We are just back from our trip up on the Ice Road. A 7-day van tour exploring the Canadian great north! The itinerary starts with a drive along the Klondike Highway which will get us to the well-known Dawson City. This little town was the heart of the Klondike gold rush in 1898. Along the road, we were able to see the Five Fingers rapids (deadly for a lot of gold seekers before the rapids got blasted with dynamite to let the sternwheeler through!) and spot few elks grazing in the sun and even a lynx! Northern lights wise, we got lucky right from our first night in Dawson City and the luck followed us until the end of our journey… Amazing and different shows every night, aurora borealis are truly a treat of the Yukon winter!
The next day we were headed for Eagle Plains, this motel/restaurant/gas station is the only sign of human activity along the Dempster highway. This means nothing but wildlife and wide landscapes from Dawson City to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories. Tombstone territorial park is one of the must see along the road, it is called the small northern Patagonia around here…. Picture wide valleys surrounded by ragged mountains and frozen lakes!
After a good night of sleep in the warmth of Eagle Plains we kept on going past the Arctic Circle and the Richardson Mountains, natural border between the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. We went for a short hike to get a better grasp of the vastness of the NWT that were expanding in front of us and the Yukon behind us.
The following days we went up to Tuktoyaktuk and Aklavik, these two small communities are only accessible by the ice road during the winter. Following the meanders of the Mackenzie river like you would in a canoe and driving on the Arctic Ocean is a pretty unique experience!