The Route
Get Side Tracked
Looking to spice up your options beyond the main route... the Deh Cho Travel route has the perfect answer for you – “Get side-tracked” !!
There are several communities participating in the Deh Cho Travel experience that are not directly on the main highways routes but are well worth that extra drive for a visit.
While in Alberta ...
Peace River, AB
Peace River is a progressive town that straddles the river from which it takes its name and where 3 rivers converge in a majestic valley. The community has a long history dating back to the times of Alexander Mackenzie or another well known Klondike Gold Rush legend, 12-foot Davis. The town offers all the necessary amenities and it comes with a spectacular view of the valley.La Crete and Fort Vermilion, AB
Turn east off of Hwy #35 at High Level to visit La Crete and its surrounding communities established in the early 1900’s by Mennonite settlers and Fort Vermilion. The La Crete Mennonite Heritage Village includes the refurbished Sheridan Lawrence Flour Mill. Nearby Fort Vermilion calls itself the community “Where Alberta Began” being one of Alberta’s first two settlements (the other is Fort Chipewyan) established as Forts in 1788.
In the Northwest Territories ...
Hay River and Fort Smith, NWT
Leave the Mackenzie Hwy (NWT Hwy #1) and travel Hwy #2 to Hay River, “Port of the North”, a town of 3,500 that is a major transportation hub for the north. Hay River offers great fishing and hosts one of several beautiful golf courses in the NWT. The Dene Cultural Institute and a 19th century church is located on the Hay River Reserve.Travel Hwy #5 east/southeast from Hay River to reach Fort Smith and home to the Northern Life Museum, world renown Slave River Rapids and gateway to Wood Buffalo National Park.
Wood Buffalo National Park
At 45,000 sq km, Wood Buffalo is the second largest national park in the world. It’s a naturalist paradise with free roaming bison, nesting grounds of the endangered whooping crane, amazing geographical wonders including the spectacular Salt Plains karsts landscape and much more.Fort Providence and Yellowknife, NT – Diamond Capital of North America™
Cross the wide, fast flowing Mackenzie River on a government operated ferry (no charge). Then visit historic Fort Providence, with motels, restaurants, a craft shop and campground. The Frontier Highway continues along the western end of Great Slave Lake, crossing what was once the shore of a vast glacier-fed sea and the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary, home of a free-ranging herd of pure wood bison, the larger northern cousins of plains bison. Yellowknife was first settled in 1935, after gold had been found in the area and soon became the centre of economic activity in the NWT. It became the capital of the NWT in 1967.And in British Columbia
Muncho Lake and Liard River Hot Springs, BC
From Fort Nelson, a side trip north along the Alaska Hwy leads into the Northern Rocky Mountains offering spectacular scenery and wildlife viewing and on to Stone Mountain and Muncho Lake Provincial Park. At the Liard River Hot Springs you can enjoy the second largest natural hot pools in Canada year-round.Tumbler Ridge, Chetwynd and Hudson’s Hope, BC – Dinosaur Country
Located on a mini-loop west of Dawson Creek on Hwys #52 and #29, the communities of Tumbler Ridge and Hudson’s Hope are in the middle of the “new” Dinosaur Country. Follow in the footsteps where dinosaurs once roamed on accessible dinosaur tracks. Nestled halfway between on Hwy #29 is the town of Chetwynd. A series of unique wooden chainsaw sculptures depicting indigenous Canadian animals and birds are displayed throughout the community including a monument declaring Chetwynd as the Chainsaw Sculpture Capital of the World....to our Major Cities
Grande Prairie, Alberta
Grande Prairie is the southern anchor of the Deh Cho loop. A major trade and service centre for much of northwest Alberta and northeast British Columbia, this city of more than 50,000 offers everything from casino fun to amateur theatre productions to concerts in the park and hot air balloon rides. The city’s agricultural roots are featured in the Grande Prairie Museum, and a new dinosaur exhibit at the Centre 2000 Visitor Information & Interpretive Centre captures the prehistoric finds of the Kleskun Hills area east of the city. Grande Prairie is also known as the Swan City, named after the formerly endangered Trumpeter Swan, which has important nesting habitat in the area and may be seen at nearby Saskatoon Island Provincial Park.
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
Capital of the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, population 18,000, is located 340 km (211 mi) north of the junction of Highways 1 and 3. It has all the services of a large city with small city friendliness. Founded on gold mining, diamonds now provide the glitter. There is plenty to see and do including canoeing, hiking, fishing, golfing and swimming. Join in summer festivals, visit the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly or drive the Ingraham Trail. On the way, stop at historic Fort Providence - the craft shop specializes in moose hair tufting. Gas up here, as there are no services along Highway 3 for another 224 km (139 mi). As you drive north you enter the vast Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary. Keep an eye out: these shaggy heavyweights sometimes wander onto the highway.
