Initially, I wasn’t a big fan of driving to the Arctic ocean – no point in grinding out 1900 km return on gravel roads if there is no scenery, no mountains.
Tombstone park is spectacular.An unusually rugged collection of granite peaks form the core of the park.Canada has a 28000 km trail, impressive until you realize the vast majority is walking on roads shared with 64 ton trucks. If a bolete grows in the forest and no Pole picks it, did it ever exist?An iron deposit is rusting out into this river, accelerated by permafrost melting. These scientists are enjoying their summer studying it.Halfway up the Dempster, Eagle Plains is a gas station / hotel / tire repair shop. Helicopters need fuel, too. The tire shop does a proper repair on our first flat.
To my surprise, the Dempster is awesome. So much of driving Canada is a tunnel lined with trees, scenery like this is unusual.As we drop in the Northwest Territories, ferries become common to deal with the huge Mackenzie River.
The problem with ferries – they only work in the summer. The river becomes an ice road in winter. Road access is totally cut in spring and fall.
This church in Inuvik was built by an impatient priest and his architect with a grade 5 education. No building permit. I would have liked these guys.Their creatively designed foundation is struggling with the frozen ground melting. Parts of the foundation have sunk 30cm.Food prices at the Arctic ocean are insane. We are told that these prices jump another 50% when the road is impassable in spring and fall.This little Japanese Kei truck is for sale. Never buy anything that someone has bolted a snowplow to.Utility pipes are above ground, in this insulated sheet metal “shed”Free food draws us to a talent show, where this lady tells us how her family hunt Beluga whales, which they’ve been doing for thousands of years.As we head north to Tuktoyaktuk, we see skidoos scattered along the road, presumably waiting for their owners to return next winter.The road ends in Tuk. We pay for the campground, but realize at 2am (photo) that this town will never shutdown with this much light. We boondock beside the sewage lagoon.
The people in Tuk and Inuvik are amazingly friendly. They aren’t swamped by tourists yet, in part because of the fearsome reputation of the Dempster.
The small mountains on the tundra are a permafrost phenomena called “Pingos”We get our second flat, conveniently about 100m from the Eagle Plains tire repair shop. Very suspicious…
We enjoyed the scenery of the Dempster, but it lacked the serious isolation that we experienced on other roads in the Yukon. Changing a flat tire is challenging, because everyone is stopping to see if we need help.
Off to Dawson, where the price of gold has reignited the gold rush, 128 years later.
Marta and Chester's Maleficent Adventures 