Page 4
Finally, after three weeks on the road, we were at the start of the Dempster
Highway, a goal of the the 1997 trip that we had to miss and the principal goal
of this trip. As you can see from the map, there isn't much in the way of
civilization along this road. At mile 229 there is a combo gas station,
motel, campground, garage. At mile 342 is Fort McPherson, population 600,
one gas station and a tire repair place. At mile 378 is Arctic Red River,
no services. And finally, at mile 457 is Inuvik, population 3290 with two
campgrounds, hotels, gas stations, etc. What you do have is fantastic
scenery. Mountains, rivers, lakes, and tundra. This first shot is in
the Tombstone Mountain range about 50 miles from the south end of the
highway. At 4,265 ft, the pass through this range is the highest point on
the Dempster.
This next picture shows the Dempster dropping down out of the Tombstones and
onto a high valley.
At mile 122 there is a small Territorial campground on Engineer Creek.
We ate lunch there both north and south bound. This picture was shot
there.
The creek is reddish brown because of iron oxide. Shortly after Engineer
Creek, the road leaves the river valley and climbs up onto the Eagle Plains
Plateau. Here you are well above the tree line. The road runs for
about 70 miles up on this plateau and the vistas are usually breathtaking.
You can see downa cross the Ogilvile and and Peel River valleys to the mountains
on the far side, a distance of well over 50 miles. Unfortunately, these
vistas are hard to photograph. here are two of our efforts.
In the first picture you can see a narrow, straight stripe where there are no
trees growing. This is an old seismic line left over from oil exploration
in the fifties and sixties. At mile 252, after buying gas in Eagle Plains,
we stopped at the Arctic Circle for these shots.
As the eagle eyed probably guessed, the center picture was shot on the southbound trip. Somewhere in this stretch of highway we picked up a sharp sliver of shale in our left rear tire. Fortunately, it went flat just as we were pulling into the Rock River Territorial Park campground at mile 277 so I could change it in peace off the road. This was a nice campground and we stayed here on both legs of the trip.
We crossed into the Northwest Territory at mile 289. This shot is looking north along the highway.
If it looks dark and cold here it is because
it was. There was snow on the ground here the day before we came through
and some was still lying around in the shady areas. We crossed the Peel
River on a ferry at mile 335 and stopped at Fort McPherson for gas and a tire
repair. We used another ferry to cross the Mackenzie River at it's
junction with the Arctic Red River. This shot was made while waiting for
the ferry. 
From here to Inuvik the road is relatively flat and runs down the Mackenzie
valley. These final two pictures were taken along the Dempster and show
some of the many wild flowers that abound.
Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk will be shown on page 5.