Nowhere to be: Headed to the Dempster

View from camp in Tombstone Park on the Dempster. A dusting of snow the previous night.......mid August.

After doing the South and North Canol roads in the Yukon I headed over to Faro and the old town of Keno. Both old mining towns. Keno is an interesting place and another one of those towns where you have to drive in on bad roads. When the road ends, after about 60 miles, you've made it to Keno. Weather was really bad while there so I didn't do much other than walk around checking out the area, camped for the night and left the following morning heading to Dawson City to resupply before going up the Dempster. A drive up to a ridgeline supposedly offered an amazing view of the area but we were socked in due to low clouds so I skipped trying to get up there. Will give me a reason to come back!

One of two dining establishments in Keno. Excellent pizza if you can catch him open. He doesn't really have set hours. Says he's open when the mood strikes him.

Some mining equipment on the road in

Perfect set up for the bachelor in Faro.

I had done part of the Dempster last year when I rode up on the bike Chores are done - I'm going to Alaska but this time I wanted to get to the Arctic Circle and hopefully up to the Richardson Mountain Range in the Northwest Territories. Another highlight of the Dempster is the Tombstone Provincial Park which is located about 80 miles in. A beautiful park that is true wilderness. One road goes through it with one small visitor center. If you want to see anything else, you hike. No tourist shops selling crap t-shirts, trinkets, postcards, ice cream, etc., etc.. It's a great area because of this and its remoteness. It isn't overrun with tourist......yet. A must do if ever up this way. Most people driving the Dempster go all the way into Inuvik to say they drove to the end of the road. Not being one to care much about punching that ticket I opted to spend more time in the more remote areas for possible wildlife viewing. I ended up spending a week on the Dempster just poking along, camping in great spots, fishing and viewing lots of wildlife. The Dempster begins about 20 miles outside of Dawson City and ends in Inuvik 450 miles later. It's an all dirt/gravel road which is fairly maintained and can be driven by passenger vehicles most of the time. When it gets wet is where the fun begins. It can quickly turn into a mud fest after a few hours of rain. I only had about a full day of muck and mud and it was a mess. Was told that when it gets really bad vehicles other than four-wheel drive have to simply wait for it to dry out before proceeding. There are worse places to be stranded due to rain.

Wildlife viewing along this corridor is excellent. I even saw two large black wolves but didn't have the camera ready and failed to get a shot.