Inuvik is a town of about 3,200 people located 200 kms (120 miles) north of the Arctic Circle. The town has a fairly broad demographic, with 39% Inuvialuit (what we used to call Eskimos when I was growing up) 18% First Nations, 37% non-native. There are even about 100 Muslims, and they even have a small mosque here.
Here is the scenery just before town...
Lots of lakes!
The end of the Dempster Highway!
We parked Sherman at the Visitors Center, and walked down the main street. We didn't have long to wait, and the parade began!
Lots of fun, and everyone having a good time.
After the parade, we were right near the entrance to the campground. The Northwest Territory government parks are more expensive than the Yukon ones. The one here in town is $23.65 per night for an unserviced site (they do have electric available for a couple of dollars more), but they have showers, a laundry, a dump station, and a water fill station. So, we decided to stay for one night even though there are lots of places you could park around town if you wanted to.
Because of "Tuk Fever", the campground is near full almost every night, so we walked around and chose and paid for a site even though Sherman was still parked over at the visitors center.
They're supposed to have activities in the park all afternoon, but we hadn't had lunch yet so we strolled through the park with the intention to return later.
Lots of people enjoying the day.
Free Canada Day cupcakes!
We walked back to the visitors center, had some lunch, and then went inside.
Muskox and me!
We really want to see a Muskox in the wild. They are so prehistoric looking. But they are only located in an area of the north that you have to fly to, so it's unlikely to happen.
Ruth, with a caribou.
We decided to drive Sherman over to his campsite, and then walk back to the park to see some of the activities. But as we were driving over, it started to rain. Definitely an unexpected storm... there had been no rain in the forecast, and the stage at the park with all of the musical equipment wasn't covered. They were scrambling to get things put away as we were driving by.
We got Sherman into his site, and while it was raining, I decided to have a nap. When I woke up, we walked back over to the park.
Everything was put away, and there was nobody around! We guess that they just packed up because of the rain. A shame because there had been some things we had wanted to see. Oh well. So we wandered around town to see the sights.
The Catholic Church has an igloo shape.
Inside the Catholic Church.
Teepee by the road.
Downtown Inuvik.
Usually you put the solar panels on the roof.
But here, the sun is so low in the sky most of the year.
Because of the permafrost, water and sewer lines are all above ground, and all buildings are built on pilings.
Giant community greenhouse for growing veggies
The most northerly greenhouse in North America, and the only community greenhouse of it's kind in the world.
Love Northwest Territories licence plates.
The forecast is supposed to be decent for the next two days, so we're going to take the opportunity to head right to Tuktoyaktuk today. It's only 150 kms (93 miles) so we should be able to do that in 5 hours or so!
And then we'll stay in Tuktoyaktuk until the weather gets good enough to return. It's going to be chilly up by the Arctic Ocean. They're calling for a chance of snow on Thursday, with a high of 3C (37F) and a low of -1C (30F).
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Huge price drop on the Blackstone Dash Portable Grill/Griddle...
I love small town parades. We went to one once where one of the entries was a dog herding goats. Very interesting trip. Take care.
ReplyDeleteWe have been to quite a lot of small town parades and they always amaze us with the enthusiasm and imagination that the people have in putting on such a fun parade.
DeleteIt would have been fun to have seen the dog herding the goats down the road in a parade.
Amazing pictures!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteHow do they keep the water lines from freezing in the winter?
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking us on the journey with you. Picture by picture with all your great details, I literally feel like I have traveled the route.
Love the pace you set, with your eyes ooen.
Our kind of travel.
Thanks.
Happy Canada Day Kevin & Ruth.
They use very thick insulated pipes that are in those "utilidors" and I believe somehow or other they may have control to heat them as well. Hopefully we will learn more about them when we return to Inuvik on our way back from Tuktoyaktuk.
DeleteWe are so glad that you are enjoying our trip and that you feel that you are right there traveling along with us. It is so nice to be able to do this trip so slowly, it gives us time to see as much as we can at a leisurely pace. :-)
Fascinating post, with pics. Thanks for taking us along.
ReplyDeleteWe are glad that you are enjoying our daily posts from this trip, it is certainly an adventure. :-)
DeleteCool photos. We have been to Arctic Circle from Fairbanks - you are much further north. Very interesting photos of life there. Anxious to see your trip to Arctic Ocean! Safe travels!
ReplyDeleteYes, we are definitely much further north than Fairbanks and even more so at Tuktoyaktuk.
DeleteIt should be a few interesting days that we will spend at the Arctic Ocean and with the little community there.
Happy Canada Day! What a fun celebration. Love your header photo, lovely! The mosquitoes a day or so reminded me of the ones I encountered in Montana a week ago. I went to visit my grandparents gravesite and was surrounded by a swarm of the little beasts as soon as I opened the car door. They were so bad we couldn’t stay. I don’t know how people stand them. Sure am enjoying your posts. I know it can’t be easy trying to post from these remote areas.
