Author: Craig Vugteveen

We knew going into the trip that we wanted to drive the Dalton Highway to Deadhorse, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. It is the furthest north you can drive to in the continental United States. That has always intrigued me. We set out knowing we couldn’t drive to the Arctic Ocean like we did at Tuk. That was it’s own adventure. We traveled 415 miles up the Dalton Highway following the pipeline to Deadhorse. We took the loop road up around Colleen Lake and reached latitude 70* 13′ 32.0448″ N (70.2255680).

We didn’t realize that we were going to be at the furthest west point you can drive when we went to Manley Hot Springs at the end of the Elliot Highway. We were there to drive Tofty Road in the Jeep as a fun day trip as recommended by a friend. It was a new road from Manley Hot Springs to the Yukon River that was completed in 2016 as a supply link for the town of Tanana, AK across the river and downstream a few miles of the end of the road.

The bartender at the Manly Roadhouse told us this is the furthest west point you can drive. So now we have driven to longitude 151* 56′ 6.1872″ W (-151.9350520). This is as close as I can get to the longitude as Google maps are not up-to-date for this area and I had to approximate where we met the river based on a road proposal document I found on-line that said the road meets the river six miles upriver of Tanana. 

This is very close in longitude to a point in Anchor Point, AK near Homer at 151* 51′ 49.2084″ W (-151.8636690). We visited that site as well and there was signage for being the westernmost point, but we are pretty sure the end of Tofty Road is the new most western point. The points we drove to are able to be reached by contiguous roads to the rest of North America. There are roads in Nome and other more western communities that you must fly into in order to drive around.

We decided to drive down to the Florida Keys and get to the southernmost point in the continental US. This is a well documented site and has a concrete buoy marker proclaiming you’ve made it to the Southernmost Point of the Continental US. This is at latitude 24* 32′ 47.7024″ N (24.5465840). We made it to this milestone just after the new year on our loop around North America.

We would like to have added the easternmost point to our trip and get to the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse in Lupec, Maine and be at the most eastern point in the continental US at 66* 57′ 3.0910″ W (-66.9508586), and complete this odd quest. We will add this to a summertime NE North America trip in the future.

We didn’t start out our trip trying to hit these four points. We were going to drive the Dalton and maybe down to Key West, but when we found out our last minute side trip got us to the westernmost point, we decided to add the southernmost and will eventually get to the easternmost point as well. It’s a strange endeavor, I know, but we travel differently than most. This is a fun adventure that very few people do and engages my curiosity in maps so I guess that’s why we decided to drive to the Further Places.

Every week Shauna shares about what we are doing. This is what I’m feeling about our 180 and answering the “What’s the plan?” question we have been getting a lot lately.

I don’t recall the pivotal moment we decided to do this. I had been thinking that there is more to life than working 50 hours a week to maintain a lifestyle that continues to expand as we earned more. Or trying to distill our desire for travel down to four weeks each year and rushing to see as much as possible in that short time frame.

This trip was planned as a break from that normal life, an experiment in extended travel and living life on the road. We wanted to see what life could be like living in a camper with very few things and taking it day-by-day. We hoped to find clarity on what was important to us and weed out the unnecessary stuff we felt we had to have, mainly because we had the means to own it. As the saying goes, “He who dies with the most toys wins”. Right? Wrong.

We are six months in and this is feeling like life and not vacation. We are seeing new places, meeting new people, and finding breweries to visit but normal life type stuff still has to be tended to. Unlike a vacation, we have to work in cleaning days, laundry, and repairs/maintenance. It’s just on a smaller scale and it feels good. Sometimes we just stay in camp and do our chores or read all day. We have more time to spend doing things like cooking meals, reading books, talking to each other and hiking with Gus. Life is slower paced and I feel less stress. I’m enjoying experiencing the beauty of North America.  

I want us to simplify our lives, own less stuff, and travel more. Shauna and I talk a lot about this. A home base somewhere is still important for us, but it has to be small. It has to be inexpensive, with low utilities and taxes, and minimal upkeep. I love to burn wood and want to be able to heat with a few cord of wood a year and generate power with solar to meet our electrical needs as much as possible. A place that can be shut down on short notice for weeks or months at a time so we can travel. It needs to be in a place where regulations are at a minimum and you can have freedom to do what you want, within reason.

Alaska is such a place. Outside of the population centers, building regulations are less restrictive. In unincorporated areas, you can build what you want and live how you want. There is no need for a permit to carry a gun. You can ride your ATV on road right-of-ways to get places, and there is a lot of beautiful state land that is open for everyone. No permits needed, camp where you want, and explore. I know this sounds like Northern Michigan or the Upper Peninsula, too, except… mountains. I love being in the mountains and the alpine and tundra landscapes.

The Pacific Northwest is another spectacular area. It is more populated and thus more regulated but the beauty of this region is awesome. There are so many areas to explore here that living here would offer endless explorations. This is another area were we want to spend more time.

What we have figured out so far is that we want to simplify our lives by adopting a minimalist mindset. For us that means downsizing what we own, upgrading our camping setup into an overlanding rig, and spending some time living in different areas of the country both in our rig and renting so we can immerse ourselves in an area for a while.

This is something we both feel we need to do at this point in our lives. There is no better time for us to embrace a new lifestyle than right now. We are young and healthy enough to live this way and our families back home are healthy as well so we can be away and not have to worry as much. This is an exciting time for us and we are happy there are those who wish to follow our adventures and maybe understand why we are doing this.

Adventure awaits….