Spectacular scenery along Alaska's remote Dalton Highway

DALTON HIGHWAY, Alaska - Although it was early June, snowflakes were drifting down the unforgiving slopes of the slate-gray canyon. The only way up the Chandalar Shelf was a muddy, washboardlike gravel road with sheer drop-offs on our right. Our driver checked the CB radio. No one was heading down the hill, so at 15 m.p.h., our van crept up the narrow S-curve into a cloud.