For this part of the trip we started on a Sunday morning in Fairbanks, picking up the Ford Escape, and driving to Coldfoot (a truck stop) for the first night, crossing the Arctic Circle along the way. That night we were able to view Northern Lights at around 1:30 -to 2:15 AM. The next morning, we drove from there to Deadhorse, which is as far as you can drive as security prevents you from actually driving into the Prudhoe Bay oil facilities. However, they do offer a 3 hour shuttle that takes you through the oil facilities providing lots of info, and going all the way to where you can put your feet in the Arctic Ocean (we did). After that, we drove back to Coldfoot for another night, and along the way got some great photos of Musk Ox and Bull Caribou. On the last day we drove back to Fairbanks. That last day was the worst on the Dalton (aka Icefield) Highway as it had rained overnight and on the CB that came as part of the provided equipment in the Escape, even truckers were reporting that the road was really "squirrely" that day. I had to agree with them as it was really muddy and slick!

BTW: I rented a 500 F4 lens from www.lensrental.com for this portion of the trip and was glad I did!