Road to Tuktoyaktuk
/Glen Farr and I drove the Dalton Highway to the Arctic Circle in 2019. Ever since we have talked about driving to the northern most roads in the world. An unfortunate cancer diagnosis for Amy upon our return from Alaska (she’s a survivor and VERY healthy) and a global pandemic interrupted the goals and aspirations of all humanity. Glen was bound and determined to drive the iconic Dempster Highway in June the moment the rivers were passable. I said no on 3 different occasions and his last request proved to be the charm so… off to THE ONLY ROAD IN NORTH AMERICA WHERE YOU CAN DRIVE TO THE ARCTIC OCEAN!
I am posting this blog in order of our journey and it is being published here after our trip. I took a LOT of photos and kept a daily journal of our adventures. If this is interesting to you, read on. If you only want to look at the photos here is a link to the photo gallery
Day 1: Friday June 7, 2023
Ennis - Carstairs Alberta
First day travel log to Tuktoyaktuk (voice recognition as I dictated it to my iPhone spelled it Tic Tac Toe ∙ attack) We left Ennis and drove up to Bozeman to take care of a couple of quick stops, groceries and a few other odds and ends. From Bozeman, we proceeded north through Montana to Sweet Grass and the US Canadian border crossing. At the Sweet Grass crossing we encountered the border agents, I think they are part of the RCMP and they decided that we looked suspicious enough so theydid a thorough search of the van and found no illicit cannabis, gummy bears. If they asked once they asked 6 times if we had any cannabis or gummy bears or weapons - all the same in Canada. After a thorough search, a nice chat about the cost of a van with one of the officers, we proceeded north to our first stop of the trip at Carstairs Alberta.
Mileage:517
Leaving Ennis
US Canada border crossing
Provisions from Paige and Drew for our long drive
Day 2: June 8, 2023
Carstairs Alberta - Fort Nelson, BC
Well day to start it off as pretty uneventful. We were made a quick stop at Tim Horton got some breakfast sandwiches and hit the road. We headed north, and continued just to drive and drive and drive. as we continue north we kept driving into more and more smoke - BIG because of wildfires in British Columbia and Alberta. We crossed over from Alberta into British Columbia where the fires and smoke were getting worse. we made it to the start of the AlCan Highway at Dawsons Creek. We stopped at the visitor center and got some maps and continued on through northern British Columbia. The smoke seemingly got worse. Glen and I are both shocked and surprised by how much industry there is in Northern BC, mainly natural gas and oil production. The smoke really impaired our visibility to the views so our vistas were not particularly interesting - lots of burnout out forests and matchstick trees. We stopped for dinner at a roadside pull out managed to get a shower and a nice meal and continued on to Fort Nelson British Columbia. Tomorrow will be a long day as we have about 900 miles to go to get to Whitehorse The. Yukon. Oh, I forgot to mention we also saw two bears on the drive
Mileage: 790
Day 3: June 9, 2023
Fort Nelson BC - Whitehorse Yukon
Day 3 we’re leaving Fort Nelson British Columbia. Headed to Whitehorse the Yukon. We got a nice early-ish start and we’re on the road again quick a bear sighting just outside of the town we’re on the road. Saw a lady moose just north of Fort Nelson - Fox too
Solo bear
Lady moose
Fox
2 more bears
Mountain goats/Sheep
Caribou
Solo Bear
1 deer
3 bunnies - more bunnies
Road kill porcupine
Caribou
Bison
Solo bear
Solo bear
Solo bear
Solo fox
Solo bear
Total count:
9 black bears
2 fox
20 bison
7 sheep
4 caribou
1 moose
The views along the the river from Todd River to Swift River are amazing. Water is flowing everywhere. The scale of these mountains is just incredible. Really beautiful, really majestic, and really big.
The drive around Muncho lake is really narrow and windy and rockfall really beautiful. The lake is this glacier Fed green blue. That’s like a mirror absolutely beautiful.
Trout river is beautiful + Laird River is huge
Smoke is considerably better as we approach Muncho Lake
Montana Big Sky is very real. Enormous for the lower 48. Then you get to The Yukon and it’s next level.
As we entered The Yukon We got blue sky. Thankfully
It’s a beautiful night in Whitehorse, we managed to get a terrific meal at local restaurant called sheep some thing I’ll look it up later and tell you what it was. Glen had a really nice big salad with some chicken and I had a salmon burger and a beer delicious. We went and got some Canadian cash at the ATM. The first ATM we went to was probably out of cash and rejected our card and then we while we were waiting we saw a fox walking across the parking lot being attacked by what look like a couple of shorebirds as it trotted along long. Quick stop at Walmart for a head mosquito net for Brandt. We fueled up got some DEF clean some bugs. Then we simply had to go to Canadian tire to view all the wonderful items that are available to the Canadians at Canadian tire. Neither one of us saw a tire but we did see Canadians. we checked into the RV park. parked the van and took a quick shower at the bathhouse. Very clean. Very nice. And retired for the evening.
Mileage: 590
