Shingle Beach on the Beaufort Sea (Arctic Ocean)
Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada
This was the culmination of our summer 1999 expedition to the Arctic. The beach at the end of the town of Tuktoyaktuk, latitude 69 degrees 27 minutes north. To the north of us there was only the Beaufort Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean) and the Polar Ice Cap, just over the horizon (we could see it from the plane as we turned to land). We had come by car from Berkeley, California, about 3400 miles, counting a few zigzags and side trips. We took off our shoes and socks, rolled up our pants, and waded in for a commemorative photograph. Yes, it was cold.
There was a wrecked fishing boat on the shingle beach, pushed back high on the beach ridge by the expansion of the ice in winter. There was still ice floating in the harbor on June 22. There was also a suspicious brownish-yellow scum on the water near the beach.
The surprising abundance of driftwood, on this shore north of the treeline, is explained by the adjacent delta of the Mackenzie River. Some of those pieces of wood might have come from Jasper in the Rockies, floating down the Athabasca, Slave, and Mackenzie Rivers for almost 2000 miles.
Next: Harbor at Tuktoyaktuk