Arctic Ocean

What is summer without an epic road trip? Myself and four friends had been planning this trip all summer long. We all got time off work, loaded up the mini-van and headed north... to the Arctic. It was a great trip with great friends. We drove from Skagway up the Klondike Highway to Dawson City, of the Yukon Territory. The home of the 1898 Klondike gold rush. It was great to make it to Dawson City, as that is the whole reason why our little town of Skagway exists. From Dawson City we hopped onto the Dempster Highway. It is a 417 mile gravel road. It crosses over the arctic circle and ends in the city of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories. Along the way there were two rivers to cross, but rather than bridges they have small vehicle ferries. Once in Inuvik you are not yet at the Arctic Ocean. In the winter months you can drive on the frozen rivers, but in the summer you must fly. So we bought some tickets, and flew to the arctic Ocean, to the small native village of Tuktoyaktuk, commonly known as Tuk. We spent about 24 hours in Tuk, just walking around town and hanging out. We built a big bonfire on the beach, and then did our epic polar swim in the arctic ocean. I have it on video, and hopefully I'll be able to upload it soon. After one night on the arctic ocean, we flew back to our waiting steed, and headed back towards Skagway. It was a great road trip with many great memories, and lots of spectacular views.


Looking down the dempster


Crossing the Arctic Circle...


Scenery along the way...Mt. Monolith in Tombstone Territorial Park


The van got a little muddy


We crossed out of the Yukon and entered into the Northwest Territories, a first for all of us.


One of the vehicle ferries



Inuvik...the end of the dempster


Boarding the plane for Tuk


We're here, now what?


First, we staked out a camping spot on the beach, before all of the good spots were taken.


Then we built a bonfire. This was for our epic swim. You can see some of our swimsuits lying about, drying out.


Then some locals showed us how to fish using their nets, so we caught some fish, gutted them with tent stakes, and attempted to cook them over the fire.


The next day we met a friend who gave us a key to the community 'ice house.' It is a small building that has a ladder in it that goes down into the ground. Below Tuk it is permafrost. The ground is completely frozen. The ladder went about thirty feet down into the permafrost where there were three tunnels with little rooms along each tunnel. The rooms were used by various people in the community to store provisions. It was pretty interesting.


Dawson City on the banks of the mighty Yukon River

Dawson City sunset