Wood's Prairie Travels

The Dempster Highway to Tuk is about 500 miles of gravel roads. Some is smooth, but most of it is bumpy. Our average speed for the 6 days traveling it was about 30 mph. Trying to take photos from a bumping vehicle is challenging. Of course, trying to time the sip of coffee was a trick. More often than not, that was a fail. But we made it, and after a couple of days break in Dawson, we’ll be back on gravel again.

Until the road to Tuktoyaktuk was completed in 2017, Inuvik was the furthest north you could drive on a public road. This community too, is laid back and life’s activities are tied to the land and the seasons. The locals are very friendly smiling, waving, and saying things like, "Welcome to Inuvik”, or “Are you looking for…?” I wish I could say it was the same back home. The population is a bit over 3,000, which seems like quite a large community when compared to Tuktoyaktuk or Dawson City.  However, there are definitely differences between Inuvik and similar size towns back home. For example, Inuvik has 56 days a year with 24-hours of sun! In addition, the coldest temperature recorded in Inuvik was -70 degrees F and the hottest temperature recorded was 91 degrees F. The general store in Inuvik is a destination to experience. It is kind of like a Fred Meyer store with clothing, toys, and household items. However, the store in Inuvik has a few variations that were interesting… snow

Tuktoyaktuk may be at the end of the road, the farthest north you can drive on a public highway in North America, but it is one of the friendliest places we have ever visited. This tiny fishing hamlet sits on a peninsula that juts into the Arctic Ocean, also called the Beaufort Sea.   It is surrounded by tundra and water, both sea and freshwater in the form of ponds and lakes. The permafrost is year-round and can occasionally be seen in cracks that heave up parts of the frozen ground which exposes the ice sheet (that is what the picture shows). And maybe most interesting of all, the sun does not set for over 50 days a year. It was interesting to watch the sun travel in an elliptical circle around the peninsula where we were camped. These photos taken at  4:30 PM 7:30 PM 12:30 AM The highway to Tuk was just completed in 2017, before then the only access to the small village was by boat, by plane, or by ice road in the winter. That being said the local Inuviantians have primarily lived

  I know of a place way back of beyond where the sun lazily circles above the Arctic Ocean and a narrow spit of land. I know of a place way back of beyond where smiles and waving hands of those both young and old abound. I know of a place way back of beyond that time once left behind. I know of a place way back of beyond where hand crafts, along with hunting and fishing skills are still done by hand.  I know of a place way back of beyond where life’s activities revolve as the Sun and Earth dance around. I know of a place way back of beyond where people embrace both the sea and the land. I know of a place way back of beyond where families live, laugh, and share what they have until they are finally laid in the ground. The Inuvialutian people of Tuktoyaktuk are welcoming and friendly to those who visit their place way back of beyond.  

The second day on the Dempster brought with it fog. Between our boondock camp, nicknamed “mosquito boondock”, and the Tetlit Gwinjik Viewpoint we encountered fog. Now at first the fog looked pretty interesting rolling over the mountain ridges and filling in the gulleys.  However, the fog got thicker and thicker, until eventually we could hardly see 100 feet in front of us on the road! That made wildlife viewing difficult because they would have had to walk up on the road in front of us to be seen. The fog lifted a bit when we crossed at the Arctic Circle and stopped for a photo op, but then it socked in around us with a vengeance when we climbed up, through, and then down Wright Pass. It was eerie seeing signs warning of corners and downhill grades without being able to see how sharp the corner was nor how steep of a hill (they don’t post the grades up here). The fog did lift by the time we got to the Peel and Mackenzie River’s ferry crossings. Maybe we’ll see what it looks like fr

The Dempster Highway is definitely a primitive road with little to no services along it. Although they are working on maintaining the road, most of the 500+ miles have been rough dirt roads. It’s been a challenge for even Pat, with his years working in the woods and driving logging roads, to maintain even 25 mph without beating the truck and camper to pieces. In addition to the washboard sections and pothole sections, there has been either dust or mud. Which is trickier? That is still a question to be answered. The muddy sections have been slippery and of course cake mud onto the truck and camper. In comparison, the dusty  sections, when encountering an oncoming or passing vehicle, can be almost impossible to see the road.  And then there is the dust coating everything inside the  camper. A few sprinkles keep the dust down without being slippery, but it is hard to put in that specific of a request with the man upstairs, although I have been trying! So, we take it slow, which gives us m

