INUVIK to TUKTOYAKTUK

 August 25, 2023

INUVIK – TUKTOYAKTUK

Italics - tour description
Today will be memorable; we’ll travel along the expansive Mackenzie River delta toward the Arctic coast. At the river's entrance into the Arctic Ocean, the road turns northeast and travels along the coastline of the Arctic Ocean toward the village of “Tuk” as it is known by residents. Not far from town, you’ll see the first of several ‘pingos’. These are mountains literally made of ice; heaved-up season after season with the annual freeze and thaw. The tallest is over 100m! We will be met by local guides who will take us on a tour of their unique village. Stops along the way include the historic Lady of Lourdes schooner and some of Tuk’s famous community buildings such as sod houses, churches and the community “freezer”; a hollowed-out section of permafrost located deep underground. You’ll also see the Northern Early Warning site (formerly DEW Line) and even get a chance to dip your toe in the Arctic Ocean! You’ll also be invited to a local resident’s home for a glimpse at home life in a northern community. Accommodation: Tuktoyaktuk

Departure 8:30

Weather cold!

Friday after a very basic provided breakfast (with nothing gluten free although it had been made clear to Leo) we leave at 8:30 for Tuktoyaktuk, on another rainy day and bumpy road which turns out to have no bathroom spots on a 4 hour drive.

As we leave, Leo asks if we want to stop at the liquor store because there isn't any liquor available in Tuk!

4 hours on the road and the toilets are locked! John was fine, he just ran behind the building!

The Northern arm of the Trans Canada Trail (now known as the Great Trail) winds along the Mackenzie River, crosses the delta and ends at the community of Tuktoyaktuk. A monument marks the northern end of the trail.

Tuktoyaktuk English: /tʌktəˈjæktʌk/, or Tuktuyaaqtuuq  is an Inuvialuit hamlet located near the Mackenzie River delta at the northern terminus of the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway. One of six Inuvialuit communities it is commonly referred to by its first syllable, Tuk. 

Tuk is the farthest north you can drive in Canada. It sits at the end of the 140-kilometre Inuvik-Tuk highway, but many people choose to take a longer road trip along the fabled Dempster Highway, leading from Dawson City in the Yukon through many of the Western Arctic stunning communities to Inuvik. The Inuvik-Tuk highway is the only place in North America where you drive a public highway to the Arctic Ocean.

 Known as Port Brabant after British colonization, in 1950 it became the first Indigenous settlement in Canada to reclaim its traditional name.

Tuktoyaktuk is the anglicized form of the native Inuvialuit place-name, meaning "resembling a caribou". According to legend, a woman looked on as some caribou, common at the site, waded into the water and turned into stone, or became petrified. Today, reefs resembling these petrified caribou are said to be visible at low tide along the shore of the town.

Pingos are ice-cored hills that form in recently drained lakes. The unfrozen ground directly beneath the lake, called “talik,” is surrounded by permanently frozen ground called permafrost. After the lake drains and the water-saturated sediment at the bottom of the lake bed becomes exposed, its surface begins to freeze.

Tuktoyaktuk sits in the midst of the world’s largest concentration of Pingos (cone shaped hills with a core of ice). There are approximately 1,350 on the Tuktoyaktuk peninsula, about one quarter of the world’s Pingos. One of these Pingos, named Ibyuk, is the highest Pingo in Canada (160 feet and still growing) and is thought to be over 1,000 years old. Ibyuk and seven other Pingos make up the Pingo National Landmark. Local outfitters offer guided services to the Landmark. Or you can see smaller Pingos right in the community of Tuk, where a building is perched atop one rounded Pingo. Pingos are often used as navigational aids by the locals.

We eat our lunch in the van as it is raining and cold. Into Tuktoyaktuk and we have some time to kill as our guide isn't ready for us. But it is raining as we approach the Arctic Sea!

S had some wine left over (from Eagle Plains) so we toasted A's 75th birthday!

