The Dempster Highway (Southbound), Northwest Territories and Yukon Territory Canada - Summer 2008

ALL Photos © K. Dewey, School of Natural Resources, Applied Climate Sciences, UNL.

Photo Set Five

Crossing the Arctic Circle on the Dempster Highway	This portion of the road (those are exposed rocks) was bone jarring and we reduced our speed to less than 10 mph for several miles.
The Eagle Plains Hotel, our overnight stay	they offer a FREE carwash for those staying at the hotel
A clean car emerges, but it	only stays clean for an hour before we run into more rain & mud
Purple fireweed along the Dempster Highway	Fireweed along the Dempster Highway
Pot holes and an oncoming camper sharing my lane! Not good.	Fortunately there was very little traffic, just lots of potholes
An Arctic Thaw Lake resulting from climate warming in this area and underlying permafrost melting.	"Two Moose Lake" along the Dempster Highway.  There were no moose went we went north, but several when we returned south
	"Thaw Lakes" are evidence of a rapidly changing climate  in the Arctic. Thaw lakes were also evident in the Alaska Arctic. Click here for the photo set from the Alaska Arctic, Dalton Highway, which has more information about Thaw Lakes.
Click Here for a larger image that is more easily read.
Dempster Highway scenery	Dempster Highway scenery
Dempster Highway scenery	More car rattling, bone jarring potholes
We saw numerous vehicles with flat tires resulting from hitting these potholes	We had new mud and snow tires on a small SUV and had NO tire problems. We still recommend though having extra spare tires.
We rounded a curve and found another hazard, the trimming of brush on the shoulder of the Dempster highway.	After an almost 1,000 mile round trip on rough roads we return to the beginning point of the highway.  Spectacular scenery and seeing the midnight sun north of the Arctic Circle made it all worthwhile!

The publication "The Milepost", 2008 Edition, was used as the guidebook for this entire trip.  Their motto is "Since 1949, The Bible of North Country Travel".  This publication is truly the essential guide to everything you need to know to get the most out of your trip along this historic highway.  It includes mile by mile logs of not only the Alaska Highway but numerous other routes as well.  It includes information about sightseeing, wildlife viewing, camping & fishing, road conditions, and accommodations as well as many useful helpful hints to get the most out of your traveling in this part of North America.  The Milepost is updated annually by their field editors and is available at most book stores that have travel sections.  It is also available on-line from Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  It is also available via their Internet site: http://milepost.com/.  We strongly recommend this publication for anyone planning on travelling to this spectacular region of the world.