Traveling our Favorite Road... the Dempster!

Tombstone Valley, Dempster Highway

We have just come off the Dempster Highway in northern Canada... our favorite road to travel.  For the past eight days, we have been relishing changing colors, vast regions of arctic tundra, the Blackstone and Richardson mountain ranges, and the Mackensie delta.  We have traveled the breadth of this beautiful highway, from the junction outside of Dawson City in the Yukon, all the way up to Inuvik in the Northwest Territory... 460 miles of gravel road (one way).  We have crisscrossed the Continental Divide three times and taken ferry crossings over the Peel and Mackensie Rivers just to reach Inuvik.  Over half the trip was above the Arctic Circle.  While the weather has been wet and the bugs nearly intolerable on occasion during this visit, the Dempster never disappoints.

At Mile Marker 40, the Tombstone Interpretive Center welcomes visitors to the area.  They provide hot herbal tea and a wealth of information about the Dempster, its wildlife, people, and eco-regions.  We camped at nearby Tombstone campground, hoping to see northern lights.  Unfortunately, gray skies blocked our view.

The following morning, we traveled across the Blackstone uplands, we spied a cross fox peaking at us from the bush.

Crossfox on Dempster

At Two Moose Lake, we found three swans.

With Engineer Creek Campground full of mud, we opted to travel on, hoping that the misty rain would clear.  We relished the ribbon of highway before us.

The Dempster has a vastness to it that is virtually indescribable and even harder to catch on film.  Here are some of my meager attempts...

We traveled on to Eagle Plains, the mid-way point on the Dempster.  Along the way, we saw nine bear, including a sow with twins and a sow with triplets grazing berries on distant hills, as well as a lone bear in the bush along the roadside.  Just before we arrived at Eagle Plains, we met a large black bear walking up the road.

Sow with twins on Dempster

Black bear at Eagle Plains

With a break in the clouds, we settled down in the Eagle Plains campground, hoping for a spectacular sunset and maybe even northern lights.  While washing up supper dishes, a raven boldly hopped onto our picnic table, looking for a handout.  I grabbed the camera to take a few shots.  Imagine our surprise when he hopped right over and stole the kitchen sponge!  I couldn't help but laugh while watching David chase the raven around our campsite, trying to retrieve my sponge!  Thankfully, the bird dropped it, and David was able to scoop it up.

Unfortunately as evening progressed, the clouds gathered again.  By nightfall (about 10:30 pm), it was raining again.  By midnight, Eagle Plains was engulfed in heavy fog, driving the truckers off the road, including a refrigerator truck.  The trucker left his rig running all night.  Periodically the refrigeration unit would kick in with a heavy whoosh, sounding much like a harrier jet landing.  On top of the noise, our furnace was having intermittent relay problems.  It would work fine, then freeze up until it was either turned off and back on again or banged.  Needless to say, we had a restless night.

We broke camp, continuing our search for clear skies.  We found a break in the clouds and, perhaps, promise with a rainbow along the Richardson range.

Rainbow on the Dempster

Our next stop was the ferry crossing over the Peel River and on to Fort McPherson and our favorite campground and its host, Robert.  What a treat to talk with him!  His humor is contagious.  As with most of the First Nation folks, his first question to us was whether we had seen any caribou on the road.  Almost every winter the Porcupine caribou herd migrates to the grand meadow below Wright Pass on the Dempster.  We told him we had not and that we were surprised they hadn’t arrived because it felt colder and wetter than usual for this time of year.  Robert told us that he didn’t know what was happening with the weather.  “Normally the colors don’t change until September, and here it is August and they’re changing. Gonna be another cold winter,” he said, shaking his head.

Once we reached Inuvik, we had more rain.  We hunkered down in the Mackensie Coffee House, enjoying hot coffee and their wonderful internet service.  We visited the small museum at the visitor's center, tried (unsuccessfully) to get a tour inside the Igloo church, and took a short hike on Boot Lake.  Still the clouds and misty rain followed us.

Inuvik's Igloo Church

The next morning, we drove back down the Mackensie delta with rain clouds following us.  We saw a small black bear running along the road.  I was driving and stopped, hoping that he would move off the road.  The bear stopped.  I started driving again, slowly.  The bear started trotting up the road again.  We did this several times before he finally bolted into the bush.  

Mackensie Delta

Just north of the Yukon/Northwest Territory border, we spied an enormous grizzly bear, eating berries.  He was well off the road, perhaps as much as 400 yards.  We watched him for nearly a half hour before he wandered down into a gulley.  While we watched, a flock of sandhill cranes flew over us, heading south.

With still no caribou in sight near Wright Pass, we drove to Rock River Campground, north of Eagle Plains.  This area had always been the riches in wildlife on past visits.  Unfortunately, it was not true this trip.  Still, the scenery was more than enough to enjoy.

We headed down to the Arctic Circle, past Eagle Plains, with hopes high after we began to see  breaks in the clouds.  We traveled on to Engineer Creek Campground for the night.  If you remember, on our first trip in 2010, it was here that a silver-backed wolf walked right behind our campsite.  The closer we got to the campground, however, the more the clouds gathered again.  Once camp was set up, we tried to sit with the door open so that I could photograph him, just in case our wolf returned.  Instead, it began to rain heavily yet again.  

We had one more full day on the Dempster to go.  We awoke to more rain and heavy clouds.  My hopes of seeing more animals were completely dashed.  Both David and I were weary of rain and dark skies.  On top of it all, temperatures were plummeting.

As we drove silently down through the tight valley south of Engineer Creek, we spied a vehicle parked alongside the road.  We slowed to see if he needed help or was, perhaps, watching an animal.  We saw a dark object across the road from the car.  Both of us immediately suspected a black bear this low in the valley.  We were wrong… it was a beautiful grizzly!  I was elated!

We watched the grizzly for nearly a half hour as he dug for tubers along the roadside.  He was most unconcerned about us and the misty rain.  He would stop to scratch.  Then he would dig for tubers.  He laid down for a minute or two, then got up to dig for more tubers.  After a while, he meandered across the road and followed a berm along the creek.  He finally disappeared in the bush. 

By the time we hit Two Moose Lake, the rain had turned to snow.  The temperature in the truck showed 31 degrees.  Here is a photo of our swans and David during the snowstorm.

This weekend was also Canada’s Labor Day holiday... their last big holiday before winter sets in and school begins.  As a result, Tombstone campground was full.  We spent the night in a pullout.  Even wearing practically everything we owned, we were still shivering every time we had to exit the camper.  The snow continued on and off most of the evening.  Just before sunset, we saw a little break in the clouds.  Hoping for a bright morning, we snuggled down with our persnickety furnace. 

It was still snowing lightly when we awoke.  Tombstone Valley was covered in low fog and heavy clouds.  With the promise of breaking clouds still several days away, we decided to leave the Dempster and travel on to Whitehorse.  We promised each other that we would return soon... perhaps as early as next year to try once again to catch the colors, blue skies, and wonderful wildlife.  

We stopped at the Dempster sign to take a photo.  My heart was filled with joy at yet another incredible experience on this beautiful highway.  Thank you, most generous God!