Today we finally hit the pinnacle of our trip, but not the end of our trip: Tuktoyaktuk!

It’s a short distance relative to all other drives, but will take us longer because the roads are not as good as the ones before it. The gravel is thicker and less compact. The roads are also more winding as they need to cross the tundra, which is pock-marked by lots of ponds/pools of water.

We have good weather for the trip, which is a blessing. In fact, the weather for almost all the trip has been fantastic. The only thing that could make it better would be for a nightly rainfall to sweep through the area to tamp down the dust. Because, wow, the dust is bad! People say it’s bad, and in our experience, it is bad. We’ve been driving in clouds of dust since we got onto the Dempster. Dust so bad, that talking to each other in the Mokes leaves both passengers with dirt in their teeth.

The bugs are also bad on this leg of the journey too. You can’t stop the Mokes without the mosquitoes and deer flies finding you within seconds. Don’t they all die in the winter? Who is breeding them in the spring?!

The road from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk is decent, but does suffer from a bit too much gravel is some places, and other places have some pretty severe rutting and bumps. But these’s issues are easily spotted from a distance. Our Mokes had no trouble navigating these roads, although we did use the other side of the road regularly to avoid the worst issues. The 13″ wheels make this trip easier than a regular Mini because of the additional ground clearance it gives you, but it’s not nearly the same clearance you might get in a proper SUV.

Finally, we crossed the tree-line on this drive. But, honestly, it was easier to tell on the way back when we spotted the first set of trees in a couple of hours.

We also got to experience the summer tundra too in this area. The land here is dotted with ponds & lakes. From a satellite view it looks very swampy, but from the ground level it didn’t seem like that. Mind you, no one was willing to venture too far afield from the roadside to check it out.

Just outside of Tuktoyaktuk we got to see pingos! Pingos are a natural phenomenon in the arctic. These are large land formations caused by the heaving of ice from below the surface into mounds/hills. Mosses and other tundra vegetation cling to them as they grow. This area is famous for the shear number of them in the local area. They are quite a striking visual against the relatively low-lying landscape.

Driving into Tuktoyaktuk we were greeted by a couple different ‘Welcome’ signs which we posed with. But the one that everyone want a photo with is the one at the very tippy-top of Tuk, the Arctic Ocean sign!

The kids now travelling with us were desperate to get out and jump in the ocean, but they needed to wait a bit longer, since some of the waters here are historic fishing grounds, which the locals don’t want visitors splashing around in.

We headed back to the visitors centre to inquire about where the best place would be to swim, and they directed us to the beach to the south-west, near Grandma’s Kitchen, a local fish & chips shop.

Phil grabbed a fish & chips (⭐⭐) while the rest of the crew took off the beach to jump in the water. With a lot of screams and yelps, everyone got in the water to earn their “I swam in the Arctic Ocean” achievement.

Quick tip: if you come to do the same thing, bring water shoes! The stoney shore and ocean floor is brutally hard on the feet. The ‘pain’ of the cold water didn’t nearly compare to the pain of walking on all the rocks!

To finally knock off the Tuk to-do-list we headed over to the boat launch to dip the Moke wheels into the ocean. The goal is to get those wheels into each of Canada’s three oceans. We should be able to knock off two of them on this trip.

We never planned to stay the night in Tuktoyaktuk but instead the plan was to return to Inuvik where the hotel and eating options were more plentiful.

However, the return trip was slightly more eventful as the Blue Moke felt it was again time to retire early for the day. We diagnosed another bad ignition coil and made a swap. We also fixed up the connectors to make sure the connections to the coil were snug and not causing coil issues.

Back on the road we returned to Inuvik and ordered some pizzas from the local pizzaria located at the rec center / arena (Lil Ava’s Pizza & Pasta). This was very good pizza. (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) Apparently it’s a small chain of pizzarias in the north!

Tomorrow we stay Inuvik to do a bit of sight seeing and Moke tune ups.

Starting Location & Time	Inuvik, North West Territories – 9:42 am
Ending Location & Time	Tuktoyaktuk, North West Territories – 1:30 pm
Total Kilometers	146 km
Total Time	3h 52m