Canada is one of the rare places on Earth where wide, well-maintained roads carve their way through remote, uncompromised wilderness. Behind the wheel of a car, you can skirt the icy feet of glaciers, wind through forests populated by foraging megafauna, climb Rocky Mountain slopes and explore storm-sculpted coastlines, where ocean waves are plied by migrating cetaceans. Adventurous travellers can even explore the all-season Dempster Highway, which runs from boreal wilderness north through the Arctic Circle and on to the stark polar coastline.
It’s for this reason that road trips are not to be rushed in Canada, a country that’s home to the second-longest national highway in the world. Scenic A-to-B drives are a thrill in themselves, but the joy of making it this far into the wilds is allowing plenty of time to get out and explore. After all, across provinces and territories like British Columbia and the Yukon, there are nearendless opportunities for mountain hiking, wild swimming in remote lakes, white-water paddling in a dugout canoe or back-country cycling under endless skies. In Nova Scotia, meanwhile, lighthouses lead drivers to coastal villages, where roadside inns serve seafood chowders to ancient recipes and words are still spoken in French Acadian and Scottish dialects.
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