Driving the remote Dempster Highway to the Arctic Ocean in our VW Vanagon Westfalia.

We are at the mile zero of the Dempster Highway. Topping up on gas again. We just got it in Dawson City. It took like, I don't know, a lot, a liter or two, not much. We wouldn't have a lot of gas because the first, I guess the first, between this gas station and the next is the longest stretch we've heard. So we've talked to some people in Dawson City we camp with. They said that the road's in, some said horrible shape, some said it was fine, so you never know. Flat tires, the rain has been coming down today, so that's probably part of the problem they had. It's supposed to dry off the next few days. So today it's almost four o'clock. We're leaving Dawson. We're going to go down the road a bit, just camp for the night, see how the weather is in the morning, and then take the thousand kilometer drive up to the Arctic Ocean. You excited for that, Nancy? No. Yes. Hopefully, at least it'll be better on a nicer day. We're excited for this. Good morning. We made camp about 30 miles up the Dempster here. Just a big kind of gravel pull out to kind of get away from mosquitoes a little bit. It rained on and off all night, but this morning it's beautiful out. The clouds are moved out. It's nice and sunny out. It's nice and breezy to keep the mosquitoes away, so it's fantastic. A funny story is we pulled into camp last night, and I was kind of checking the van out a little bit, and we have this extra two-gallon gas can on the back with a ratchet strap on it. I get to camp, look, and the ratchet strap is gone, but the can is still there somehow. We drove down this washboardy road. I don't know if the strap broke. It fell off, whatever, but the can survived. It didn't fall off, so it puts the new straps on it. Hopefully, that's the last we have a problem with that, but that would have kind of sucked to lose our extra gas can on the first 30 miles up the Dempster. But yeah, so we're gonna air the tires out a bit to make the ride a bit more comfortable and maybe reduce the chance of punctures and see how far we can make it today. But it's gorgeous out. The Dempster Highway was opened in 1959 to aid in oil exploration near the settlement of Eagle Plains. Named after William Dempster, the route roughly follows an old dog sled trail from Dawson City to Fort McPherson. This gravel and dirt highway has limited resources with only four gas and supply stops along with almost 900 kilometers of length all the way to the Arctic Ocean. The road passes through the gorgeous Tombstone Territorial Park, which offers a unique wilderness of rugged peaks, permafrost landforms, and abundant wildlife. The views here are unreal and we took our time to soak up as much of it as we could. We keep stopping every few minutes because should we do drone shots or take video because it's just like, I don't know if it comes through in here, but this is insane. This is so beautiful. This might be the most beautiful place we visit so far up in Alaska, Yukon, everywhere. Yes. And what a beautiful day. Yep. At this rate, I think it's a week to get up there. That's okay. Which is fine. So road conditions varied from smooth gravel, hammering washboards, and rough rock. You never knew what to expect around the next corner. We stopped this overlook to use the restroom and stuff. And I don't know if you can see much behind me. It's just, it's amazing out here. There's so much stuff we haven't filmed. This is our first day on the Dempster. If we were trying to film everything, this would be a 10 hour long video. So you need to get up here if you want to see it all because it is outstanding. We made it to the Eagle Plains gas station. We've traveled 240 miles since last gas on this one tank. So we'll see how much it's going to cost me. I don't know if I put enough in. I said $200 max. I don't really know how much that's going to be in liters, but we're going to fill this thing up. But I'm glad I made it here in one tank. It took 49 liters. So somebody can, in the comments, tell me what that is in miles per gallon. 240 miles. So we got gas. We're going to stay here in the parking lot of the Eagle Plains hotel. It's free. Lots of people are doing it here. A lot of motorcyclists here too. It's kind of a nice little place out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. It's got a good breeze. Obviously no mosquitoes. Got a lounge. Yeah. I've been going there. Little table. Had some drinks. They had 12 bucks a beer. Probably. But we already made dinner earlier. We were hungry. It's like 7.30 now, which is late for us to get to camp. But it was a good long day. 230 miles or so. It was a long day. Up early the next morning to continue north, we were soon greeted by an adorable family of black bears running away from the road and into the forest. Here we are. We made it to the Arctic Circle. Pretty awesome, babe. Driving from Portland to the Arctic Circle. That's pretty legit. Nice job. This remote route has two ferry crossings. One near Fort McPherson and the other just before Inupiaq, which only run during the summer. In the winter, the rivers freeze and an ice road becomes available for the locals. We came into Inupiaq pretty late last night. Again around 7 and got this spot on the lake here just off the highway, which is kind of nice. Today is the day we hopefully get up to the Arctic Ocean and get up to Tuk. We have some chores to do in town first a bit. Gas and then maybe a little bit of groceries. But then it's the last 80 or so miles to Tuk, which we've heard the road is quite a bit worse than this section up to Inupiaq, but we'll find out. But the plan is to try and stay the night at the Arctic Ocean tonight, so cross our fingers. The road from Inupiaq to Tuktoyaktuk was only completed in 2017 and finally linked the remote town of Tuk to the rest of Canada in the summer months. The road is still soft in places as you work to pack down the gravel on the way. But it's not as bad as it used to be. As you drive north on the Dempster, the landscape changes to tundra that is dotted with hundreds of beautiful lakes all around. It was hard not to stop and just be in awe of what was around. But we had a goal to make to get to Tuk that night. Tuktoyaktuk, usually known as Tuk, is a tiny village right along the Arctic Ocean with less than a thousand permanent residents. This town has limited resources for travelers, but does boast a gas station, a few grocery stores, an airport, and of course camping right on the Arctic Ocean. We did it! We drove our Westie to the Arctic Ocean. We're in Tuk. What a long three days it took to get here from Dawson City, but wow. It's gorgeous. This is great weather. It's beautiful. It's a bit windy, but my goodness. We did it, babe. The Arctic Ocean. We planned on camping here. I think they charge money now, but whatever. We're gonna just hang out here for a day or so and then make the drive back tomorrow. But I'm so excited. I've been dreaming of doing this drive forever, way before I had a Westie on dual sport bikes and stuff, but wow. I'm so excited. Thanks for putting up with me on this whole side quest on our trip. Uh, can I get a little thing of muktuk? Yeah, I think so. Uh, did you? Yeah, I think so. Let's start with that. We'll start with that. Yeah, next door. Okay, thank you. So we have a plate of muktuk coming. Oh, yeah, it's Nate. N-A-T-E. It's kind of what you'd expect. It's a little rubbery. Uh, yeah. Like fishy? It's not bad. I might get the orange and pink. Good. Yeah. Want some? Okay. Some locks to the shirts. That's why we just ordered some more of them. Oh, yeah. Did you guys sign the book? I did. Yeah. Okay. Not my thing. Thank you. You swallowed it already? No. I'm probably trying. Oh. It's very distinct flavor. I guess that's all for me. One last thing to do in Tuk before we leave. Get in the Arctic Ocean. If you haven't been to Tuk, go now. This place is pretty amazing. Ready, babe? My feet hurt.