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Our Western Canada road trip: the Dempster Highway

The Dempster Highway is legendary in Canada. It’s a 735km dirt road to Inuvik in the Western Arctic, the furthest you can drive north in Canada.

The drive takes you over the Arctic Circle, to a land where the sun doesn’t set for weeks in midsummer, and then doesn’t rise at all in midwinter.

It was Jean Robert’s dream to drive it, and I think we did his dream justice, spending 11 days in total on the Dempster. We raced to the Arctic Circle in time for the summer solstice on 21

We raced to the Arctic Circle in time for the summer solstice on 21st June (also my 25th birthday) and then spent three days in Inuvik before heading back south. Strangely enough, it was actually the drive back I enjoyed the most.

Dempster Highway view

The Dempster Highway

Built in the late seventies, the Dempster is feared as a tough road to travel. It follows the old dog sledding routes used by the North-West Mounted Police around the turn of the century (learned from the local First Nation communities) and is built on permafrost and tundra.

Drivers are advised to have two spare tires, an extra supply of gas and a well-maintained vehicle for the journey. We’re no strangers to rough roads and remote locales. Our home of the last few years, Vancouver Island, is full of logging roads of varying condition, so the well-maintained track of the Dempster was actually a nice surprise.

Tombstone Territorial Park, famous for rugged hills and jagged peaks, is only an hour or so in, and we were spotting white capped mountains long before we got there.

We arrived at the Interpretive Centre to find Labrador tea brewing on the woodstove and bannock being cooked and served with local wild rhubarb jam. I can only guess they had heard I was coming.

Driving to the Arctic Circle

The rest of Tombstone would have to wait until we came back; it was the 19th June and we were on a mission to get to the Arctic Circle within the following 24 hours. Luckily, we had the sun on our side; the further north we drove, the longer we would have light.

views of dempster highway yukon
Astro Van at Arctic Circle dirty

We stopped driving at around 11pm, but not before spotting mountain goats and encountering a porcupine and grizzly bear. Well, not together, that would be a bit peculiar. The grizzly was very large and very fast. I was glad to be in the van.

More local wildlife made an appearance later when we did need to leave the van. A swarm of mosquitoes rudely invited themselves to dinner. We had been warned about this and had mosquito nets ready but jeez, I didn’t think they’d even dive in the food.

Jean Robert was even bothered, and he’s from New Brunswick. We retreated to the van and fell asleep under our makeshift bed-net, to the anything-but-calming-hum of the bugs.

The mosquitoes were nowhere to be seen when we crossed the Arctic Circle the next day, probably due to the insanely high winds that made even walking difficult.

There aren’t really any trees in this area to act as a windbreak; there’s not really much of anything, besides rolling hills and the Dempster heading off into the distance. Whatever it is, it’s remarkedly beautiful, made even more so by the lack of people to share it with.

Wood stove pizza at the Arctic Circle

The clouds came in on the evening of the 20th, and didn’t leave until the 22nd. It was the first rainy day we’d had in weeks, quite a bit of bad luck for the summer solstice we had rushed to experience above the Arctic Circle.

No matter, we spent much of the day hiding from the mosquitoes (rain seems to perk them up), either in the van or the campground’s bug-proof shelter.

The latter did, however, have a most excellent wood stove, perfect for birthday/solstice pizza. What we didn’t realise was that we would soon be wishing for more days just like the 21st.

Dempster Highway ferry Yukon
Welcome to Inuvik

I’ve written more about the downsides of the Midnight Sun elsewhere, but I’ll leave you with this for now; 29 degrees, 24 hours a day, plus heat resistant bugs. It was a bit unexpected for the Western Arctic.

A few setbacks

Something else unexpected was the flat tire we received just north of Fort McPherson, one of the few settlements on the Dempster. This was the same day the van started to rev up and down and intermittently stalling when driving below 50km/h. Losing a tire and the van making funny noises on the same day? Not good.

Losing a tire and the van making funny noises on the same day on the Dempster Highway, with mechanical services a long, long way away? Really not good. To keep going or go back? Well, it was 50km less to keep going…. We did have a spare tire, but it was also a bit flat.

Problem solved with the help of some passing Albertans, we drove again (over 50km/h) until midnight, arriving in Inuvik early the next morning. It is one of the most interesting places I have ever been – blog post coming soon.

Friendly locals

The Mackenzie River runs alongside Inuvik, and we intended to start a 4-7 day paddle here to Tuktoyaktuk, the town further north next to the Arctic Ocean.

Needless to say, our plans changed when we discovered it would cost $1000 to ship ourselves and the canoe back to Inuvik afterwards, and we ended up enjoying this area for reasons we didn’t anticipate.

yukon hiking the dempster highway
Dempster highway view

The locals are exceptionally friendly for one thing, not just in Inuvik, but along the whole Dempster Highway. Turns out, they don’t particularly like the heat and bugs either, preferring the other seasons for the prolific hunting, fishing and sporting activities on offer (SO MANY skidoos! And dog harnesses in the supermarket!)

Driving south on the Dempster Highway

Leaving Inuvik, we were actually excited to get below the Arctic Circle again to have some form of night. A bit of a surprise after all that rushing to get so far north!

Driving south again, we took our time, enjoying the wilderness we had travelled this far to see. There were so many places to park off the road, and we hiked on the tundra and up the piles of slate to get a better view of the endless rolling hills mountains in the distance.

There were wild flowers too, as well as Labrador plants to make our own local tea with. Also local was Jean Robert’s smoked whitefish from a Gwich’in smokehouse camp by the river, and the bannock an Elder kindly offered us at the information centre when we told him we hadn’t been able to find any to buy.

