Living in the Northwest Territories | How People Live Where the Roads Are Made of Ice | 4K

In August 2023, Yellowknife emptied out in three days — about 20,000 people fled a wildfire on the only highway south. Six months later, many of them were driving across frozen lakes on roads that exist only in winter. This is a 53-minute journey across the Northwest Territories, from the bottom of the land to the Arctic Ocean: Wood Buffalo, a park larger than Switzerland; Hay River and the Deh Cho Bridge; Yellowknife, its houseboats and the 237,000 tons of arsenic sealed under Giant Mine; the ice road to Dettah; the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road, almost 400 miles over frozen lakes, and the diamond mines it feeds; the Tłı̨chǫ villages and the winter the ice did not come; the Mackenzie River, Fort Simpson and Virginia Falls; Norman Wells and Délı̨nę; Inuvik and its igloo church; Aklavik; the Dempster Highway; and the last road to the ocean — Tuktoyaktuk. How people live here — and why they stay. Subscribe for a new full-length documentary every week: https://www.youtube.com/@HomewardAtlas?sub_confirmation=1 Chapters 0:00 Northwest Territories — Where the Roads Are Made of Ice 2:35 Wood Buffalo 4:43 Hay River 6:48 The Deh Cho Bridge 9:07 Yellowknife 13:01 The Houseboats 14:44 Giant Mine 16:50 The Ice Road to Dettah 19:00 The Northern Lights 20:40 How an Ice Road Is Built 22:51 The Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road 25:03 Diamonds 27:00 The End of the Diamonds 28:39 The Tłı̨chǫ Villages 32:17 The Winter the Ice Did Not Come 34:14 The Mackenzie River 36:10 Fort Simpson & the Nahanni 38:03 Norman Wells & Délı̨nę 40:14 Inuvik 42:31 Aklavik 43:48 The Dempster Highway 45:33 The Last Road to the Ocean 47:36 Tuktoyaktuk 50:22 The Return of the Ice Footage: Adobe Stock. Music: Epidemic Sound. Maps: Natural Earth. Script, research and narration by Homeward Atlas. Some shots show similar landscapes and towns in the region and are used for illustration. #NorthwestTerritories #Yellowknife #IceRoad ▶ Watch next: Living in Michigan's Upper Peninsula | The People Who Keep America's Snowiest Corner Alive → https://youtu.be/wXKpFfSTCj4 Living in Newfoundland | Where North America Ends → https://youtu.be/N2C8mSRBFYk Living in Alaska | The Land America Bought for 2 Cents an Acre → https://youtu.be/RozC9BNMG5g 📺 Life in Canada's Far North (playlist): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTcR3ebTHTK8 📺 All Homeward Atlas documentaries: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHcgpgQQJZo4