Deh Cho Connection via the Mackenzie and Liard Highways - CanaDream

Thirteen nights and 3,502 kilometres in a loop from Edmonton in a motorhome, north into the Northwest Territories on the Mackenzie and Liard Highways.

Grande Prairie, Manning and High Level come first up through northern Alberta, farmland giving way to boreal forest, then the territorial border and Enterprise or Hay River, where Alexandra Falls drops thirty-two metres on the Hay River and Great Slave Lake opens out beyond.

Fort Simpson is the far point, at the junction of the Liard and the Mackenzie, which the Dene call the Deh Cho, and it is the staging post for flights into Nahanni National Park, where the South Nahanni runs through four canyons past Virginia Falls. The Liard Highway then runs south through Fort Liard to Fort Nelson, joining the Alaska Highway, with Fort St John and Grande Prairie on the way home.

The motorhome and the day-by-day plan come from CanaDream, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with insurance options priced at booking. Fourteen days for 3,502 kilometres is a committed schedule with free days at Grande Prairie, Fort Simpson and Fort Nelson. The season is short, roughly June to early September. Long sections of the Liard Highway are gravel and the services are a long way apart, so fuel, water and a spare tyre all matter, and the hire terms are worth reading on unsealed roads before committing. Nahanni is reached only by air or water and the flights need arranging in advance.