Inuvik, N.W.T.

 We are now heading south but have stopped at the library in Inuvik to catch up on our posts: 

Tuesday, June 13, 2023 - Tombstone Mountain Terr. Park, YT – 600 km – 8 hours

If yesterday was a “fauna” day with all our sightings then today must have been a “flora” day. Our route was lined with beautiful flowers, mostly lupines. The further north we get the smaller the trees. We were a bit disappointed to not see any wildlife at all, except for a few brave gophers trying to run across the road. Oh, and lots of bear scat but no sign of the guys leaving their sign.

Lupine lined Klondike Highway

Lupines

A more leisurely day today with stops to take pictures and even go for a little hike to view the five fingers on the Yukon River. These “fingers” are comprised of conglomerate rock so they did not erode as quickly as the surrounding banks, thus leaving the fingers behind. The walk took us through part of the Little Fox Lake burn from 1998, which was apparently human caused. It has been turned into interpretive walk with explanatory signs along the way.We also stopped at the remains of a road house built during the gold rush era. It is now a historic monument.

We saw many morel pickers’ vehicles and tent camps along a previous burned area, a fire from last year we think. We plan to stop on the way down and see if the buyer (there was one set up in the middle of the burn) will sell us some.

The last 72 km were finally on the Dempster Hwy. It is gravel but very hard pack, dusty in some places but a vast improvement over all the huge unmarked potholes on the Klondike Hwy. Once we get further up we will see if this is still true.

Welcome to the Dempster Highway

We had been calculating our fuel needs prior to starting up this stretch and were concerned we’d need to drive out of our way into Dawson for gas as we’d been told there was none at the Klondike-Dempster junction, but there was! A very nice surprise.

We stopped at the Tombstone Territorial park interpretive center before getting settled into our campsite. After dinner we went for a walk and had a chat with two fellows who have just ridden their motorcycles up here from Chili, one from New Zealand and one from UK. They were telling us the ferry we need to take tomorrow isn’t running due to a buildup of silt so it can’t dock. They had their bikes taken across one at a time by some local with a little boat for $100 a pop. They were not impressed. We are hopeful, as are all the truck drivers, that this will be rectified by tomorrow.

Wed, June 14, 2023 Nitainlaii Park, NWT – 429 km – 8.5 hours

Today we got to experience the Dempster Highway in all its splendor. The scenery was magnificent from stunted pygmy spruce forests to true heather dominated tundra. Once again, the wildfower displays were spectacular. The road itself varied in quality, some sections were 90 km/hr well graded gravel (mostly in the NWT) and other sections were well potholed, corrugated and down to 40-50 km per hour. Lots of dust. There was some construction as well.

Tombstone Mt. park scenery

Tombstone Mt. park scenery

Fields of cotton grass

Not a day for wild life sightings again. Only saw ptarmigan and we were not even close to Chicken, Alaska.

Weather was mostly scattered cloud with temperatures in the mid-teens. We didn’t realize how lucky we were with our bug free camping yesterday. We met large numbers of mosquitos today, which is unfortunate as the first nation’s campground we are at tonight is very nice. They even have a wonderful modern shower house with flush toilets. No pits here!

After talking to the bikers last night about the ferry problems we were a bit anxious as to if/when/how it would be. We talked to a fellow at the Arctic Circle (he took our picture) who had waited 20 hours to get across while they rebuilt up the access ramps. This little ferry only takes 6 vehicles or one semi at a time. We counted ourselves lucky to only have to wait for less than 30 minutes. And, yes the ramps were/are just piled up dirt that can easily and quickly wash away. `Let’s hope we aren’t stuck on this side in a few days.

Ferry Approach

Dust, dust and more dust. And we thought it was bad yesterday when we got into the camper. It took ages to wash down all the surfaces to get rid of the fine dust. We have a preventative plan though and are hopeful that it will be a bit less tomorrow. Tomorrow TUK!!!

Thurs, June 15, 2023 Tuktoyaktuk, NWT – 350 km – 6 hours

WE MADE IT! After a number of cancelled tries we are in Tuk!

We are truly in the land of the midnight sun. It is as bright and sunny at 11:00 pm as it is at noon. If you think you can wait until it gets dark you will never make it to bed!

After a quiet sunlight lit night at the Ft. McPherson area campsite we proceeded north to the Mackenzie River ferry. Almost a repeat of yesterday’s crossing with a dirt onramp but no cable this time. We were on the first 0830 sailing. Our lunch stop was in Inuvik, the largest town by far since Whitehorse. This concluded the Dempster portion of the trek as the rest of the way to Tuk is via the recently constructed all weather highway? (2017). It still is in good condition although a bit of a comedown from the NWT portion of the Dempster.

Beautiful tundra scenery today – many lakes, some of which were still covered in ice. Along the road near some of the lakes were snowmobiles scattered (parked?) in the tundra, often with cargo sleds. We suppose these are used in winter and just left there during the off season.

Tundra scenery

Many sleds and sledges along the road

And we actually saw some wildlife today. Tundra swans – were they the ones who wintered on Kootenay Lake- one Cariboo who ran in front of us on the road for ages before finally heading off the road and several arctic hares. There were signs to watch for grizzlies but we think they are lying.

Upon arrival in Tuk we stopped at the welcome sign, appropriately situated in front of the Tuk pingo. The town itself we suppose is typical of high arctic towns. Lots of equipment of various descriptions scattered about. Houses all on stilts (permafrost changes any town planning) and a lot of “chaos”. We were greeted by the garbage dump at the entrance to town. Not very sightly for sure. Some of the “chaos” belongs there too.

Note the pingo in the background

Tuk waterfront

We dutifully paid our $63 for our campsite (which has power and pit toilets, but not much else other than being right on the Arctic Ocean). It is +10 and breezy.  We were out of luck having dinner at Grandma’s Kitchen because Grandma had to deal with a family emergency.  So we settled for an Indian cuisine dinner from home in the camper. We did, however, collect a bottle of arctic ocean water and purchased a local soapstone “eskimo” carving (the Inuit shopkeeper’s words, not ours) as souvenirs of the trip. 

Campsite on the Arctic Ocean

Collecting a water sample

Our entertainment for tonight is watching some other campers swimming and shrieking as they swim in the very cold Arctic Ocean.

The local entertainment seems to be riding up and down the road past the camp site on dirt bikes and ATV’s. Wonder when (if?) it will stop for the night. This seems to be the main drag.