Dempster Highway to Tuktoyaktuk - CanaDream

Ten nights and 2,840 kilometres from Whitehorse up the Dempster Highway to the Arctic Ocean and back, in a motorhome.

Stewart Crossing and Dawson City come first, the second the centre of the 1898 gold rush, where the streets are unpaved and the claims are still worked, then the Dempster itself turns north.

Tombstone Territorial Park comes early on the highway, a range of black granite peaks in tundra that is among the finest mountain country in the north. Eagle Plains is the only fuel stop for several hundred kilometres, and the Arctic Circle sign stands just beyond it. Inuvik follows in the Mackenzie Delta, then the road on to Tuktoyaktuk, opened in 2017 and the first all-season road in Canada to reach the Arctic Ocean, with pingos standing out of the flat ground behind the village.

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. Eleven days for 2,840 kilometres is a committed schedule and the Dempster is a gravel road the whole way, so punctures, chipped glass and a vehicle coated in clay are normal outcomes rather than bad luck. CanaDream permit travel on it only between 15 May and 14 September, which is worth planning the booking around. Fuel at Eagle Plains should be taken whether or not it is needed. Dipping a hand in the Arctic Ocean at the end is the point of the whole exercise.