Tuktoyaktuk is the only community in Canada on the Arctic Ocean that’s connected to the rest of the country by public road and the furthest north someone can drive in Canada.

Residents of Tuktoyaktuk still hunt for food, often travelling on the land to traditional hunting or fishing spots for harvesting purposes.

We get settled into our rooms at Roger's house, not impressed!

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Roger climbs into Leo's van and takes us on a guided tour. 
Roger Gruben, was raised in Tuk as a hunter of whales, caribou, polar bears and geese, but became a radio talk-show host after attending college and returning to Inuvik. From 1984-1994 he was arguably the most powerful person in the Western Arctic as CEO of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the group founded on the millions from the land settlement.

Although Tuk is north of the treeline, some of its shores are strewn with tangles of driftwood, including large logs and stumps. Through spring breakup, these logs are ripped from the banks of the Liard and Mackenzie River and are dragged down river by ice and river currents, to be finally caught in the sheltered bays of the Beaufort Sea. As the only Arctic community with a source of wood, originally the people built and lived in sod houses, rather than traditional igloos. They also used wood for fires.

He tells us of his life in a residential school (Anglican). We sit and get numb/frozen listening to him  inside the Catholic church.

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Donated on behalf of Pope Pius XI in the 1930s, the schooner Our Lady of Lourdes sailed the Beaufort Sea for decades, delivering supplies to far-flung Catholic missions and carrying Inuvialuit children to Catholic residential schools.

It's 5 PM time for dinner...at Grandma's Kitchen. Place your order at the window and then sit inside a house on the right. 

Our dining view. Burgers (again) but these are delicious and the buns are homemade. Need to use the washroom, she'll let you go into her house!

That's Grandma on the far right, she was so surprised when John tipped her.

Leo drops us back at Leo's and we read for the rest of the evening. I got up at midnight to use the bathroom and it was still daylight outside!

And it will always be known for its fictitious university, the infamous University of Tuktoyaktuk-- emblazoned on hundreds of thousands of T-shirts that travelled the world.

Tuktoyaktuk NT - Inuvik NT - Whitehorse YT - Vancouver BC - Toronto ON Aug 26 - 28

 August 26 2023

Saturday we are first up and have coffee and toast with Roger. We were in the van at 9:30 for the trip back to Inuvik.

But first a stop to dip toes in the Arctic Ocean.

No, I didn't bother!

4 hours later we are back in Inuvit and our rooms are ready at 1:30. It paid to throw a hissy fit the other day about the broken elevator, we got a room on the ground floor.

It would have made more sense to go straight to the airport from Tuk, rather than overnighting in Inuvik. There is NOTHING  in Inuvik. 

We spent the afternoon wandering around town. 

Fun Facts About Inuvik

Inuvik was built in the 1950s to replace Aklavik, which kept flooding.

The name means “place of man” in Inuvialuktun.

The sun never sets in summer, and in winter, it does not rise. These extremes make for unforgettable travel experiences.

An inukshuk (or inuksuk, plural: inuksuit) is a stone landmark traditionally built by Inuit people in the Arctic regions of Canada. These structures, often resembling human figures, serve multiple purposes including navigation, marking hunting grounds, or conveying messages. Inuksuit are deeply significant in Inuit culture, representing guidance, safety, and the interconnectedness of people and the land. They are also widely recognized as symbols of Canadian identity and Indigenous heritage. 

The word "inukshuk" means "in the likeness of a human" in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit.

They are typically built from stones or boulders, carefully stacked without the use of mortar or glue. 

Smudging is an Indigenous tradition which involves the burning of sweetgrass, sage, and/or cedar. Sage and cedar smudges produce a very strong and distinct aroma but the smoke associated with it is minimal and lasts a very short time. Sweetgrass has a very mild aroma and produces less smoke. A smudge is burned primarily for purification and to help to create a positive mind set.

Checking prices.

