N.Y. Times: The Road to the Top of the World -
A remote town in the Arctic Circle known for caribou, northern lights and frigid winters feels like Canada's last frontier. A highway being built there could change all that. (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/travel/canada-tuk-northwest-territory.html)
QuoteIn the Arctic, roads are magical. They appear in the fall and melt in the spring. Others, buckled by permafrost, undulate in the snow. Many are invisible to the naked eye – caribou migration routes that exist only by instinct. During the sunless, frigid winter, the Arctic Ocean becomes one vast road for polar bears and snowmobiles.
QuoteAmid these roads, a new one is being built, an 85-mile sliver topped with gravel in Canada's Northwest Territories. It will link the town of Inuvik to the smaller village of Tuktoyaktuk, known locally as Tuk. Anywhere else, its creation would be minor, a rounding error for departments. But this road is different, because Tuk sits on the Arctic Ocean. It would be the only public highway to its shores and would fulfill a decades-old dream to link all three Canadian coasts – Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic.
QuoteWhen finished in late 2017, the road to Tuk will be accessible from the Dempster Highway, which begins in the Yukon Territory near Alaska and heads northeast across the Arctic Circle. Driving to Tuk from the United States will be an epic road trip. Starting where I live in Chicago, Tuk will be just over 3,700 miles away.
I suggest moving this to the Canada forum, where there is already some discussion of this highway.
Prudhoe Bay in Alaska and the North Cape in Norway are both farther north than Tuktoyaktuk. The North Cape is even accessible by a paved road, the roads to Tuk and Prudhoe Bay are gravel.
Technically the Dalton ends south of the Arctic Ocean and ocean access is restricted; you have to get a tour from the oil company.
Quote from: Chris on February 13, 2016, 04:27:07 AM
Prudhoe Bay in Alaska and the North Cape in Norway are both farther north than Tuktoyaktuk. The North Cape is even accessible by a paved road, the roads to Tuk and Prudhoe Bay are gravel.
Neither Prudhoe Bay nor the North Cape is part of Canada's highway system. No other nation can claim to link three oceans with their highway network, unless they a) ignore intervening nations (USA) or b) fudge the definition of an ocean (Australia and the "Antarctic Ocean" that sometimes gets defined).
Who else remembers Tuktoyaktuk from the 1995 Molson Ice mega-concert contest?
......Or the Alumni of the University of Tuktoyaktuk with their t-shirts "˜Tuk U'
Quote from: Pete from Boston on February 15, 2016, 01:50:16 AM
Who else remembers Tuktoyaktuk from the 1995 Molson Ice mega-concert contest?
...Vaguely...
I remember meeting some kids from Tuktoyaktuk at the 1989 Canadian Boy Scout Jamboree on PEI. They were about the only people who didn't grumble that the showers had only cold water!