We headed north from our camp at Tombstone Mountain climbing up and driving through the Ogilvie Mountains. They are huge, glaciated peaks and valleys that still had quite a bit of snow on them. It is hard to describe the gorgeous scenes we saw around each corner or ridge. The first and fifth stanzas of Robert Service’s poem, “ Call of the Wild ” about sum up our morning’s travels. “Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there’s nothing else to gaze on,  Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore, Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon, Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar? Have you swept the visioned valley with the green stream streaking through it, Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost? Have you strung your soul to silence? Then for God’s sake go and do it; Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost… Let us probe the silent places, Let us seek what luck betide us: Let us journey to a lonely land I know. There’s a whisper on the

 Driving north from Washington we noticed that the season is reversing, but the days are lengthening. The further north we have come the “earlier in the spring” it appears to be. The lupines that were growing tall at home are just beginning to bloom along the side of the road. Also, the birch leaves that were rustling at the beginning of the of the trip are just now budding out.  However, it is definitely spring in this northern country. Bright violet hues vetch blooms along the roadways and rain showers scatter their droplets on the hillsides. Another thing we noticed is that the further north we came, the longer the days were. It has essentially not been dark for us since we were mid-way up British Columbia, around June 18. Currently, we are camped just 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle on Solstice, June 21. The Tombstone Mountain campground is nestled amidst the Ogilvie Mountain Range with high peaks surrounding us. Although we are almost at snow level, the temperature is still

  There are two highways for travelers who want to drive through British Columbia into the Yukon Territory. One is the often heard of Alcan (Alaska-Canada) Hwy which runs from Dawson Creek, BC, all the way to Delta Junction, Alaska, a total of 1,390 miles. A parallel highway is the Cassiar Hwy. It starts mid-way through BC and runs up to the Yukon where it connects with the Alcan. The Cassiar is much shorter running only 450 miles.  While both highways run essentially north-south and both travel through spectacular mountain ranges, there are some big distinctions between the two. For example, the Alcan, which was finished in 1942, has grown to be a much larger, more well-traveled highway. It is wide and has good shoulders. On the other hand, the Cassiar, is relatively new since it was completed in 1972. It is still a much more remote highway that is narrow with very little, if any, shoulder for most of its length. Also, painted lines to mark lanes and the edge of the road only run a

  Once a pine forest green surrounding                 A pond of aqua blue. The hungry flames of a fire roared around                 A pond of aqua blue. Here silver sentinels stand tall watching over                 A pond of aqua blue. A trout swims lazily in the depths of                 A pond of aqua blue. Silver sentinels fell and now vanish into the deeps of                 A pond of aqua blue. A new forest of alder green springs up around                 A pond of aqua blue. Like a phoenix, the forest will flourish again Guarded by silver sentinels surrounding                 A pond of aqua blue.

You may have heard the question a time or two, “Does a bear s_ _t in the woods?”   (keepin' it clean for our younger readers... Maddie and Mackenna, to name a couple) We can definitely say the answer is, “Nope, at least not in Canada”. About every quarter to half a mile lies a pile of bear scat alongside the highway. Sometimes bigger piles and other times they are smaller, but all of those that we observed were from bear.   Evidently the bears up here don’t like to mess up their homes, so they walk up to the man-roads to do their business. Just thought you’d like to know the answer to that age old question 😊 (And, Yes, Pat thinks I am the only person in the world who would have him stop to take photos of piles of pooh!)

The Father’s Day gift for Pat this year was a drive up the Cassiar Highway. The mountains on the drive were snow topped and spectacular. Breakfast was at a top-notch restaurant with private seating and a view of the Coast Range.  Let’s see, oh yes, and the wildlife viewing… a grizzly, a moose, and five black bears were spotted along the drive! We only were able to snap a picture of one bear as we drove by, but we can corroborate each other’s story.  And the evening lodging boasted a Deese Lake waterfront view with a beaver show.  All in all, it was a great day. We hope you had a Happy Father's Day as well.