There were wild flowers too, as well as Labrador plants to make our own local tea with. Also local was Jean Robert’s smoked whitefish from a Gwich’in smokehouse camp by the river, and the bannock an Elder kindly offered us at the information centre when we told him we hadn’t been able to find any to buy.

Smoked whitefish
Smoked whitefish

Fishing on the Dempster

Jean Robert caught a big Dolly Varden on our last Dempster day. You may notice he looks pretty wet. He jumped into the river after I accidentally pushed our spare tire out of the car (keeping it close for convenience) and it rolled off the nearby bluff, straight into the river.

He had to swim in neck-deep water to reach it. Looking back, it was quite hilarious. I did bring him dry clothes to change into, but he was determined to catch this big fish that he had spotted. Sure enough, he got it about ten minutes later.

You also may notice that JR looks dirty too. The fish jumped in the mud and splashed him. (Sorry fish).

Catching Dolly Varden Dempster Highway

The last, and best, day

The best night on the road was the last. We parked overlooking an icy river and what looked like a volcano and cooked the grayling we had caught earlier on the Blackstone River. At 1am, everything burned red from the sun; finally, a sunset!

A beautiful end to an incredible ten days in the Arctic…..we ended up staying most of the next day too. We will be back again soon; Tombstone Territorial Park is still waiting (photo above).

Map of the Dempster Highway

Weeks 10 and 11: The Dempster Highway. 1520km return

$350 including food and paid camping in Inuvik plus one new tire at $200. Gas is VERY expensive in this area, being 1.89 in Inuvik

The map shows Dawson City to Inuvik (still having connection problems for my own custom map) but we did head to Dawson after, so it works!

Dempster highway camping

Camping on the Dempster Highway, photos clockwise from top left: Just before Eagle Plains (half way), Rock River Government campground (paid), NWT rest stop near Inuvik, Happy Valley Campground in Inuvik (paid), South of NWT border, south of Arctic Circle, Engineer Creek (very close to the Government campground), just outside of Tombstone Park boundary. And a ground squirrel called George in the middle, just because.

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Elizabeth

Tuesday 25th of April 2017

Hi guys, great post :) I've been using your website for a couple of years now since I started thinking about coming to Canada on an IEC. Now with your resources, I'm here and have just bought my first vehicle! We have a 2001 Chevvy Venture minivan that we are currently converting into a camper. I'm researching the possibility of a road trip up to Tuktoyaktuk from Dawson Creek next summer, as they are extending the Dempster Highway. I just wanna ask - How long did you spend on Dempster in total, and in regards to camping did you just park up anywhere or did you pay for spots at campsites?

Thanks a bunch! Liz

Gemma

Thursday 27th of April 2017

Thanks for the super kind words Elizabeth! So glad to hear that you have found the site helpful. Hope you're enjoying your time on the IEC so far.

We spent twelve days on the Dempster on our first visit - the details can be found here https://offtracktravel.ca/our-western-canada-road-trip-weeks-10-and-11/

A month later we returned to spend another four days on the Dempster, primarily to hike in Tombstone Territorial Park. Our first visit was in mid June to early July and it was still too snowy in Tombstone to hike.

Over those 14 nights, we spent a total of 6 nights in paid campsites. 3 nights of these were in Inuvik. The other three nights were in Yukon Territorial camping grounds, one by Dempster and the other at Rock River. We found the latter to be very, very buggy. In fact, most of the official campsites on the Dempster located in very bug-friendly areas and in wind-less areas. We much preferred parking somewhere off the main road (there are sensible places to pull off that are not on tundra) and camping there. We were careful to follow 'leave no trace' practices as the environment is fairly delicate here. At the bottom of the post I linked above, you can see some photos of the places we camped.

How We Travelled Canada for $45 a day | Off Track Travel

Friday 13th of February 2015

[…] camping and stayed at unofficial campsites. My favourites included several spots along the Dempster Highway and at the top of Dawson City’s Midnight Dome. The other part of the time we were happy to pay […]

Hiking on and off the trail in Tombstone Territorial Park (Yukon, Canada) | Off Track Travel

Sunday 7th of December 2014

[…] had intended to go hiking in Tombstone on the way back from Inuvik, but there was still a fair amount of snow at the higher elevations despite it being late June. We […]

Joe

Saturday 26th of July 2014

Stunning photos guys, looks and sounds like unforgettable journey up there. I really hope to make it up that way some day, I have plans for Tombstone TP so I look forward to hearing about your trip there. Did you figure out what was wrong with the van in the end? Also how was the fuel situation, did you make good use of the gas can?

Joe

Gemma

Sunday 27th of July 2014

Hey Joe! We're on our way to Tombstone right now, hoping to meet up with Richard and Karina (fingers crossed) in a few days maybe! No idea what was wrong with the van; we topped up the transmission fluid and the revving seemed to stop, although it's still not running 100%. We didn't need extra gas on the Dempster in the end - there's a gas station half way (Eagle Plains) and then another one between there and Inuvik at Fort McPherson (all close at around 8/9pm, so something to keep in mind). It was nice to have some of our own gas for the way back though, since it was $1.89 in Inuvik! Ouch. We both think you'd really like the Dempster Highway.

Gemma

Sue

Friday 25th of July 2014

Your 25th birthday I think!

Sounds like fun!

xxx

Gemma

Friday 25th of July 2014

Haha, I'm not sure how that happened! Already trying to make myself younger!!