Our Northern Adventure – Part 4: The Dempster Highway
June 2026:
The Dempster Highway – a road with its own Facebook group! This unpaved (gravel) road leads from just outside Dawson City to the Arctic Ocean at Tuktoyaktuk (Tuk) over a distance of 880 km (547 miles) with precious little in between – three very small towns and two (seasonal) ferry crossings. For comparison, Lands End to John O’ Groats is 970km. It has a ‘right of passage’ status and was the final stretch of our version of the PanAm highway – Antarctic to Arctic. A journey that has taken us 30 months.
We filled Big Bertha’s diesel tanks in Dawson City and our 600 litre capacity was enough to get us to Tuk and back. BB has a very healthy theoretical range of 2,655km at 12.5mpg! The availability and price of fuel on the Dempster means this was very advantageous.
KM0 – The Start of the Dempster Highway
We stopped at the head of the highway for the obligatory photos of the road signs and with that done, we set off, with some trepidation, towards Tuk. The Dempster Highway has a reputation of being a vehicle buster, and, with it being so remote, getting out of vehicle trouble can be serious in terms of time and money.
KM72 – Tombstone Interpretive Centre
We stopped here for a copy of a road book detailing what we could see along the highway and other useful information. Unfortunately the Goldensides hiking trail nearby was closed due to bear activity. Hopefully it would be open on our return journey (spoiler alert – it was). The weather was a little gloomy and so we camped our first night just beyond the interpretive centre at KM75. The next day we pushed on and camped at KM403 (nearly half way).
KM405 – The Arctic Circle
The next morning we crossed into the Arctic Circle (a major circle of latitude at approximately 66° 33′ N. It marks the southern limit of the midnight sun in summer and the polar night in winter. It passes through eight countries: Canada, the United States (Alaska), Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Greenland. Thank you Wikipedia).
K 539 – Peel River Ferry
The Dempster Highway crosses two rivers on its way north: the Peel River and the Mackenzie River. Vehicle ferries run from early June until early November. Outside that, the northern communities are cut off until the rivers freeze over and traffic can then drive across. On reaching the Peel River, we were told that it had risen in the past 24 hours and the dirt loading ramps had been washed away. No one was sure of the timetable for repairs and so we settled in for what could be a prolonged wait, camping in the ferry queue overnight. The next day, the diggers built new ramps and we were away at 11am.
KM550 – Fort McPherson
We made a deviation to drive around this small settlement. It took 10 minutes! How can (or why do) people choose to live in these remote areas, with severe winters, 24 hour darkness and no road access for six weeks twice a year? They must be very hardy.
KM608 – Mackenzie River Ferry
This ferry crossing was straightforward and took less than 30 minutes to be on our way again. Given the late start we camped at KM642 overlooking a river.
KM736 – Inuvik
Inuvik is a small town, but has a significant airport for tourists, locals and the oil/gas workers. We stopped at the Tourist Information Centre (collecting our certificate of having crossed into the Arctic Circle), the Visitor Centre, and the campsite (to empty tanks and fill up with fresh water). The town is quite vibrant in the summer, but it gets cold in winter (-35C typically, -50C occasionally). It was interesting to see that housing services (water, sewage etc.) are all above ground and in heated ducts.
Having had a brief look around the town, we headed on to our ultimate destination – Tuktoyaktuk and the Arctic Ocean.
KM880 – Tuktoyaktuk
After five days on the Dempster we arrived on a warm day at Tuk on June 20th – the evening before the summer solstice and Dave’s 64th birthday. The sun would next set here in over a month’s time and there would be 24 hour daylight until then. After taking the mandatory pictures at the Arctic Ocean sign we camped with around 30 other campers on the spit. We knew a lot of people from the ferry queue at Peel River. After a brief exploration of the town we settled in for the evening.
Dave thought he would have a quick walk around before bed and got taking to some Innuits living just down the road. It turned out it was Ryan’s birthday and four beers later, Dave staggered home. A good start for birthday celebrations the next day!
Overnight the temperature dropped, really dropped, to 3°C, which meant we didn’t overheat in the truck the next day when Francine baked Dave a coffee and walnut birthday cake.
Once the cake was done we set off to attend the Innuit’s summer solstice celebrations, which falls on Canada’s Indigenous People’s Day. This kicked off with a BBQ with burgers for all comers – locals and tourists alike and was followed by an animal calling competition, a harpoon throwing competition, a tea brewing competition (including making the fire) and a bread making competition. The locals were super welcoming and they told us about their way of life in this very remote town. It was refreshing to see that the whole community took part (for example, grand children teamed up with grandmothers for the tea making competition) and not a single person was checking their phone. It has sometimes been quite depressing to experience indigenous communities in our travels, as they have often been adversely affected by the modern world, but here in Tuk, they seemed to have got the balance right.
After the day’s celebrations concluded we joined our fellow campers for drinks and then retired after a full-on day. Dave’s 64th birthday will be one to remember!
Return Trip
The next day we started our return journey south. All went well until the tyre pressure monitoring system beeped and we found that BB’s driver side rear tyre had punctured. It took Dave four hours to change (including some time trying to repair the punctured tyre) but he was very pleased to know that he can still do it single-handedly.
The next day we again stopped at the Interpretive Centre to return our guide and hike up to Goldensides (no pictures – Dave’s phone battery went flat).
Here is our video of our journey on the Dempster Highway to the Arctic Ocean:
