Tuktoyaktuk

Tuktoyaktuk is an Inuvialuit hamlet on the Beaufort Sea, and until 2017 the only land access was a winter ice road; the all-season gravel highway opened that November and made it the first place in Canada where you can drive to the Arctic Ocean. Around the hamlet stand pingos, hills with cores of solid ice that form when a drained lake bed freezes and pushes ground upward; the Tuktoyaktuk area holds roughly thirteen hundred of them, one of the densest concentrations on earth, and Ibyuk Pingo at about forty-nine metres is the tallest in Canada. Eight are protected as a national landmark.

What you actually see

• The pingos - ice-cored hills, including Ibyuk at forty-nine metres.
• The Arctic Ocean - the first Canadian coast reachable by road.
• The Inuvialuit community - a hamlet with a working subsistence economy.
• The dip tradition - visitors swimming in the Beaufort Sea, briefly.

When to go

June to September for the highway in reasonable condition and the midnight sun; the road is open year-round but winter driving is serious. Pingos are visible from the road and reached by boat or a boggy walk.

Honest expectations

The highway is gravel and hard on vehicles and tyres. Services in the hamlet are minimal and expensive. The pingo walk crosses wet tundra and needs a guide or boat.

Nearby

Inuvik lies south down the highway; the Beaufort Sea is at the door.