Yes, we are going to drive (or attempt to drive) the infamous Dempster Highway all the way to the Arctic Ocean!! In our motorhome!!! Yikes! We hope it survives!
The Dempster Highway (Yukon Highway 5 and Northwest Territories Highway 8) is about a 740 km (460 mile) unpaved road which goes to Inuvik, Northwest Territories. From there it is about another 140 km (87 miles) to Tuktoyaktuk (referred to as Tuk) on the Arctic Ocean. That portion of the highway is known as the Inuvik/Tuktoyaktuk road and only opened in November 2017. Prior to that the only way to get to Tuk was on the ice road in the winter. This is the most northern road in Canada and the only highway in Canada that crosses the Arctic Circle. The Dempster begins about 40 km (25 miles) east of Dawson City, Yukon. It is known for its incredible scenery, wide open spaces, unique wilderness, remoteness, and the fact that is crosses the Arctic Circle, and then continues to the Beaufort Sea on the Arctic Ocean. It is an adventure on on many people’s bucket list including mine! Here we go on one of Canada’s Ultimate Road Trips!
There is another highway called the Dalton Highway in Alaska that heads north towards the Arctic Ocean to Deadhorse, Alaska. That highway is very similar in terms of being unpaved, the distance, terrain, beauty, wilderness, adventure, and scenery. And yes, Deadhorse is officially further north at just over 70 degrees North while Tuk is at 69.4 degrees North. But when you arrive in Deadhorse you cannot reach the Arctic Ocean since there is a private road owned by an oil company that extends further north. Then you have to book a tour and get on a bus and be driven there. We debated spending a summer driving both of them but thought one highway was enough for one summer. But which one?
My understanding is the Dalton Highway can have much more commercial traffic (think big rigs) due to the oil company being at the end of the road and receiving deliveries. People who have driven both say the Dempster is more relaxed and the Dalton is a much more difficult, challenging drive.
.And both are notorious for black flies, mosquitoes, etc.
After reading many blogs and watching many You Tube adventures of both highways we settled on the Dempster Highway for this summer.
The Dempster is unpaved for much of the way (except for a small portion in Inuvik) and can be dirty and dusty when it is dry and/or muddy and slick during the rains. The road is treated with calcium chloride to help keep the dust down but when it rains then it sticks to your vehicle like concrete! There can be problems with break downs, flat tires, bridge washouts, ferry problems, and shattered windshields amongst other things. There can be jarring effects from the wash boarding of the road, various potholes, and there are no shoulders or guard rails so you need to drive slow and be careful. BUT the wilderness and scenery are worth it! AND going in summer means we get to enjoy the midnight sun. Everyone we spoke to said, “Just take it SLOW!”. And that’s what we did!
Starting May 19, 2024 until July 23, 2024 the sun never sets in Tuk! We love the midnight sun! And, of course, vice versa in the winter.
Before we departed, we mounted Starlink on our rooftop and it ended up providing us internet/phone connection 100% of the time even on the move! This helped tremendously with wildfire/road closures, weather, etc. We were quite pleased with the performance. LOVE IT!!
We also purchased a spare tire before our departure and mounted it on the back of our RV and did NOT tow a car. We knew this trip would be different and with the rough roads it just wasn’t worth it. AND we had to get a Compass Rose tire cover to match the theme of the Isata 5 Explorer package.
Here’s a recap of our journey. Our next blog posts will detail our trip with photos.
Driving the Dempster Highway Summary
It was relentless, it was unforgiving, it was brutal, it was physically and mentally challenging but it was spectacular, it was magical, and it was unforgettable. We sure are glad we took this adventure. AND we lucked out tremendously with having ideal weather, warm days, sunny blue skies, no wildfire smoke, and no rain. A bit of rain happened at the very end of the trip just before Tombstone Territorial Park and only for about 10 minutes and also a few times in the middle of the night. We never had muddy roads which we were warned about with how the roads turn as slick as ice. We had about 30 C (85 F) at the Arctic Ocean with no wind, flat ocean, and sun blazing in the windows all night! It could not have been better. It was perfect and ideal!
We only had mosquitos/black flies, a small bit, at Tombstone Territorial Park in both directions, and Eagle Plains was swarming so bad we could not even go outside. Other than that it was perfect for bugs (or lack thereof). Just luck and lack of rain.
Here’s a high level recap of our adventure which will be detailed in the following blog posts along with a map of the major areas where we camped.
Day 1 – Monday, June 24 – Drove From Dawson City to Tombstone Campground at a distance of 111 km (69 miles) and it was a 3 hour drive.
Day 2 – Tues, June 25 – Stayed at Tombstone Campground – dry camping – no dump – water boil advisory on tap water faucets scattered around the campground.
Day 3 – Wed, June 26 – Drove from Tombstone to the Arctic Circle – We stayed overnight about 1.8 km (1 mile) further north of the Arctic Circle (boondocking/dry camping). The drive today was 336 km (209 miles) and was about 8 hour drive.
Day 4 – Thurs, June 27 – Drove from the Arctic Circle to Inuvik and camped at Happy Valley Territorial Park. The campground had 30 amp electric sites only and had a dump station on site. We drove 328 km (204 miles) and it took about 9 hours. It was slow going in many parts.
Day 5 – Fri, June 28 – Drove from Inuvik to Tuk and dry camped on the Arctic Ocean. –We drove 152 km (95 miles) and it took about 3 hours.
