We did the 575 mile drive back down the gravel Dempster Highway from Tuktoyaktuk to Dawson City in two long driving days.

After we arrived in Tuktoyaktuk the first thing we did was wade into the Arctic Ocean. The water was warmer than I expected. It was like our backyard pool on cold days.

Next we walked around town and found a playground. I had a lot of fun playing tag and other games with some kids. There were a lot of things to climb on like a rope ladder. There was also a big swing set and a slide.

The next day it was Canada Parks Day. We joined the celebration at the Pingo Landmark. A pingo is a big mound of earth and ice. A pingo is formed when a lake mostly dries up but there is a disk of water left behind that freezes the lake bed and expands, pushing up the earth making a hump in the ground. This is the starting of a pingo. It keeps growing until the unfrozen ground turns to permafrost and the pingo has a core of pure ice.

As part of the Parks Day celebration we got to take a boat across an estuary of the Arctic Ocean to see Ibyuk, Canada’s tallest pingo and the second tallest pingo in the world. Wow!

We decided to spend two nights in a hotel in Inuvik for many reasons: we wanted to financially support the community; we really wanted to have a bit more space; we really really needed showers; and we really really really wanted a break from the hordes of mosquitoes at north country campgrounds.

We left our comfy and spacious accommodations a few times to wander about town and eat at one of the two local restaurants. One of the highlights of our walking tour was visiting the community garden, which is housed in the old hockey arena. All kinds of vegetables are grown and the northernmost apple tree bears fruit.

We also enjoyed chatting with the locals and learning more about life up north, where the sun shines 24 hours each day for 56 straight days in the summer. In the winter they experience 30 days of complete darkness before celebrating the return of the sun in January. Pa adapted fairly well to the endless daylight; tween and I stayed awake until ridiculous hours. After a sleepless night we learned that the previous night there had been a community baseball game that began at midnight. Had we known, we would have loved to have been there!

Next up is the 90 mile drive to Tuktoyaktuk, where the road ends and we get to the Arctic Ocean!

After a little sleep at Rock River Campground we got up, fed the mosquitos, had a hurried breakfast, and got going again.

After an hour or two we got to the wildfire that had closed the Dempster Highway. The wind was blowing the smoke away from the road, which was a good thing because in some places the fire was only a few hundred feet from the road.

After we passed the fire three work trucks sped past us. Forty five minutes or so later we arrived at the Peel River ferry and were amused to see all three cooling their heels on the waiting ferry. We drove straight into the last spot and the ferry took off as soon as we had come to a complete stop. Nice.

A bit past the Peel River ferry we got to tiny Fort McPherson, the first community with services since leaving Dawson City 367 miles earlier. We stopped at one of the two gas stations to fill our big tank at the price of CAD 2.11/liter, which works out to USD 6.04/gal.

A bit past Fort McPherson we got the the Mackenzie River ferry. I learned from one of our tourist guidebooks that the Mackenzie River, which I don’t think I’d ever heard of before now, is the third largest (in flow) river in the Americas, after the Amazon and the Mississippi.

After that last ferry we had a few hours of easy driving to Inuvik through the tundra on probably the best gravel road we’ve ever driven on. It was a smoother ride than a lot of roads in Tucson and it was easy to cruise along at 55 mph.

Having had enough of sleepless nights, mosquitos, and dust, the first thing we did when we got to Inuvik was check into the Capital Suites Hotel and take our first showers in nine days.

We decided to wait until the Dempster reopened before leaving Tombstone Territorial Park, so we settled down to wait. I took a nap in the afternoon and when I woke up around 5pm I decided to check the Government of Northwest Territories Dept. of Infrastructure Twitter account to see if there was any news:

Even though it was late in the day, it never gets dark this time of year up here so we decided to start driving up the Dempster and stop when we got tired.

Around 10pm we got to the Eagle Plains roadhouse (a combo hotel, restaurant, bar, gas station, mechanic, and campground), the only services in the 367 mile stretch between Dawson City and Fort McPherson. Everything but the bar was closed. The bartender said the Dempster was still open so we kept going.

We made a quick stop at the Arctic Circle around 11pm to take some pics but didn’t linger because the mosquitos were pretty bad. The Arctic Circle is the lowest latitude where the sun doesn’t set on the Summer Solstice (June 21)

Around 1am it was still light, but we decided we’d had enough and stopped at Rock River Territorial Campground. The mosquitos were much worse than at the Arctic Circle. The second any of us stepped outside swarms of mosquitos started feeding on us. Every time we opened the door for a second or two dozens of mosquitos got into the rig and we all had to spend a few minutes killing mosquitos. After we finished the last mosquito massacre we did our best to get a good night’s sleep despite the sun still being up.