Travels West: The Dempster Highway to Inuvik

The Dempster is an unpaved gravel road, with rough patches and warnings that it is slippery when wet and to watch out for potholes and washboard. The total length is 737 km (465 km through Yukon Territory and 270 km in the North West Territories). You are also warned to take along 2 spare tires, food and water as a precaution. We left the trailer in Dawson City and drove the truck. I had packed gloves, warm socks and jackets etc, thinking that we might need them for this part of the trip which took us above the Arctic Circle (66 degrees 33 minutes north). Instead the temperature got warmer as we went north reaching 31 degrees C by the time we reached Inuvik (June 20th).

One is impressed by the sheer vastness of the countryside you drive through varying from unglaciated peaks and valleys of the Tombstone Mountains, rocky tors of Engineer Creek, the Ogilvie/Peel river valley, high plains of tundra (Eagle Plain), glaciated & snow covered peaks of the Richardson Mountains, and the Mackenzie Delta, which is back to boreal forest/permafrost. Despite the twists and turns you can see when a vehicle is coming in the other direction from the approaching cloud of dust (the black truck was a beige colour once we reached our destination). Some photos below give a flavour of what we saw. Our one and only large wildlife sighting was a young caribou crossing the road. Apparently someone else had come across a grizzly bear as we found out at the NWT Visitor's Centre in Dawson City on our return.

Tombstone Mountains (ice on river)

Engineer Creek

Windy Pass - highest point on the Dempster

Crossing the Arctic Circle

Richardson Mountains

Eagle Plains (tundra & endless road)

More of Eagle Plains

Ferry across the Mackenzie River

Mackenzie Delta near Inuvik

Caribou crossing the road

Note in the above picture the stunted black spruce tees which is a typical sign of permafrost. (The black line in the picture is the truck aerial).

We spent the night in a hotel in Inuvik which has a population of about 3,500, a new hospital and several sites of interest. June 21, the longest day of the year, was a statutory holiday in the North West Territories, Aboriginal Day, so most stores etc were closed but there were events all day. Most of the buildings are built on piles, as thawing and freezing of the permafrost underneath the buildings causes shifting of walls and other damage. Utilities such as water and sewer are also above ground in a system of conduits called "utilidors". The staff in the Visitor's Centre were very chatty, as were others that we spoke to during the day. As part of Aboriginal Day, there was a sourdough pancake breakfast at Ingamo Hall, which we were encouraged to attend. We were also informed that rain was forecast, and the Dempster would be worse to drive on, which precipitated a shorter visit to Inuvik than we had originally planned on. Below are photos of some of the sites in Inuvik.