The Dempster Highway

On Saturday morning we left Dawson City for Eagle Plains just past 7am. It was dark as sunrise was at 9:42am. Once there was light, Jeff and I started reminiscing about our trip along this highway a couple summers ago.

As we were driving along, Jeff shouted “Look ahead”! There were 2 caribou ahead and we stopped the SUV, but you can’t really stop on a dime when the roads are icy. The caribou were 20 metres ahead of us and were trotting away. I wish had captured the caribou moving as it had the most unusual trot – with its hind legs swinging outward, it was quite comical. Maybe it’s because of the icy road.

Moooove….

After that caribou encounter, we saw a small herd of caribous. I think there were probably close to 20.

Porcupine Caribou Herd (I think)

Further down the road was another group, probably part of the same herd. A few minutes later, we saw a moose and her calf laying on the snow, just chilling, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to snap a pic, besides we won’t be able to stop the SUV in time in a safe manner.

Apart from the gorgeous sunrise, sunset and and the desolate but beautiful landscape, that was pretty much it driving to Eagle Plains. We counted less than 15 vehicles through this section.

Resident Golden Retriever at Eagle Plains

We arrived at 1pm and had a hearty lunch at the restaurant. And then for the next few hours we had cabin fever, lol. There’s nothing to do or see at Eagle Plains and the WIFI was down. So, it was a lot of reading and TV watching. Jeff was happy satisfied watching his “man shows” on the Discovery Channel.. I flipped between reading my book, watching TV and taking a nap. Ashleigh went to read in the general area of the hotel.. I guess it’s the lobby. Her reading was constantly interrupted by random people wanting to chat with her.

As we were so bored at Eagle Plains, we can’t see ourselves spending another night there on the return journey. We decided to make it a long day of driving from Inuvik to Dawson City on Tuesday.

The next morning we headed out to Inuvik after breakfast. The road was as good as it can be.. As we were driving in the darkness, I saw a pair of eyes in the distance.. as we approached it, it ran across and voom! Before you know it, it was gone! We think it might have been a wolverine.

The next animal we saw was a red fox! The fox is so cute.. after it crossed the highway, it just sat there and posed for us.

Red fox

We did two ice river crossings today – The Peel River and Mackenzie River. Such a surreal experience knowing that we had previously made these crossings on a ferry.

The lowest temperature on the road today was -36C at Fort MacPherson.

When we arrived at the Arctic Chalet, the temperature was -28C and boy, it’s cold alright. The cold air just cuts right into your nose, it feels like your nose is seizing up and it gets quite uncomfortable – well, at least that’s what us girls feel like.

We finally have clear skies and this might mean a chance to catch the northern lights. Judi, the owner of the chalet said 2am is a good time to try and see it. She said that if she sees at in the middle of the night she will call us… we have set our alarm for 2am and are hoping for the best…

As I was writing this blog (around 7pm), Jeff decided to go out and look for the Aurora Borealis. He went out and was back in again to let us know that the lights are visible. I got dressed quickly, unpacked my tripod, dug out the camera remote control, the balaclava and headlamp. I have to say that I was so excited to see it. It’s just incredible! We’ve never seen anything so beautiful. It’s not as brillant because it’s not that dark yet, but I take what I can get. It’s worth the painful fingers and frozen eyelashes. Not the most spectacular shot, but hey, I’m still learning how to use my camera!

Aurora Borealis. Northern Lights

We will drive on the ice road to Tuktoyaktuk tomorrow to meet our local guide. Stay tuned!