Trip Report: Peace River Alberta to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories May 20-24 2010

[TacoRocco]

Trip Report: Peace River, Alberta to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories - May 20-24, 2010

Note: Please excuse the crappy pics - Planning on getting a better camera and taking some photography lessons.

Day 1: Fri. May 21, 2010
Objectives:
1. Depart Peace River, Alberta
2. Cross 60th Parallel
3. Visit waterfalls along Hwy 3 in NWT
4. Cross Mackenzie River at Fort Providence
5. Set up camp Fred Henne Territorial Park in Yellowknife, NWT

Map


First stop for gas before we head up to NWT - High Level, Alberta



Leaving High Level



At the famous 60th Parallel 'border' between Alberta and NWT - The little guy in the picture follows me on all my travels - Its a little Serbian 'action figure' I picked up in Belgrade, Serbia




Getting up to the Mackenzie River crossing right after you pass the 60th there is a stretch of some really beautiful waterfalls along the highway. We found that visiting the Twin Falls and Lady Evelyn Falls Territorial Parks was a nice break from the driving and were really nice to see. Even though the weather was crappy.





Here's an interesting off-road Rustang we spotted in Enterprise, NWT

 

[TacoRocco]

Day 1 Con't

To get to Yellowknife you need to cross the Mackenzie River In the winter there is an ice road and in the summer a ferry takes vehicles over. The ferry called the 'Merv Hardie' is a free service provided by the Govt of NWT.





Well since we decided to visit on the first long weekend of the year and the river and Slave Lake were just going through a thaw the ice road was closed and the ferry was operating as ice would permit.
Arriving at the ferry crossing we found a lineup of vehicles and some people that were waiting anywhere between 2 to 16 hrs to get across.
Luckly, we only waited 2 hrs as they found an experienced captain that got the ferry going through the ice. While waiting we had a black bear visit. He/she just looked around rummaged through some rubbish and left.









You can see the supports for the 'future' bridge the NWT gov't is planning to put in. I guess its been going for about 2 years now and there's been some squabbling with the contractor.

 

[The Adam Blaster]

Post faster! lol

 

[TacoRocco]

Day 1 Con't

Crossing over to the other side, ferry takes 20 minutes to get across the weather started to clear up and we filled up at the first petrol station we found in Fort Providence. From here its was 319 km stretch up to Yellowknife.

From what I saw there were no real service stations up along the route. In Fort Providence petrol was at 1.22 a litre. Warnings to watch for bison along the route was evident along this stretch.











Trance tunes were blaring but I kept the speed to no more than 120 kp/h. Scenery was just beautiful. We notice that there were no power lines or any other evidence of civilization except for the road we were on.




Crossing the bridge at Rae - 100 km to Yellowknife




From here on into Yellowknife you could really see the sceney change to more rock. I guess we hit the Canadian Shield.

 

[TacoRocco]

Day 1 Con't

I like signage and graphics.



The age old argument up north.


Entering Yellowknife we set out to set up camp. It took us I think a total of about 14 hrs with stops at the falls, 2 hrs for the ferry and a little stop in between.



Will post Day 2 as I get to them.

 

[TacoRocco]

Day 2: Sat. May 22, 2010

Objectives:
1. Explore the City of Yellowknife
2. Visit Buffalo Air the guys on the TV show Ice Pilots http://www.icepilots.com
3. Visit old Yellowknife

So, Day 2.

That night we froze our buts off. Hehe. There was a pretty strong wind and the thermo on my watch read 3 degrees C somewhere at 0300 hrs. Got up around 0530 hrs and tried to get a shower in at the camp showers. No hot water! Being that it was the first long weekend of the year they didn't open up the showers. So we drove around Yellowknife searching for anyplace we could get cleaned up. Luckily we spotted a community pool and the lifeguard on duty was AWESOME enough to let us get cleaned up. God forbid the wife had to take pictures withought makeup!

Anyways:

This is the same map we used when exploring "The Knife"


After getting all dolled up at the local rec centre and breakfast at Tim Hortons we decided to "walk the streets" and get a feel for NWTs capital.




First stop: Visitors centre - Not open until noon!



Courthouse


Garbage Bin


Walking the streets we came upon the National Defence Joint Task Force North HQ - Taking pictures outside my wife decided to try the front doors. Hehe
The security guard on deck was cool enough to show us around the officers and WO/Sgts mess after I told him I was currently posted with the Canadian Rangers.

