Highway 4, known as the Ingraham Trail, extends from

Yellowknife Yellowknife (; Dogrib: ) is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the ...

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

to Tibbitt Lake, approximately east of Yellowknife. It was built in the mid-1960s as the first leg of a 'road to resources' with the original intention of encircling

Great Slave Lake Great Slave Lake (french: Grand lac des Esclaves), known traditionally as Tıdeè in Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì (Dogrib), Tinde’e in Wıìlıìdeh Yatii / Tetsǫ́t’ıné Yatıé (Dogrib / Chipewyan), Tu Nedhé in Dëne Sųłıné Yatıé (Chi ...

. The highway is designated as a northern/remote route of Canada's National Highway System. The Ingraham Trail serves as both an industrial and recreational highway. In February and March each year, the trail is the initial section of the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road to three diamond mines located northeast of Yellowknife. The trail is also known as Yellowknife's cottage country, with the bulk of seasonal and year-round cabins located between Cassidy Point and Prelude Lake Territorial Park. During the winter road program,

B-train A road train, land train or long combination vehicle (LCV) is a trucking vehicle used to move road freight more efficiently than semi-trailer trucks. It consists of two or more trailers or semi-trailers hauled by a prime mover. History Early ...

tractor trailers travel the road, four loads every 20 minutes, 24 hours a day. Although it serves primarily recreational activities and area residences in this lake-dotted country, after the ice break-up on

, the highway is the only access to

Dettah Dettah, sometimes, incorrectly, as ''Detah'', is a First Nations community in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. Located just southeast of the capital of Yellowknife, it is a drive from that city by ice road across t ...

from Yellowknife. The small

Dene The Dene people () are an indigenous group of First Nations who inhabit the northern boreal and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languages. ''Dene'' is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term "Dene" h ...

community is about from Yellowknife by

ice road An ice road or ice bridge is a human-made structure that runs on a frozen water surface (a river, a lake or a sea water expanse).Masterson, D. and Løset, S., 2011, ISO 19906: Bearing capacity of ice and ice roads, Proceedings of the 21st Inte ...

in winter or using the Ingraham Trail. For about a month in late winter, a

winter road A winter road is a seasonal road only usable during the winter, i.e. it has to be re-built every year. This road typically runs over land and over frozen lakes, rivers, swamps, and sea ice.Proskin et al, 2011. Guidelines for the Construction an ...

to Lac de Gras is opened to trucking of mining supplies, the junction being along the Ingraham Trail. The road condition has suffered due to its frequent use by heavy trucks. This is shown on the first season of the American reality television series, ''

Ice Road Truckers ''Ice Road Truckers'' (commercially abbreviated ''IRT'') is a reality television series that premiered on History Channel, on June 17, 2007. It features the activities of drivers who operate trucks on seasonal routes crossing frozen lakes an ...

'', which airs on

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

. The Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road also extends from the end of the Ingraham Trail to Contwoyto Lake in

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the '' Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'' ...

, forming Nunavut's only connection to the road network in the rest of Canada. The Ingraham Trail is named after Vic Ingraham, a pioneer Yellowknife businessman of the 1930s–40s. Yellowknife has experienced an

aurora borealis An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of b ...

tourism boom the last few years and the Ingraham Trail is the prime viewing location. It is common to come across aurora rush after midnight during the peak aurora season, November to March.

Details

Since January 2014, the road bypasses Giant Mine through a realignment that originates off Highway 3, approximately from the Old Airport Road turnoff. At the road crosses the Yellowknife River followed by the Dettah turnoff at . After this the road passes several territorial parks:Ingraham Trail
at Northwest Territories Parks * Yellowknife River Territorial Park () *

turnoff () * Prosperous Lake Territorial Park () * Madeline Lake Territorial Park () * Pontoon Lake Territorial Park () * Prelude Lake Territorial Park ( * Hidden Lake Territorial Park () * Powder Point Day Use Area ) * Cameron River Falls Day Use Area/Hiking Trail Access () * Cameron River Crossing () * Reid Lake Territorial Park () before reaching Tibbitt Lake (). The trail is

chipseal Chipseal (also chip seal or chip and seal) is a pavement surface treatment that combines one or more layer(s) of asphalt with one or more layer(s) of fine aggregate. In the United States, chipseals are typically used on rural roads carrying low ...

ed to Reid Lake, leaving the last as gravel.

References

External links

1934 Vic Ingraham and Speed II
NWT Historical Timeline,

Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre (PWNHC) (''Centre du patrimoine septentrional Prince-de-Galles'' in French) is the Government of the Northwest Territories' museum and archives. Located in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, the ...

Ingraham Trail History
{{NT Roads Northwest Territories territorial highways Gravel roads