The all-gravel Dempster Highway is a lonely 736 kilometre journey

Driving, motorbiking or cycling the gravel, 736 kilometre Dempster Highway is one of the world's loneliest and most adventurous road trips.

Starting some 40km east of Dawson City and striking through to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, the Dempster is the only road in Canada to cross the Arctic Circle.

On a good day, the journey takes 12 hours and you might pass only a handful of other vehicles.

After winding past the awesome Tombstone Mountain Territorial Park and over the Ogilvie Mountains, the landscape becomes markedly devoid of trees, giving way to bouncy subarctic tundra exploding with multicoloured wildflowers.

This is the closest you'll get in Canada to a wildlife safari, as this region is densely populated with grizzly and black bears, caribou, moose, Dall sheep, mountain goats, wolves and lynx as well as hundreds of species of birds, insects and plants.

In the summer, two car ferries are utilized for crossing the Peel River and MacKenzie River. During the winter, the Mackenzie River delta freezes over and becomes an ice road, allowing the Dempster Highway to extend another 194km to the predominantly Inuit settlement of Tuktoyaktuk in the Western Arctic.

If you are planning to rent a car to drive the Dempster, keep in mind that most hire companies don't allow gravel road driving.

The Dempster Highway is both unforgettable and unforgiving - remember to pack plenty of fuel, food and water. The route is serviced by a few remote campsites and expensive hotels.