Day 5 – Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk – 152 km (95 miles) – 3 hours
Off we go! We are leaving Inuvik and driving 148km (92 miles) to the town of Tuktoyaktuk (known as Tuk) along the Arctic Ocean. The unpaved road we are driving is called the Inuvik to Tuk road (AKA Canada’s Highway to the Arctic Ocean) and is only about 7 years old. It is known as a difficult to road to drive, especially by motorcyclists, because it is so young that the gravel is not packed down and it is a bit loose!! Our fellow campers parked next to us in Inuvik the previous night told us NOT to drive the road as it is the worst road they had ever driven!! So what did we do? We drove it!
We had done a lot of research on the road and had watched lots of videos over the past few years and thought we would give it a try anyway as we thought we knew what we were getting into. Our whole philosophy had been “If it gets too difficult then we will just turn around and head south. We don’t have to get to the Arctic Ocean”. So off we went and started driving the road. It was exactly as we had read and seen. We just took it slow.
The road meanders along the Mackenzie River delta and there are lakes, lakes, and more lakes. It almost looks like you are driving along the ocean. There are bits of unmelted snow here and there, snowmobiles and sleds parked along the side of the road for future use in the winter, grizzly bear hunting signs, rare/uncommon Arctic tundra birds, and the continued countdown of kilometers to get to Tuk! YAY! It was slow going but as usually we took it easy and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, the remoteness of the land, and the birding.
Pingo Canadian Landmark
About 10km south of Tuk is the Parks Canada “Pingo Canadian Landmark”. There is a interpretive sign display there along with views of Pingos!! It is a natural area protecting 8 pingos near Tuk out of about 1350 pingos in the Arctic coastal tundra area which is the greatest concentration of pingos in the world and represents about one quarter of the worlds pingos.
What’s a pingo? It’s a dome shaped mound consisting of a layer of soil over a large core of ice in permafrost areas.
We viewed the pingos and headed on a few more kilometers to Tuk. Welcome to Tuktoyaktuk! We made it…almost.
It was about another 8km to the end of the road and the infamous Arctic Ocean Sign! It doesn’t look like it in the photos (because everyone is so polite) but there was a line of people and a few vehicles waiting for their chance to get their photo next to the Arctic Ocean sign!! Now we had made it!!
There are camping sites (undefined) along the shore of the ocean at the end of the road with picnic tables and fire pits. It was about 2pm so we quickly grabbed a site for the night as they were starting to fill up. It was absolutely gorgeous weather. It was very warm (30C, 86F), it was full sun, the ocean was calm, and the fellow campers were ready for a party!!!
Campground: Arctic Ocean
Location: Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories
Site: NA
Cost: $60 (CAD) – but only if the Visitor Center is open or you can find someone to pay
Services: dry camping
Comments: A fabulous place with great weather, fabulous views, midnight sun, and lots of new friends.
The Arctic Ocean was beautiful and it was hard to believe that the North Pole is somewhere out there (a bit over 1,400 miles so a long way out there but still)…..
There were a few other campsites taken with Class B’s, truck campers, and quite a number of tents with motorcyclists. As a matter of fact, some of them came over to ask if they could borrow our shade. When the sun doesn’t set and there aren’t any trees (yes we are above the treeline) and it is warm then it can be brutal with no shade. So pretty soon a party developed around our motorhome shade with people telling stories about their journey and where they were from, etc. We had drinks by the ocean, BBQ dinner, and simply enjoyed our new friends. We even had visitors from Inuvik that we had camped next to the night before who drove up to Tuk for the day on the ATV’s stop by for an hour or so for a visit. They said it took them 4 hours to drive from Inuvik and Tuk and they were heading back that night. Since the sun never sets they didn’t have to worry about getting back before dark!
It was a magical, enchanting evening with lots of camaraderie and new friends. And, again, the sun never sets. I can’t help myself with not waking up in the middle of the night and looking out the window to see the daylight. I checked around 3am and the sun was still shining bright. As a matter of fact, if I had opened our bedroom blinds our entire bed would have been drowned in sun. It was a hot night, it was a bit difficult to sleep with the sun beating on us and it was very warm outside….AND….we were parked on the Arctic Ocean! We felt so sorry for those tenters in the hot sun ALL NIGHT LONG!
Land of the Midnight Sun
Tuktoyaktuk is a small hamlet of just under 1,000 people whose name in Inuvialuit translates to “land resembling a carribou”. Radar domes were installed here in the 1950’s as part of the Distant Early Warning Line (the DEW line) to monitor Soviet traffic during the Cold War. The community eventually became a base for oil and natural gas exploration along the Arctic Ocean (Beaufort Sea).
It was a fantastic experience and we loved every minute of it!!
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