Dempster Highway - Yukon Territory

One of the ultimate driving destinations in North America is the Dempster Highway in Canada. Just getting to the start of the highway is a serious road trip. When you leave the paved road in a sparsely populated region, you will soon think you left New York City. The Dempster cuts through some of the most remote and wild county on earth for 417 miles, crossing two mountain ranges, the Ogilvie and Richardson Mountains. When the average person drives it, they often take more pictures of their car & the road than the scenery, because you are so dependent and trusting of your vehicle during the drive. Luckily, there are enough people driving the route that if you did break down, help would soon be on the way, although fixing the problem could take a long while. The Dempster Highway is Canada�s only all-weather road to cross the Arctic Circle. The route starts from the Klondike Highway near Dawson City. The highway sits on top of a gravel berm to insulate the permafrost in the soil underneath. The thickness of the gravel pad ranges from around 4 feet to 11 feet, keeping the road from singing into the ground. Most visitors travel a day�s drive to the Arctic Circle while others go on to the end of the road at Inuvik. In winter, an ice road continues even further to Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories. Our goal when we visited was to just reach the Arctic Circle at 250 miles. We had bigger plans in Alaska so a two day detour was about all we gave it. We drove one day (and one tank of gas) to the Arctic Circle and camped in the nearby services 20 miles back at Eagle Plains. We filled the gas tank the next day and drove back. Someday I�ll return to do some hiking and drive the distance to Inuvik for the Great Northern Arts Festival.

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