Probably was me. I haven't seen anyone else talking about living there.
I know all those places well. Northwestern North America is stupendous when it comes to natural beauty. I love Four Corners for its scenery as well but the cool temps up here make all the difference for me. I spent 2 years in Nepal/India/Tibet/etc. and spent most of my time in the Himalayas and the Karakorum which is ridiculously beautiful. I spent an entire summer in Kashmir in Leh/Srinigar on the Silk Road at 14,000 to 18,000 feet, the highest roads in the world, and that area certainly rivals Alaska/Western Canada.
I lived in Europe (Mainly UK,Netherlands,Switzerland) in the early 70s for just over 2 years and loved the Alps but there isn't the grandeur you get up here. It's an amazing place to live, wilderness like you'll experience few places on Earth. When I first started travelling in the Far North 30 years ago, I had been using backroads maps. As you leave the 50-100 N/S stretch along the border with the US, particularly in Canada's mid-West/West (until you hit the coast) there simply aren't back roads, there is one road, if that. Few trails or "campgrounds," no dirt roads, just nothing. Just hundreds and hundreds of miles in all directions of absolutely no evidence of humans. It's fantastic!
and a 2 A.M. display of the Northern Lights at a rest stop in the wilderness that finally let me understand what all the fuss was about.
And that stood out most of all in what you wrote. Until you actually witness a big, active display on a dark cold night, you won't have any idea how incredible the aurora are. I stopped on the road between Whitehorse and Watson Lake one 40 below night nearing midnight and watched aurora literally fill the sky, a dozen separate curtains of shimmer stretching horizon to horizon in all directions. The heavens seethed and twisted, sparkled and turned, diaphanous, silky, shifting ribbons of green, blue and purple prominences, sprinkled with stars against jet black velvet. I admit it brought me to tears. As you say, you finally get what the fuss is all about. It IS nice to be reminded, as you did for me, just how wonderful this planet is, with or without humans. Planet Earth is pretty damn good for me, all things considered.
Always enjoy our chats. I'd love to hear some more about the rally. I've done the Cassiar Highway (and a detour to Stewart/Hyder and the glaciers there,) most of which is unpaved and driven to both Inuvik (by way of Dawson, where I lived on summer and played at hotels and clubs there regularly) in Canada and Prudhoe Bay (i suspect it's the road you took to the Arctic circle, I just went another 1000 miles North) which was largely unpaved, often without a good gravel bed, rutted and muddy, so I know the kind of conditions you experienced. One of my very good friends in Whitehorse, came to the Yukon in the 60s on the AlCan, literally as they were building it (stories of his car sinking into the mud past the wheel wells and being stranded till a bulldozer pulled them out), and homesteaded, having his first child in a canvas wall tent in the winter as he cut trees to build a log cabin, now a 3 story 7,000+ sq ft "log palace" overlooking Cowley Lake which I helped him add onto, still cutting trees on the property and building it all ourselves. Man, THIS guy had stories to tell! I'll bet you have a few about those rallies!
If you noticed, I delete all my comment every week or so, more revealing or personally identifying ones sometimes within 24 hours (or sooner as our "dad" conversation showed when you tried to reply to a deleted comment.) I did my house cleaning today and will delete this one as soon as you let me know you've read it. You might want to clean up a bit after me as there will be a few orphans that might seem odd without context.
Well, off to my second cuppa as 10 am rolls around.
Have a good one.