Long-time readers may remember the heady days of my Klondike summers, when I finally fulfilled my dreams of seeing Canada’s far north. Oh, those days seem so far away now, but they are some of the months I will remember most fondly in my old age. They taught me that dreams really do not have deadlines and that achieving them is particularly sweet after you’d given up hope. I may never again drive the Alaska, Klondike and Dempster Highways again, may never again see a show at Diamond Tooth Gertie’s or fly over Tuktoyaktuk’s pingos, but I did it!<\/p>\n
Exploring the north is going to get a little easier for tourists because this coming Wednesday, November 15th, 2017, after years of delays, the all-year gravel road between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk is finally going to open<\/a>. For the first time in Canada’s history, it will be possible to drive year-round to each of our three coasts.<\/p>\n I would like to invite you reread my series about Driving the Dempster Highway<\/a> and to revisit the towns of Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. I feel privileged to have done so and to have spoken to locals so that I know that while this year-round road will change life in Tuk, in some ways not for the better, this road is ultimately a Good Thing worthy of celebration.<\/p>\n Standing in the Arctic Ocean at Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, August 2010<\/p><\/div>\n![](\"http:\/\/travelswithmiranda.uskeba.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/IMGP0324.jpg\")