I did a thing.
Have driven on a few bucket list highways now:
The Dempster Highway (from mile zero to about km 116)
The Alaska Highway (Dawson Creek, BC (Mile Zero) to Haines Junction, YT (Approx km 1600) - only completed about 2/3 of it, didn't have time to go into Alaska on this trip)
Top of the World Highway (not very far, spent most of the time in the area exploring an abandoned dredge, the Goldfields, The Dempster, etc)
Have about 4,000 photos to go through from the two weeks I spent up there. Flew into Edmonton, AB and picked up a rental, and then drove up to Dawson City, YT and back. It was about 6500km on the rental (doubled the mileage we got it with). I'm already planning my return. The Yukon is the most amazing place I've ever been.
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The Dempster:
Vaguely ominous one-lane bridge commemorates the beginning of the Dempster highway where it intersects with the Klondike Highway in the Yukon, warning potential travellers that there are no emergency services on the highway (and no cell service).
It is recommended that if you would like to attempt it, that you bring food/water/2+ spare tires/your vehicle is mechanically sound/etc). There is only one service station, about halfway to Inuvik, NWT at Eagle Plains.
I can't say enough for how beautiful this highway is. It is absolutely amazing. If it wasn't a rental vehicle and we had spares, I absolutely would've pushed to at least the Arctic Circle (about 400km). The highway is 1.5m off the road, built to be insulated from the permafrost so that the road does not sink into the ground. It's driven on and treated like any other highway in the area - people who have driven it and the transport trucks coming up and down from Inuvik drive at over 100km/h, leaving behind a trail of dust and the sharp rocks with which the highway is built.
The first 100km of the highway takes you through the Tombstone mountain range, and then opens up into tundra as you approach the Ogilivie mountain range.
I will absolutely be back with my own vehicle to complete the highway.