Moped Trip website

The Dempster Highway

Introduction

 

The Dempster Highway was completed in the summer of 1978, just a matter of days before I traveled north on it.  I figure that I was the first vehicle to travel the entire length from Dawson City to Inuvik and back in the summer (it had been a winter road prior to this), particularly because there was no ferry across the Peel River (NWT) until at least 1979, and possibly later.  How I got across this large river is detailed in the travelogue. The Road wasn't even officially opened until Aug 18, 1979!

The Dempster Highway stretches 457 miles from its start 20 miles east of Dawson City, Yukon.  The first town reached on the Dempster Hwy is Fort MacPherson in the Northwest Territories (NWT), which is 342 miles north of Dawson City.  There is virtually nothing in between, except a gas station/motel at Eagle River (Mile 230).  In 1978 there wasn't even that.  The Road wasn't even officially opened until Aug 18, 1979!

Believe it or not, in spite of its remoteness and long distances the Dempster today (2005) is not the most remote road in Canada! For that you will have to go all the way across Canada to the James Bay Road and Trans-Taiga Road (www.jamesbayroad.com). But that's another story...

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Where is the Dempster Highway?

 

Here is a map of the Dempster Highway

  
  

**Please keep in mind that notes about road conditions, services and traffic volume are applicable to 1978, not today!  The last page has links to more current information about traveling the Dempster Highway.

  

I invite you now to travel with me up the Dempster Highway, slowly, at moped speed, appreciating the spectacular scenery and vast empty spaces as we go along...

  

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