August 18, Peace River, AB to Fort Providence, Northwest Territories - 430 Miles

Today's run was to the great Northwest Territories (NWT), on our way to the gold mining town of Yellowknife.  To visit Yellowknife is one of our prime goals, it being the farthest North city in NWT, and the standard by which knowledgeable travelers measure your progress to the great Canadian North.  

We got close to being in Yellowknife last year on our northern trip, but if we told northern Canadians we came close, they would say "that's not good enough - you haven't been to Northwest Territories unless you've been to Yellowknife".  So, that's what occasioned the trip this year.

There is only one paved road into NWT, and it takes you through upper Alberta grain fields and forests.  The grains include mainly of wheat and barley, with hay crops and Canola crops.  Since we are getting quite far North, the growing season is short and late to start, so the grain fields were more green than those golden fields of grain further South.  It makes for a mix of beautiful fields and forests.

Also we saw the evidence of trees growing with short growing seasons and with Permafrost below their roots.  These combine for short skinny trees, mostly Black Spruce.  There are also still Spruce, Fir, Aspen, and Birch trees in this area.

Of course, we had to stop at the visitors center on entering Northwest Territories, and become members of the "Order of Arctic Adventurers, 60^o North Chapter".  (Well, there aren't too many people willing to come as far North as 60^o.)

Then it was on to the little town of Enterprise, where we found the "Ice Cream Lady", that Norm and I met last year.  (She and her husband have a Gold Wing, too, so we had a nice little chat - we had come about 2,700 miles from Albuquerque to say hello, and get an ice cream cone!)

Then finally we crossed the "Mighty Mackenzie" river, which is a huge river running to the Arctic Ocean.  We took a ferry across, and ended our day in a peaceful forested campground.

At this point, we took Deane's Suzuki V-Strom out of the trailer, for him to ride on the nasty gravel roads for the next few days, and put his Gold Wing into the trailer which Kay was pulling with the motor home.  (That's what we brought the V-Strom for.)

Back to Northern Canada and Alaska Homepage

Back to Trip Index

Next day