Published: October 1, 2018, 6:30 PM
Updated: October 11, 2021, 10:22 AM
Road trip
There’s only one public road in North America to the Arctic Ocean: The Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway, which opened last year. It’s 137 kilometres of gravel and sand that heads up from Inuvik to the little community on Canada’s north coast. We drove there in a new Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck to dunk our feet in the ocean and yes, it was cold.
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Sensitive area
The region is very environmentally sensitive, so engineers had to be especially careful when designing the road. Dig down a metre or so and the ground is permanently frozen, called permafrost, and it has to remain frozen if it’s to support the weight of the highway. The road-builders could never dig into the ground or they would melt the permafrost, so instead, they laid a layer of insulating fabric on the surface and then constructed the road on top of that.
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Cold work
Oh, and they could only work when all the ground was frozen, not just the permafrost. That meant only from January to April for four years to actually lay the road several hundred km north of the Arctic Circle, when the temperature was usually around -40, and when there was very little daylight.
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Easy drive
Driving in the Silverado, with the outside temperature a much balmier just-above-freezing and the seat heaters dialed to Medium, you’d never know the road was constructed differently from any other gravel road.
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Remote road
There are no services along the way and no sideroads or even driveways for more than 130 km. There are a few points where the road widens to allow very large vehicles to pass each other, but that’s about it.
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Mackenzie River delta
The treeline ends just north of Inuvik and the road curves gently across the rolling tundra. There are small lakes to each side, well stocked with freshwater fish. The region is considered wetland, on the delta of the Mackenzie River that flows up from Yellowknife.
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Little traffic
There’s not much traffic on the road – perhaps 30 or 40 vehicles in a day. It was originally intended as a supply road for oil and gas exploration, but now there’s a moratorium on the search for new natural resources. The road is used by the 900 residents of Tuktoyaktuk to reach Inuvik, the largest town in the region.
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Tourist attraction
It’s also used by adventurous southern travelers to drive north to the Arctic Ocean, taking the gravel of the 800-km Dempster Highway from Dawson City in the Yukon up to Inuvik, and then up to Tuktoyaktuk – which everybody calls Tuk.
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High Country
Most of the vehicles on the road are pickup trucks, and the new Silverado stood out among them. The most basic Silverado costs $31,145 before taxes and delivery, but we drove north in the top-of-the-line High Country edition, which has an MSRP of $65,205. No surprise there – it’s fully loaded.
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Full line-up
There are eight different trim levels for the new Silverado, including two basic workhorse trucks, three regular everyday trucks and two luxurious trucks. There are two off-road editions among them, with factory 2-inch lifts and adapted suspension. Chevrolet designed the Silverado to appeal to everyone.
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Comfortable ride
The High Country is the most comfortable truck, with thick leather and every kind of driver’s assistance. It even has a powered tailgate that raises and lowers with the touch of a button, like a high-end SUV. It was not the best choice for the gravel road, though – its impressive 22-inch wheels skittered around on the loose stones, and when the surface turned to washboard, it was best to slow right down.
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End of the road
After a couple of hours of driving across the lonely tundra, we reached Tuk. There are a few hastily organized bed-and-breakfasts but no restaurants. There’s not even a campground. Visitors are directed out to the Point, which is a short spit of rock and stones that provides some shelter for the harbor.
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Oceanside
This is as far north as the road goes in mainland Canada. It’s also the only road to the Arctic Ocean that’s open to everyone. In Alaska, the Dalton Highway reaches the ocean at Prudhoe Bay, but it’s a company town and the road is closed a couple of kilometres short of the shoreline. If you don’t have a work permit, you have to stop at the neighbouring community of Deadhorse, where you can’t even see the coast.
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Tuk town
Tuk is a very friendly town and the residents are getting used to having visitors drive up from the south. There used to be a few hardy tourists who would drive on the ice road from Inuvik each winter, but that temporary road is no longer constructed. This season, several thousand visitors made the long trip north to the ocean.
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Brrrr!
We dunked our feet in the salt water but it was only just above freezing, so we didn’t stay in there for long!
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Northern dance
Some local dancers entertained us at the Point and we had dinner with some community elders, then headed back south to Inuvik.
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Trail Boss
This time, we drove in the off-road Trail Boss edition of the mid-priced LT Silverado, which has an MSRP of $49,815. Its 18-inch wheels and monotube suspension were far better suited to the loose gravel, though we still needed to slow down on the washboard sections.
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Off limits
It would be a long drop down on much of the highway if we did drive into the ditch, and we’d do terrible damage to the tundra. Apparently, tire tracks don’t fade on the soft ground for at least 30 years.
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Keeping watch
Regular patrols watch the highway, both for vehicles in distress and vehicles parked beside the road. Their drivers might be picking berries or fishing or hunting legally, but they might also be poaching. There’s a 3,000-strong reindeer herd nearby that’s protected from indiscriminate hunting, and much of the land is privately owned by the Inuvuliat community. The land seems empty, but it’s not. Far from it.
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Connected to Canada
We reached Inuvik safely and still before sunset, but the days are rapidly growing shorter now. Winter is coming to the Arctic for another cold, dark season, but that doesn’t mean it goes into hibernation. The new road to Tuk will keep the communities connected, and the new Silverado will help make the drive easy and comfortable.
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