Yukon Territory and Inuvik NWT

September 2007

We arrived in Whitehorse at the end of August, rented a 4x4 and headed west along the Alaska Highway to Haines Junction and Kluane National Park. We spent the night at Haines Junction and then headed to Dawson City by way of the Alaska Highway. We left the Alaska Highway at Tetlin Junction and took Highway 5 to Chicken, Alaska, after which we re-crossed the USA/Canadian border and took the Top of the World Highway to Dawson City.

The Top of the World Highway goes between Jack Wade, Alaska and the river ferry terminal across the river from Dawson City, Yukon. It is 127 kilometres (79 Miles) and is primarily along the top of a mountain range, which is how it got its name. The views are spectacular and because it was late in the season we had the road to ourselves. This highway is closed in the winter.

In Dawson City we went up to the top of the Midnight Dome which offers a view of the entire city, the Yukon River and surrounding mountains, visited a couple of the old cemeteries and drove the Upper Bonanza Creek Road to see some of the old (and current) gold mining sites.

From Dawson City we headed up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik. The Dempster Highway is a 736km (457mi) gravel road which begins at the Klondike Highway about 40km (25mi) east of Dawson City, Yukon and goes north and east to Inuvik, Northwest Territories.

We did Dawson City to Inuvik in one very long day then spent a couple of nights in Inuvik. I had planned on taking a flight to Tuktoyaktuk but the last flight the season was the day after we arrived and it was already fully booked.

We took two days to do the return trip south along the Dempster and spent the night at Eagle Plains which is about half way. Other than Fort McPherson it is the only place that you can get any services, food or fuel.

After we got back to the Klondike Highway (Hwy 2) we headed south east, took the Silver Trail (Hwy 11) to Mayo and Keno where we spent a night then back on Hwy 2 to the junction with Hwy 4 which we took to Faro, Ross River and then Frances Lake.

Frances Lake It is accessible from Yukon Hwy 4 about half way between Watson Lake and Ross River. We spent a couple of nights at the Frances Lake Wilderness Lodge Check out their web page– I highly recommend them.

After our stay at Frances Lake we continued south on Hwy 4 to the town of Watson Lake, got onto the Alaska Highway and headed west until Jakes Corner where we headed south to the town of Atlin in British Columbia. The town of Atlin is located on the eastern shore or Atlin Lake in North Western British Columbia and by road is only accessible from the Yukon.

After Atlin we returned to Whitehorse and flew back down south. This was an amazing road trip through northern Canada.