 

[TacoRocco]

Day 2 Cont

The 'Knife'



Tli Cho Compound - I think I remember that from the show 'Ice Road Truckers'



Went to go see if we could get some t-shirts from the Buffalo Air guys. You guys in the states don't get the show yet but up here in Canada the show Ice Pilots features these guys who fly old prop planes around the north delivering supplies to fly-in communities. The show is like Ice Road Truckers but with planes. No one was at their terminal but we did get some sweet shots of the planes.

 

[SWbySWesty]

very neat trip! Keep it coming!

 

[TacoRocco]

Day 2 Cont

Well, mulling around Buffalo Airways wasn't doing much for the wife. She saw the planes and we were both ready for lunch so we headed down to the old part of Yellowknife to grab some chow at the Bullocks Bistro which serves trout, cod, pike, and whitefish taken from Great Slave Lake. We found the atmosphere inside to be quite local and the food was awesome!





The walls were covered with anything and everything. Business cards, christmas cards LOL, and other oddities I totally found interesting.









Then we stopped by this 'corner store' where they had everything and anything you needed to go out into the bush.





Old Town





Driving around I had to stop and check out this old school snowmachine. Looked totally functional. Even had a cd deck installed in its dash! From what I understand these are Bombardier machines from the 1940's. I hope the guy/gal who has this parked in their front yard dosn't mind me looking.





Cool bin

 

[dzzz]

Interesting
I didn't think Yellowknife was that big.

 

[TacoRocco]

Day 2 Cont

Keepin it totally real as tourists we walked around the old part of town and climbed up to the Bush Pilots memorial to get a better look and pay our repects to the aerial explorers of Canada's north.





Houseboats! If you look into the distance you can see the tracks of the winter ice road. That ice was gone within 24 hrs.



Cool guy on patrol.





So after getting enough of the scenary and wind we decided to explore old Yellowknife

Another cool bin



This part of town had some pretty cool buildings. Reminded me of Norway. Kind of.







Sick ride!



Found a cool bush service airport on the water place with a cool cruiser parked out front. Right hand drive. Again hope the dude dosn't mind.







Waiting for my flight. Boarding pass in hand. Jokes.



BF GR All Terrains always useful

 

[TacoRocco]

Day 2 Cont

That night we decided to chill out and catch a flick at the local theatre. Saw Robin Hood. It sucked. Camped out again at the Fred Henne park. If I was to do it again I would camp out in one of the parks on the Ingram Trail. Which is Day 3.

Some randomness

 

[Rot Box]

Great photos--great report!

Can't wait to see more! :wings:

 

[TacoRocco]

Day 3: Sun. May 22, 2010

Objectives:
1. Try to find some way to get a Buffalo Airways T-Shirt
2. Head out onto the Ingram Trail
3. Fish Tibbit Lake at the end of Ingram Trail
4. Hike to Cameron Falls also located on the Ingram Trail

So after buying a 20 dollar thin sleeping bag at Canadian Tire to supplement my 0 degree celcius bag, night 2 was pretty comfortable in our two person NorthFace tent.

There was no way I was leaving Yellowknife without getting a Buffalo Airways t-shirt so before we headed out onto the Ingram Trail to drive the 70 km out, fish, hike and act super cool we went back to Buffalo.

Pulled up to Buffalo, no one was there. We were about to head out to the trail when I noticed their shipping department was open. Went in asked one of the guys if I could buy a t-shirt at their store. Funny enough Buffalo Joe just pulled in. I don't think he would of opened the store for me but since my wife was there he said he'd do it for her.

Went over to their terminal/store and went in to pick out a T and leave them be. But them Mikey came by and gave us a tour of Buffalo Air! Took us to see the DC-3 and we got a couple of pictures. They were totally cool. Note: On numerous occasions Buffalo Joe declined to take a picture with me because "He didn't like boys". LOL hahah

Here are the pics:





Mikey taking us out to the DC-3 Joe flys Hay River, NWT - YK, NWT





Captain Rocco!






So after picking up more than 1 t-shirt and a hat we departed to get out onto the Ingram Trail. We wanted to drive it, do some fishing, hike, see the waterfall (Buffalo Joe recommended) and again act super cool along the way.

This is what Wikipedia has to say 'aboot' the trail:

Highway 4, known more commonly as the Ingraham Trail, extends from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to Tibbitt Lake, approximately 70 km (43 mi) east of Yellowknife. It was built in the mid 1960s as the first leg of a 'road to resources' into the interior of the Arctic, stopping far short of its ultimate goal.

The Ingram Trail Map












And these randoms in Yellowknife:

 

[TacoRocco]

Day 3 Cont

Tibbit Lake - Fishing



Dudes in their canoe / powermonsterboat



Fishing on a river along the way



Hike to Cameron Falls











Elvis pose at the falls is a must





Randoms along the trail - Total off-road glory shot!