ReplyDeleteThank you Lori, we enjoyed our Canada Day, just wish we hadn't missed out on some of the shows, not sure if they were cancelled because of the weather or if they were just over quickly. We thought that they were on going throughout the day and into the evening, not just in the afternoon.
DeleteWe are the same, we don't know how people survive up here when they are so bad, we certainly could never do it.
We are happy that you are enjoying our posts. It can be difficult posting sometimes, especially if we don't even have access to the cellular network but surprisingly enough we have only had those two days at Tombstone Territorial Park and the day or two after that where we weren't able to get any internet.
I like the igloo church.
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty neat looking!
DeleteGreat you made it in time for the parade. Looks like fun. Very interesting town to say the least. Enjoy your stay!
ReplyDeleteWe were so happy to have been able to time our arrival just in time for it. We are looking forward to going back in a few day and spend a little more time there and find out more about the town and the people there.
DeleteI didn't know that about the sewer pipes but it makes sense. I guess a lot of northern communities are trying to figure out ways to grow things in winter, the cost of getting healthy vegetables is just too high there otherwise.
ReplyDeleteHopefully when we go back to Inuvik in a few days and spend more time there we will have a clearer picture as to how all the "utilidors" work as well as the community greenhouse. They actually do a small tour of the greenhouse, so that should be interesting. Yeah, fruits and vegetables are expensive up here. Almost every house has it's own little greenhouse as well.
DeleteLove the community greenhouse. Would like to see other communities follow their example
ReplyDeleteWe are looking forward to going back there in a few days time and learning more about the greenhouse. I wish more places had something like this too, mind you many cities do have garden plots for the public to rent.
DeleteInteresting licence plate shapes!
ReplyDeleteNorthwest Territories have always had a polar bear shape as their license plate, at least I think they always have. I was just saying to Kevin the other day that I don't understand why more states or provinces don't have different shapes other than the normal rectangular one.
DeleteForecast says rain Tuesday through Thursday. Google said 6 hour drive from Inuvik To Tuk. I saw a couple of precarious looking bridges across rivers. What's the highway to Tuk called? I wonder what kind of veggies they were growing in the community green house. Lots of questions I have including how do they keep houses warm? Oil or electricity and how they keep water, fuel lines from freezing on vehicles....
ReplyDeleteTake care...only 92 more miles.
Yep, we will just stay put in Tuktoyaktuk until the rain is done with and the road is dry again. The highway to Tuktoyaktuk is called the MacKenzie Valley Highway.
DeleteWhen we go back to Inuvik we will go and check out the greenhouse and give you a full update on it.
They keep their houses warm with either oil or wood and both are very expensive. As for fuel lines on vehicles, they would use gas line antifreeze just like we do everywhere else in Canada during the winter.
I have seen that license plate visiting Ottawa.
ReplyDeleteYep, we have seen it a number of times over the years, even when I was a kid.
DeleteHave you noticed, is the sun significantly higher when it's in the south, as compared to the north? I think it would be way cool to watch it briefly set and then rise again!
ReplyDeleteNo we hadn't really noticed that, we will have to keep our eyes open and check it out. We do notice that it doesn't get nearly as high in the sky as it does further south.
DeleteAt this time of the year the sun never briefly sets, you would have to wait until July 20th for that to happen. It would be neat to see it touch the horizon but it wouldn't go all the way down before going back up, it would be a long process though.
My husband said when you get to Tuk to visit the pogos.
ReplyDeleteI think you mean the pingos. Yes, we want to go and see them. We can actually see them from our window where we are parked but we would like to get a closer look at them.
DeleteNice church 👍
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely and interesting design.
DeleteWould love to be there for the parade, not sure about living there:)
ReplyDeleteWe feel the same way, it is nice to visit but definitely wouldn't want to live there, especially in the winter!
DeleteThe only muskox we have seen in the wild was a group of 6 about 120 miles South of Prudhoe Bay along the haul road the end of May.
ReplyDeleteThey have them here in the Northwest Territories but in order to see them you would have to fly-in to see them, you can't see them from the road.
DeleteThe catholic church was awesome! Learned something new regarding the largest community greenhouse in the world...I guess you have to be creative to live sustainably in such a remote area. Thanks for the great blog!
ReplyDeleteYep, we really like the design of it, very fitting for the Arctic. :-)
DeleteWe are looking forward to getting back to Inuvik and checking out the greenhouse and learning more about it. They used their old ice rink to create the greenhouse space.
Just catching up and I was wanting to know what Tuk fever is? Unable to find anything on google.
ReplyDelete"Tuk Fever" is just a term that a few of the locals use because this is the first summer that there has been a four season road opened all the way to Tuktoyaktuk, other than that they have only had a winter ice road open. So this year there are a lot of people (tourists) wanting to drive all the way to the Arctic Ocean so Tuk (Tuktoyaktuk) has received a lot more visitors to their little town this summer than they normally would.
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