Fairbanks to Deadhorse return - Alaska and Points North: Tips and Tales from the Road - page 166

Prudhoe Bay
Oil Fields Tour
It was lame and hardly worth $38 but once you've driven all the way to the end of the road
in North America, you can't NOT actually dip your toes in the Arctic Ocean and this is the
only way to do that.
Tours are operated by the Arctic Caribou Inn .
[phone]
Fax: [phone]
You will need to contact them, providing your name, country of origin and identification
numbers like driver'slicense orpassport byphoneorfax.They doabackground check. That
clears you to view the industry propaganda film and be locked in a bus for the drive to the
ocean.
Tobefair,someofthefilmwasinterestingandexplainsexactlyhowoildrillingisconducted
in the north. What you see happening at Prudhoe Bay is but a drop in the oil fields bucket.
The tour guide on the bus had 24 years on the North Slope shifts so he provided some great
colour commentary on the local wildlife, human and otherwise.
For one thing, there is absolutely NO alcohol. The work is too dangerous and the hours too
long. Possession equals immediate dismissal. Most staff work two solid weeks of 12-hour
shifts before they are rotated home by air. So there is very little time to do anything but work
and sleep. Most of the companies have their own work/sleep/leisure/food structures, a series
of pre-fab units that are bolted together and stacked one on top of the other.