All photos courtesy of John L. Whitman
I’ve never driven the 736-km Dempster Highway, but I know someone who has.
The Dempster Highway, also referred to as Yukon Highway 5 and Northwest Territories Highway 8, is a highway in Canada that connects the Klondike Highway in Yukon to Inuvik, Northwest Territories on the Mackenzie River delta. – Wikipedia
Much of the highway follows an old dog sled trail and the highway gets its name from Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector William John Duncan Dempster, who, as a young constable, frequently ran this dog sled trail from Dawson City to Fort McPherson NT. – Wikipedia
I’m familiar with highways built on top of logging roads, but a dog sled trail? All right, then. The Dempster goes back a ways, but the highway as we know it today officially opened on 18 August 1979, making it 38 years old today. Officially. It’s Canada’s only all-weather road that crosses the Arctic Circle and it’s gravel. On gravel. Continue reading
