Jun 20, 2012 - Leaving The Dempster

6-20 Leaving The Dempster Highway 2 PM 78 Degrees and Sunny 5 PM 60 Degrees and Drizzling 7 PM Sunny and 79 Degrees! Traveled From Engineer Creek Campground Back to Dawson City 143 Miles, 4 ½ Hours Stayed at the Bonanza Gold Campground We came off the Dempster Highway today at 6:30 PM, very tired, VERY dirty, including 4 mud covered vehicles, very shaken, and VERY thankful that we are all four in one piece, safe with no major disasters. We watched an extremely frightening near catastrophic disaster on the Dempster today, just a few miles...

Jun 19, 2012 - Anniversary At The Arctic Circle

Anniversary At The Arctic Circle 11 AM Sunny and 63 Degrees 7 PM Sunny and 72 Degrees Traveled Up the Dempster Highway From Engineer Campground To The Arctic Circle,and Back, 266 Miles, 13 1/2 Hours Stayed Again at Engineer Creek Campground Last year we celebrated our 40th anniversary in Mexico in May…this year we celebrated on the actual day by going to the Arctic Circle! We may have trouble coming up with something for next year! After evaluating the rough and rugged road yesterday, we made the decision to leave the fifth wheel and motor...

Jun 9, 2012 - Eagle Plains,YT Day 2

Had a slow morning after yesterday's drive. Loaded up bikes and drove to the Arctic Circle. Got the bikes out and rode a VERY short way! It was cloudy, cold, spitting rain and WINDY. At least I did it!! The view was awesome! Along the way there were meadows of white flowers, which I learned are called cotton grass. It looked like snow covering the meadow. I wish I could capture the vastness and beauty of the area in a picture. I don't have words to describe it. Met a guy in the campground from Colorado Springs. Here's up here by himself on...

Jun 8, 2012 - Eagle Plains

Eagle Plains Hotel and RV Park. It was a long day (7 1/2hrs) on the Dempster Highway (229 miles of dirt road). It is a loooong road. This was one of the best dirt roads we’ve driven on, though it was pretty rough in spots. Not many orange flags – you just had to anticipate the bumps. The Dempster was built in the 1960’s – mostly during the winter. It was built on top of the permafrost. Only trees were cut down. Gravel was placed on top of the shrubs in a thick layer to insulate the permafrost to keep it from melting. Calcium chloride is...

Jun 17, 2011 - The Dempster Highway to the Arctic Circle

We had wanted an early start for this 280 mile trip to the Arctic Circle since we planned to return in the same day. We were a little late - 8 am. Because we planned to be gone for such a long period, we took Zac, our dog. The Dempster Highway is the only "highway" in Canada that crosses the Arctic Circle. It continues north to the Eskimo village of Inuvik on the Mackenzie Bay of the Beaufort Sea. The highway is considered to be a beautiful drive regarding scenery going through the Tombstone Territorial Park and the Ogilvie Mountains. It...

Jun 10, 2011 - There and Back Again on the Dempster Highway

This is the second part of our journey along the Dempster. This will be more about the road, services available, and our experience driving rather than the scenery. On our trip to Alaska in 2004, we had planned to drive the Dempster. When we got to Whitehorse, like this time, ice was still in the rivers and the ferries were not running. Instead of waiting like we did this time, we decided to go on with our trip and do the Dempster on our way out in August. That plan didn’t work out because wildfires on the Top of the World Highway had our...

Jul 11, 2009 - Heading to the Arctic

We left the coach in a campground in Dawson City and in the Jeep we headed out to drive to Inuvik, Northwest Territories along the Dempster Highway. The Dempster Highway stretches 460 miles through the northern wilderness of Yukon and the Northwest Territories. The highway is gravel (hence leaving the coach in Dawson) and winds over two mountain ranges, crosses the continental divide three times, passes through three natural regions and traverses the Arctic Circle to the Mackenzie Delta. The highway was completed in 1978. Construction...

Jul 6, 2008 - Day 40 – Between here and there

Between here and there We have elected to drive the “Dempster Highway” from Dawson City, YT to Inuvik, Northwest Territories. The Dempster is a gravel road with 5 miles of seal-coated and the last 6 miles are paved. The rest of the 481 miles are built on top of the permafrost with a clay surface that becomes like ice when wet. It is strongly recommended that travelers carry 2 spare tires for this road. When we left Dawson City, we were told that the road from km 237 was under construction. So after a nice lunch at the Tombstone Territorial...

Jul 6, 2008 - Dempster Highway headin North

We are right now parked in the most incredible spot we have ever camped. We are about 140 miles up the Dempster Hwy on our way to Inuvik, Northwest Territories. We finished climbing “7 mile hill” and pulled off the road and a small road that went up further. It is an old pit with a level area and we have a 270 degree view of the most unbelievable scenery. A small mountain range to the south looming over a huge wide valley with a large river meandering through it and to the north the rounded knobs of a worn down mountain range roll on...

Jun 29, 2008 - Inuvik to Eagle Plains

No pictures today, as we are retracing our route back to Dawson City from Inuvik, leaving the Arctic circle again. However the scenery is still as breath-taking as when we drove up to Inuvik. - Two significant events today. It is Margret & Joes Anniversery! How time flys. And to think there were people who said it wouldn't last! - The second significant event was very surprising. I was walking out of the hotel loading the truck, when this fellow stops me and says "is that a signals hatbadge on your cap?" of course the answer was yes, he...

Jul 25, 2007 - Eagle Plains again

Departure day.......Cold and rainy....again. We taped up the back door of the camper a little more thoroughly than we did on the way up in hope of reducing dust infiltration. Driving the Dempster is tantamount to running the postman's gamut, with the addition of DUST. Turns out we needed more tape! Anyway that would be tomorrow. Took a few shots on the way out of town just to show you all that it is a pretty typical small town. There are some exceptions of course, such as the Igloo Church....no, not real ice! There is a civic central...

Jul 22, 2007 - Eagle Plains

Left about 8:30 for the Dempster Highway. Get ready for dust! Better that than mud though. We've been told that the road is kind of clay-like on the NWT side and people end up in the ditch because it's so slippery, not to mention the mess it makes of the vehicle. Forecast is for no rain for 5 days. We'll be in and out. No big game, but lots of small stuff: fox, rabbit, pikas, ptarmigans, migratory ducks like horned grebes with chicks, more northern shovellers. Saw a falcon giving a raven the gyr's. The scenery was out of this world, and...