Practicalities
The Dempster is a gravel road and the 741-kilometre journey by car takes anything between twelve and fifteen hours in good conditions. It is not, however, a journey to be undertaken lightly. If you're cycling or motorbiking, both increasingly popular ways of doing the trip, you need to be prepared for rough camping, and should call at the NWT Information Centre on Front Street in Dawson City (May-Sept 9am-7pm; tel 993-6167 or 1-800/661-0788) for invaluable practical as well as anecdotal information from the staff. If you're without your own transport you might pick up a lift here, or take the twelve-hour Dempster Highway Bus Service run by Dawson City Courier (tel 993-6688). Departures currently leave from Dawson to Inuvik on Monday and Friday between June and mid-September (with returns from Inuvik on Wed and Sun), but these details are subject to change, so check before planning a trip. Tickets cost $216.45 one-way to Inuvik, less to Eagle Plains and other drop-offs en route. If you're driving or biking it's also worth checking that the two ferry services (tel 1-800/661-0752) on the route at Peel River and Tsiigehtchic (formerly Arctic Red River) are running when bad weather threatens, and that you have sufficient fuel in a car to make the long stretches. In the Dempster's Yukon section there is accommodation only at the 32-room Eagle Plains Hotel (tel 993-2453; $100-125, camping $10; year-round), 363km north of Dawson. There are also three rudimentary Yukon government campsites at Tombstone Mountain, 72km north of Dawson; at Engineer Creek (194km); and at Rock River (447km). In July and August there's usually a trailer information kiosk at Tombstone Mountain with details of good trails from the campsite. Fort McPherson also has a small summer-only visitor centre in the log building by the monument to Dempster's "Lost Patrol". Currently the only other accommodation is in the tiny Gwich'in Dene village of Fort McPherson , 115km south of Inuvik soon after crossing the Peel River. The lodgings amount to the Bell River Bedrooms (tel 952-2465, fax 952-2212; $80-100), with showers, laundry, cable TV and self-serve breakfast; and the Tetlichi B&B (tel 952-2356; $80-100), just one double room with use of kitchen and laundry. There's also the unserviced NWT government Nutuiluie Territorial Campground (547km from Dawson) 10km south of Fort McPherson ($10; June-Sept). For tours from the village, contact the local Dempster Patrol (tel 952-2053), which runs interesting trips such as visits to the Shildii Rock, a spot sacred to the Tet'lit Gwich'in, trips to an abandoned Gwich'in camp, and themed day-tours by boat such as "On the Trail of the Lost Patrol". The even tinier settlement of Tsiigehtchic (formerly Arctic Red River), 80km south of Inuvik, was founded as a mission in 1868 - a red-roofed mission church from 1931 still stands - acquiring a Hudson's Bay post soon after. Since 1996 it has been known by its Dene aboriginal name, which means "mouth of the red-coloured river".
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