The Arctic Circle is a line that doesn't exist, and yet people stop for it. On the Dempster Highway there is a rest area at the point where the road crosses 66 degrees 33 minutes north, with a sign, a board of information, and a gravel parking pad. It is not a dramatic place, apart from the landscape: a wide valley of tundra, scrubby spruce and low hills, with the Richardson Mountains on the far horizon. Above this line, in midsummer, the sun does not set.
The Dempster is one of the great gravel roads of North America, and it is not for the faint-hearted. It runs about 740 kilometres from near Dawson City in the Yukon to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, built up on a thick gravel bed to protect the permafrost. The surface is mostly hard-packed, but it can be slippery after rain, sharp with stones, and rough with washboard. Flat tyres are routine, so carry a spare and a repair kit. Trucks throw stones, so give them room.
There is no town near the Arctic Circle marker. Fuel is at Eagle Plains, a lonely lodge with a hotel, restaurant and garage, which is the only service for hundreds of kilometres in the Yukon, and the next fuel is in Fort McPherson. Fill up everywhere, carry extra fuel if you can, and check road conditions before you leave, since rain and snow can close the road quickly. Ferries cross the Peel and Mackenzie rivers in summer, and the schedule changes with the weather and the ice.
This is caribou and bear country, and the light in June and July is soft and endless. Mosquitoes can be dense, so bring repellent and a head net. The summer window is short, usually from June to early September, and the road is a lonely one, so tell someone your plan and carry water and food.