NOTE: Before reading this blog, I highly recommend you first read The Dempster Highway Experience by MFI published September 1, 2024. Her blog helps put this one in proper perspective.
We were on the final leg of the Dempster Highway, which ended in Inuvik, NT (population 3,137). The terrain became heavily dotted with ponds, lakes, and small creeks. The additional water seemed to support a resurrgence in the number of evergreen trees. We subsequently learned the increase in trees was due to the low elevation and the warmer climate along this part of the MacKenzie River Valley.
About 34 miles east of Fort McPherson, we reached our next river crossing. The MacKenzie River, with its feeding headstreams: Slave, Peace, and Finlay, flowed through Canada’s boreal forests forming the longest river system in Canada and second in North America. The MacKenzie alone was 1,081 miles long but stretchd to 2,635 miles, when including the headstreams. The MacKenzie delta was 80 miles long and 40 miles wide. When frozen, she became a heavily used transportation network, and one of the filming locations for TV’s Ice Road Truckers. She was named after Scottish explorer Sir Alexander MacKenzie who was the first European to navigate the entire length of the MacKenzie in 1793 at the age of 29. (And we thought we were roughing it.) Several hundred yards east of the ferry landing was the mouth of the Arctic Red River. On the cliff above this confluence was the Gwich’in Hamlet of Tsiigehtchic (population 138), current location of Canada’s Gwichya Gwich’in First Nation.
The MacKenzie Ferry was named the Louis cardinal and was typical for what we’d experienced thus far. As we awaited her return, I exited Sid for a look around and took some pictures of the riverbank and dirty vehicles. Yuck!
Despite the drive-on drive-off design of the ferry, MFI was required for unknown reasons to back off when we arrived at the opposite side. I took a video of this first-ever driving accomplishment; however, I didn’t include it because of the X-rated language content. She was getting directions from me and the two ferry attendants, and she let us all know in no uncertain terms how unwanted and unhelpful they were. When I rewatched the video before downloading it into my YouTube Creator Studio, I had become so worried about MFI backing up, I forgot about what I was doing, titled the phone downward, and captured Sid’s floor. My attention to videoing never recovered as tensions escalated, and the language grew more colorful. She had everything under control the entire time.
We had another 91 miles to Inuvik after leaving the MacKenzier River valley. The terrain remained flat, and again we saw a lot of water bodies and boreal forest evergreens.
We had arrived safely at the terminus of the Dempster Highway; however, let there be no doubt it had been a bumpy, filthy, jarring. and damaging ordeal. We drove to the Happy Valley Territorial Park, where I had made an online reservation. The desk attendant couldn’t find it, but at this time of year, the park was nearly empty, and he let us pick any spot we liked. But before parking and setting up, SidArthur required….no deserved, to be cleaned first. MFI’s blog fully covered our experience at Bob’s, but here are pictures of the mess.
We found a terrific pull-through site convenient to the entrance, the laundry, the bathhouses, and the black water dump. We were all very happy, but ready to chill!
