The road from Edmonton to Yellowknife is a daunting 1,500 km drive with limited gas (and almost no services) on the way. Not for the faint of heart! We were expecting quite bad road conditions, but apart from a few meters of gravel here and there, it was paved and in good shape.
Anyway, for our first day of driving towards Yellowknife, we were already running a little late (just a manner of speech of course), since it was the middle of the afternoon when we left Edmonton. Quite uneventful for the first few hours, but our first stop for gas was in the little town of Fahler, where unexpected sights greeted us. First, this huge, metal bee: the largest in the world, in fact! Apparently, Fahler is the Honey Capital of Canada, and the bee was built to commemorate the first Honey Festival in 1990. Another surprising thing was the large crowds (well, for a town) in the streets everywhere, and a huge fair. We learned only that night when reading the news online that it was a festival for the 100th anniversary of the town! Happy birthday, Fahler! 🎉
We passed by Peace River, which was really beautiful in the sunset, and then opted to call it a day. We found a campground to spend the night, which allowed us to take a shower the next morning (you wouldn't believe how good these are when they're limited)! So after a good breakfast, we were driving again. After a little while, we finally got to see it: the great wildfire of High Level. We were actually stopped by the police a long way before and had to wait nearly half an hour before being escorted the rest of the way going through the wildfire area. There was smoke aplenty, incinerated trees everywhere, and we actually saw some little flames here and there... it was all very ominous. When we came back from Yellowknife, there was no police escort, but there was still smoke everywhere. Oh, also, as a side note, we had our windows open as we were waiting in the car for the escort. Well, that's when we first saw the horrible, chicken-sized flies of the North. Boy those suckers are huge! 😱
After another quick stop for gas and a Timmies, we didn't have much more driving to do before reaching our first anticipated landmark: the 60th Parallel! It was quite a feeling to finally step foot in the Northwest Territories, as it had always seemed so foreign and inaccessible before. We stopped at the Visitor Information Centre to grab a few maps and brochures, but also to take in the sights of all the taxidermy animals in there. Let me tell you, that polar bear is so impressive in real life!
So, back in the car, we decided to make our first stop at Alexandra Falls, which was just a short walk from the parking on the highway. We were rewarded with an impressive view of a gentle river on layers of soft, slate rock and a ten-storey waterfall. Pictures really don't do it justice: the feeling you get when you get out of the forest and onto the edge of the river is hard to describe, as if you had stepped into another world, pristine, untouched by any kind of lifeform for millenia, and suddently you are dwarfed by the immensity of everything that surrounds you. We were also very lucky that the river was not full on raging as it is in the spring, so we could walk on the rocks and enjoy the views at the edge of the cliff, and I even removed my shoes to walk in the river. That was a grand start to our adventure in the NWT! We then drove a little further to see Louise Falls, which were less impressive, but very nice nonetheless (last picture).
And we were off again! At some point we entered the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary, which protects a large population of wood buffalo. On our way to Yellowknife, we counted 15 bison by the roadside, along with one black bear. Well, on our way back, we saw such big herds of them that we stopped counting! Maybe it was the weather? The first picture below was on the way to Yellowknife, and the others were on the way back. We even had a few bison crossing the road in front of us and we had to stop to let them do so. Quite a sight!
Some time after that, we crossed the famous Deh Cho Bridge to get to Fort Providence, where we filled up the gas tank (as should any wise driver going to Yellowknife). After all that, we were still 2 hours away from our destination, so we decided to call it a day and stop in a random rest area by the river. We were SO happy to have bug screens for the car that night! Also, it was the first time we had to sleep without darkness during the night: yup, even at 2 am, we could still see clearly outside, although the sun was down.
We woke up quite early the next day due to the insanely early sunrise, and we drove the last hundred kilometers to the "big city", as the gas station attendant in Fort Providence called it. But I won't spoil it for you yet! Stay tuned, folks! 💜
TL;DR: They say getting there is half the fun, well it is! By some incredible coincidence we saw the world's largest metal bee in Fahler during their 100th anniversary, and we saw the wildfire of High Level. We snapped a pic of the sign for the 60th Parallel at the Visitor Information Centre, and we almost fell down on our knees when we saw Alexandra Falls. We also saw so many bison we stopped counting after a while, and we got to see black bears, too!
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