This bleach-white building, capped by a silvery dome meant to imitate the Inuvialuit snow-houses of old, dates back to Inuvik’s early days as a planned community.

Built in 1960 by a team of volunteers, Our Lady of Victory church was designed by Catholic missionary Maurice Larocque – an experienced carpenter who had no formal architectural training. Construction was actually completed without a building permit because the government officials in Ottawa couldn’t understand Larocque’s blueprints.

Nevertheless, Larocque knew a thing or two about building in the Arctic. The round shape of the structure mitigates the damage caused by frost heaving. The church is also the only major building in Inuvik that doesn’t rest on piling. Its foundation consists of a bowl-shaped concrete slab on top of a bed of gravel. The gravel acts as insulation, stopping the heat of the building above from melting the permafrost underneath.

Wood for the church was floated down the Mackenzie River from Fort Smith, nearly 2,000 kilometres away. Inside, old hockey sticks were repurposed to floor a walkway in the cupola and the interior walls feature paintings of the Station of the Cross by local Inuvialuit artist Mona Thrasher.

We had great plans and walked over to the only restaurant in town, Alestine's, opens at 5. There was a table of 5 waiting in front of us and we were told it would be at least an hour's wait. Plan B - hustle to the liquor store and then get take-out in the hotel. The four of us dined in our room with wine!

Sunday was a total waste of a day. Leo met us at 11 for a sightseeing tour of Inuvik. But it is Sunday and mass was taking place at the church (we had been inside yesterday) but they managed a quick visit. 

He took us to the MacKenzie river that becomes the ice road in winter.

The restaurant that we wanted to go to last night.

Then the Visitors Centre, oh, it is closed on weekends!

He then takes us to an artist's home where she sells her local products..

In Inuvik, the water, sewer, and heating pipes are housed in a distinctive above-ground structure called a utilidor due to the presence of permafrost. These utilidors are essentially insulated, box-like structures that keep the pipes elevated above the ground. This design prevents the pipes from freezing and thawing with the permafrost, which could damage them and disrupt the town's essential servic

Back at the local store.

We ended up killing time back in the hotel lobby, there are no coffee shops, bars, restaurants etc to spend time. 

On the way to the airport we make a stop at the Inuvik sign.

We stop in Old Crow and Dawson City finally arriving in Whitehorse at 11 PM (we gained an hour).

And we got a decent snack!

Monday we pick up some souvenirs and have breakfast at Burnt Toast, where we recognize one of the servers as our server last Sunday night at G&P.

We have a late checkout at noon and then wait in the lobby for the shuttle at 1:30.

We fly Air Canada Business Class to Vancouver.

We spend a couple of hours in the Vancouver lounge.

Business class to Toronto overnight, we are delayed leaving but make up the time in transit, landing on Tuesday morning around 6:30.

Tuesday we get home and head to bed until around noon. 

Final Thoughts?

I'm glad we did it. We loved Whitehorse. We loved seeing what we saw and glad we got to experience the Arctic. But I would warn anyone about the vast distances to get anywhere. We hated staying in someone's home. We hated the lack of modern conveniences, restaurants, bars, hotels.  

Although the tour guide was nice, Leo didn't have the skills and organization to be a tour guide. There were wasted opportunities that could have provided a better experience.

The van was a rusty bucket that didn't help the tour. The shocks were gone, bucket seats uncomfortable.

Inuvik was a total waste of time, the town has nothing but poverty. 

Going to the Arctic Ocean was a once in a lifetime experience as was 24 hours of daylight.

Going to Dawson City and panning for gold were worth it.

There were two older women on the tour with us. Anne was a lovely, intelligent, interesting 75 yo from Victoria. Sandra was a recent widow, her first trip on her own, kudos to her, however she was a little naive and thought everything was great. I wrote a scathing review to the company, unpublished, of course and this is her review, published.

And really? You want me to pay for the photos the guide took? In this day and age??