First, a map to get you oriented. Aklavik is located on a channel of the Peel River, towards the west side of the central part of the vast Mackenzie River Delta. An interactive version of the map can be found here. Having driven the ice road from Inuvik, my...

I got up at about 03:15 today. First thing (as always), I went out onto the deck and checked the sky. There was a very faint glow that was probably aurora, but the current report showed a Kp of under 2, so there was basically no chance of getting...

On Tuesday, April 9th, my friend Tyson and I drove the ice road from Inuvik to Aklavik, but this post shows more than the title indicates. We also drove back to Inuvik in very different weather conditions, took a side trip on the ice road to historic Reindeer Station,...

One of the most iconic and beloved buildings in the circumpolar North is Inuvik’s Roman Catholic church, Our Lady of Victory, commonly called “the Igloo Church” because of its shape. I told my friend Tyson that my #1 wish was to see inside the church again and photograph it...

Although I’m not nearly finished showing you the Arctic trip, it’s Spring and the weather is wonderful, so there are other things happening that I also want to show you. I probably wouldn’t have posted about our outing to photograph the migrating swans yesterday, but then as I went...

In this post I’m going to assemble three little tours of downtown Inuvik, starting at 9:35 pm after getting back from Tuktoyaktuk, with a look at some of the public art downtown. First is a mural painted by Brian Macdonald in 1994 – it shows the Rec Hall, constructed...

Although Tuktoyaktuk was mostly just part of the package this time, on my first visit 39 years ago, Tuk was the target destination, and the many other places we visited were just bonuses. The first photo today is a flashback to that 1985 visit, with my Cessna 172, C-GWDM,...

On Monday, April 8th, Tyson and I drove from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk and back, with a lot of exploring and some visiting in Tuk. Here’s another orientation map – during a 3-day period, we would visit all five of the communities shown on the government road conditions map. The...

I arrived at the Inuvik Mike Zubko Airport on Sunday, April 7th. After not coming over the horizon at all for 30 days, the sun returned in early January, and Inuvik is well on its way to a 56-day period of 24-hour daylight. On the 7th, the sun set...

I arrived home yesterday evening from an Awesome Arctic Adventure, and am now sorting several hundred photos for probably five blog posts. In brief summary, I flew from Whitehorse to Inuvik to meet a friend on Sunday, we drove to Tuktoyaktuk and back on Monday, drove the ice road...