Starting at the beginning

Two weeks from today, our entire pack - two humans and two canines - will head north for a month-long Canadian adventure in a 2001 Volkswagen van. Our northernmost destination is Yellowknife: capital of the Northwest Territories, 350 miles north of Juneau, and 300 miles shy of the Arctic Circle. Total expected mileage: just over 4,000.


(You can click on the map to make it bigger)

En route, we will spend time in Banff National Park in the magnificent Canadian Rockies, camping along the banks of famous Lake Louise. Then we'll head to Edmonton for a couple days' visit with my aunt.

We plan to spend ten days in the Northwest Territories, where we can dip our toes in North America's deepest lake (the Great Slave Lake) and Canada's longest river (the mighty Mackenzie). It's big, big country up there.

We'll visit the world's second-largest national park (Wood Buffalo National Park), home to one of the largest buffalo herds in the world and the only remaining nesting area for the endangered whooping crane. We'll also see Fort Simpson, my great-grandmother's childhood home, and the Camsell mountain range named for her family.

On the way back, our plans are flexible, but we're hoping to take the less-beaten path (!) down the Alaska-Yukon Highway, possibly cutting back for a shot at Jasper National Park and the chance to meander along the spine of the Rockies on the Icefields Parkway.

That's the plan, anyway.