The Cook Canadian Adventure 2017: The Arctic Circle, Ferry Crossings, Inuvik, and Tuktoyaktuk August 10, 2017 Day 14

click on the photo to be taken to a FULL SCREEN View

my photos are right off the camera and John shot his in vivid mode, they have not been photo-shopped

We got on the road at 5:30 in the morning so we would catch the first ferry. We talked to some truckers who gave us some misinformation (we think perhaps purposely) and left earlier than we needed to. We didn't make many photo stops because of their info, as we were afraid that if we missed the second ferry, the wait time for it to return would be an hour and a half. This turned out not to be true, it was only about 15 minutes.

The Arctic Circle, the official location at km 405.5
We have reached the Land of the Midnight Sun. On June 22, the sun never falls below the horizon. We have noticed that the sun sets after 11:30 while we have been this far north and rises a few hours later.

Yukon-Northwest Territories border km 465
We are now leaving the unglaciated landscape of Eagle Plain and entering a landscape that was scoured by the Laurentide Ice Sheet. At the point, the highway markers restart at 0 km; we still have 272 km to go to Inuvik. We have also changed time zones and have moved our clocks ahead an hour.

You can see the Richardson Mountains in the background as the sun rises.

Peel River Crossing NWT km 74
We arrived at the first ferry 45 minutes before it started for the day. There was one pickup with a family inside there before us. They missed the last ferry of the night and had to sleep there.

This is a cable ferry crossing. It is free and operates from 8:30 am to 12:30 am daily from early June through mid-October. In the winter, when the river freezes, there is an ice bridge at the crossing. Locally it is called "Eight Ile" as it is 8 miles from Fort McPherson.

Fort McPherson NWT km 86
We stopped to get gas, nothing else was open, not even a bathroom.

Mackenzie River Crossing NWT km 142
The morning was quite foggy at the second ferry crossing. This was a three point crossing. We just missed the ferry, but it didn't take it long to return. this ferry operated between 9 am and 12:30 am between 3 points: the Inuvik side of the Mackenzie River, Tsiigehtchic (1 km away) and the Fort McPherson side of teh Mackenzie /river. this river does not frees up. It is a free ferry. From here it is a 2 hour ride to Inuvik.
On a clear day, they say it is a good place to photograph the confluence of the Arctic Red River and the Mackenzie river.

Welcome to Inuvik km 272
This town was built in 1955 as an administration center in the Westrn Arctic. It is currently Canada's largest city in the Arctic Circle with a population of about 3,400.