Tuktoyaktuk

At the uppermost edge of Canada’s Northwest Territories, some 100 miles northeast of Inuvik, the village of Tuktoyaktuk sits perched on the shores of the frigid Arctic Ocean. The region was traditionally home to the Karngmalit Inuit, a whale-hunting people. In 1936, Tuktoyaktuk was established as a Hudson Bay Company trading post and transport depot; it is now a major seaside base for oil and gas exploration in the Beaufort Sea. Known to locals simply as Tuk, Tuktoyaktuk takes its full name from the Inuit word for resembling a caribou. At low tide, the nearby ocean recedes to reveal reefs shaped like that Arctic-dwelling reindeer, and popular legend has it that some long-ago woman saw caribou wading in the water and petrified them with her gaze.

As of 2006, Tuktoyaktuk had a population of around 870 people, many of whom made their living from fishing and hunting caribou, ducks and geese, depending on the season. Tourist draws in the region include dogsledding, views of the Northern Lights and one of the highest existing concentrations of pingos in the world. Pingos—the name is derived from the Inuit word for hill—are large earth-covered mounds of ice that for centuries served as navigational aides for the region’s indigenous peoples traveling by land or sea, as well as convenient lookout points for spotting caribou or whales. The Pingo Canadian Landmark features eight of the 1,350 pingos found in the area around Tuktoyaktuk. This includes Ibyuk Pingo, which at 49 meters (160 feet) high and 300 meters (984 feet) across at its base is the tallest pingo in Canada and the second tallest in the world.

Tuktoyaktuk is accessible year-round by air: Small planes leave the Inuvik airport on a relatively regular schedule, depending on weather and demand. Reaching Tuktoyaktuk by car is a significantly more difficult undertaking, and can only be achieved during the winter months, when the frozen Mackenzie River is plowed to make an ice road. Drivers heading up from Inuvik (the northernmost point of the Dempster Highway) can expect a journey of up to three hours, and should keep in mind that the road is subject to severe weather conditions.