norway)
• North Cape Tunnel, 6.9 km, 212 m below sea level, opened 1999: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Cape_Tunnel
• Winter convoy driving to North Cape: Statens vegvesen (Norwegian Public Roads Administration), https://www.vegvesen.no
• Roads: © OpenStreetMap contributors, routing by OSRM. Coastlines and borders: Natural Earth, https://www.naturalearthdata.com
#shorts #geography #maps #arctic #roadtrip #mercatorture
The hunt:
• Tuktoyaktuk, Canada: 69.4°N, on the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, open since November 2017.
• Deadhorse, Alaska: 70.2°N, at the end of the Dalton Highway. (The public road stops there; the Arctic Ocean shore is inside the oil field.)
• Utqiagvik, Alaska: 71.3°N. Farther north, but no road goes there; you fly in. Out.
• The road to Yuryung-Khaya in Russia's Anabar district: 72.8°N, but it's a winter road, open only in the cold months. Out.
• North Cape, Norway: 71.17°N, at the end of the E69, through the North Cape Tunnel, which dips 212 m below the sea. The winner.
So Utqiagvik, a town you can't drive to, sits about 13 km farther north than the winner. (Some winter days the last stretch to North Cape runs as an escorted convoy, but the road stays open all year.)
The teal line on the map is 71°N.
Have you driven any of these roads?
Sources:
• Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, opened 15 November 2017: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuvik%E2%80%93Tuktoyaktuk_Highway
• Dalton Highway ends at Deadhorse, no public road to the Arctic Ocean: US Bureau of Land Management Dalton Highway guide, https://www.blm.gov/visit/dalton-highway ; Deadhorse, 70°12′N: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadhorse,_Alaska
• Utqiagvik, 71°17′N, no road connection: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utqiagvik,_Alaska
• Yuryung-Khaya, 72°49′N, winter road only: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuryung-Khaya ; Dangerous Roads, https://www.dangerousroads.org
• North Cape (Nordkapp), 71°10′N, end of the E69: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Cape_(Norway)
• North Cape Tunnel, 6.9 km, 212 m below sea level, opened 1999: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Cape_Tunnel
• Winter convoy driving to North Cape: Statens vegvesen (Norwegian Public Roads Administration), https://www.vegvesen.no
• Roads: © OpenStreetMap contributors, routing by OSRM. Coastlines and borders: Natural Earth, https://www.naturalearthdata.com
#shorts #geography #maps #arctic #roadtrip #mercatorture
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