Day 6 – Sat, June 29 – Drove from Tuk back to Inuvik and stayed at Happy Valley Territorial Park. The campground has 30 amp electric sites only with a dump station on site. We drove 152 km (95 miles) and it took 5 hours. It was very slow going due to us losing our front air bag suspension.
Day 7 – Sun, June 30 – Drove from Inuvik to Eagle Plains Motel and RV Campground which had 15 amp electric (and we lost power multiple times during the night). The campground was FULL of mosquitos as they had just recently had rain. We drove 366 km (227 miles) and it took about 8 hours.
Day 8 – Mon, July 1 – Drove from Eagle Plains to Tombstone Campground with dry camping, no dump, and a water boil advisor on tap spigots in the campground. We drove 298 km (185 miles) and it took 8 hours.
Day 9 – Tues, July 2 – Drove from Tombstone to Dawson City to the Gold Rush Campground with full hookups, showers, and laundry. We drove 111 km (69 miles) in under 3 hours. We refueled in town and also used a water pressure car wash at Dawson City RV Park just outside of town.
That’s a total of 1,854 km (1,152 miles) which is 927 km (576 miles) each way over 9 nights. We departed Dawson with a full tank of fuel (which gets us about 1,000 km), full DEF, full tank of fresh water (78 gallons), and empty grey/black tanks. We never refilled water as we had plenty. We dumped our sewer in Inuvik (both directions).
The only fuel stations are Eagle Plains, Fort McPherson, Inuvik, and Tuk.
We topped up our diesel fuel tank going north at Eagle Plains and Inuvik, and our last top up heading south was Fort McPherson.
Like they say in the North, NEVER pass on a chance to fuel up.
When we departed Dawson and headed to the start of the Dempster Highway, both fuel stations there were out of fuel so we had to drive back to Dawson to fill (about 40 km each direction).
In Inuvik heading south, on a Sunday morning, around 9am, all 3 gas stations in town were closed.
We arrived back in Dawson City with a half of tank of fuel and refueled there and used the car/RV pressure washer at Dawson City RV Park ($4 CAD for 5 minutes). We spent $12 CAD for 15 minutes just to get the big chunks off. We also used their air hose to air up the tires since we deflated them a bit for the Dempster Drive.
Fuel prices:
Dawson City – $1.96 CAD per litre equivalent to $5.42 USD per gallon (the other two gas stations in town were at $2.18 CAD and $2.08 CAD)
Eagle Plains – $2.39 CAD per litre equivalent so $6.61 USD per gallon
Inuvik – $2.90 CAD per litre equivalent to $8.03 USD per gallon
Fort McPherson – $2.37 CAD per litre equivalent to $6.56 USD per gallon
We took 2 ferries (Peel River ferry crossing and the Mackenzie River ferry crossing) on the way north and the same 2 ferries on the way south. They worked perfectly for us. About 4 days after we got off the Dempster we read that the Mackenzie River ferry crossing closed awaiting maintenance. We lucked out again. The ferry crossing ending up being closed for almost a week with many stranded travelers anxiously awaiting repairs and reopening. Plus the roads were now muddy and wet!!
We didn’t have any flat tires and got one small windshield rock chip on the last 40 km (25 miles) of the Dempster! We saw 5 flat tires along the way, one in a bumper pull, one in a Class C RV, one on a motorcycle, and two on passenger vehicles. Most of them were north of Eagle Plains where the road contains more shale.
The baffle in the wet bay fell off, the nuts holding the TV mount in the bedroom fell off, the sewer hose fell out of carrier, a large nut appeared on the floor and we still don’t know where that came from, but the most serious was the plug in the air tank that came out leaving us without ANY front suspension on the washboard from hell. Also one chassis battery shorted out so we had to remove it and ran with just one battery. We bought a new sewer hose in Dawson City and fixed the sewer hose compartment (a make shift fix) and bought a new AGM battery in Whitehorse.
We drove north from Whitehorse to Dawson City on the Klondike Highway on the one day it was open due to wildfires. It ended up being closed for over a week and we just lucked out again when we headed south as it had just opened the day before.
We saw a grizzly bear, moose, lots of rock ptarmigan, tundra swans, long-tailed jaegers, and snow geese. I never saw my Musk Ox but supposedly two thirds of the worlds population live on Banks Island a bit to the north east of Tuk. About 10 days after we left the Arctic Ocean there was a mother polar bear and two cubs sighted along the beach where we camped. Everyone in town was out including the deputy mayor along with two guys with rifles. It was after 1:30am and the bears were still there…remember the sun never sets here in the summer!
We saw quite a number of motorcyclists, bicyclists, passenger vehicles, trucks, truck campers, a few Class B and C motorhomes, and quite a few expedition vehicles (Man, Unimog, Polonia, Earthroamer, etc.). We did not see any Class A motorhomes nor did we see any motorhome towing a car (and for a good reason – don’t do it).
We made it back in one piece, barely! The next blog posts will detail our journey and all the problems we had! It was terrific.
YOU CAN’T ADD DAYS TO YOUR LIFE
BUT
YOU CAN ADD LIFE TO YOUR DAYS!!!
And we certainly did that!
What an adventure! You are two brave people. So glad your vehicle stayed running for the entire trip and your mishaps didn’t stop you. Congratulations in making to the Arctic. You most certainly had some good luck.
We sure did have some luck! It was quite adventurous and a blast. We loved it. But it is probably the end of our “BIG ADVENTURES”, we will see. I may be too old for this! Ha,ha, ha….