Autumn on the Dempster Highway runs on the Peel River's clock. The free cable ferry Abraham Francis works from 9:15 a.m. to 12:45 a.m. and has, on average, closed for the year around 2 November; the ice crossing that replaces it has opened, on average, around 24 November. In between, there is normally no way across the Peel on Highway 8. DriveNWT listed the crossing as open when we checked on 2 October 2026.
Regular hours from the GNWT Department of Infrastructure ferries page (English and French agree); average open 3 June and close 2 November; 2026 closing date not announced; checked 2 October 2026 GNWT Infrastructure – Ferries · 2026-10-02
Every year the Peel River ferry has a window, and every autumn that window closes before the river is ready to carry traffic on ice. Over the last five years the Abraham Francis has started work on average on 3 June and stopped on average on 2 November; in 2024 the dates were 4 June and 5 November. The Peel River ice crossing then takes over, but its five-year average opening is 24 November, so on those averages the Dempster Highway is cut at the Peel for about three weeks of November.
Until then the ferry runs a long day, from 9:15 a.m. until 12:45 a.m., crossing 600 metres of river in about five minutes and charging nothing. It is a cable ferry, built in 1981, rated for 66,000 kg, and boards strictly in order of arrival. DriveNWT listed the crossing as open on 2 October 2026; no closing date for 2026 had been posted.
Summer brought its own interruption this year. Cabin Radio reported that the ferry stopped on 3 July 2026 because of high water after heavy rain, and that on 5 July it came off its cable and drifted downriver, up to six kilometres by the territorial government's estimate, before being recovered and secured again at its dock.
Crossing the Peel costs nothing, as on every ferry in the Northwest Territories. The French version of the department's page says the same.
| Vehicle and driver | Free |
| Passenger | Free |
| Commercial vehicle up to 66,000 kg | Free |
GNWT Infrastructure ferries page, English and French versions, read 2 October 2026 GNWT Infrastructure – Ferries · 2026-10-02
The ferry carries the Dempster Highway, NWT Highway 8, across the Peel River a short way south of Fort McPherson, in the Gwich'in Settlement Area. The department gives the crossing as 600 metres. Further north on the same highway, at kilometre 144, the Louis Cardinal crosses the Mackenzie and Arctic Red rivers at Tsiigehtchic; it keeps slightly different hours, 8:15 a.m. to 11:15 p.m.
Coming from the Yukon border, the crossing is at kilometre 74 of Highway 8. DriveNWT reports the gravel stretch from the border to the Peel as a single segment, so check its status for the whole run, not just the ferry.
Nothing is booked or ticketed here; drivers queue at the ramp and the crew loads them strictly by arrival.
Across the river, Highway 8 carries on to Fort McPherson. One kilometre up the road, at km 76, is Nataiinlaii Territorial Park, with a staffed visitor information centre in season and a campground on a cliff above the Peel; the park is 9 km short of the hamlet.
Fort McPherson itself stands on the east bank of the Peel. Beyond it Highway 8 continues to the Mackenzie River crossing at Tsiigehtchic and on to Inuvik.
The territory's road-conditions map carries live status for the Peel River crossing and for each section of Highway 8, including the stretch from the Yukon border to the ferry.
The trip just before 12:45 a.m. is the one most likely to leave cars behind. Plan to reach the ramp well ahead of it.
In July 2026 the ferry was out of service for days because of high water on the Peel, and its cable broke during the flood. Closures are not only an autumn risk.
Between the ferry's closure and the opening of the ice crossing there is no way across the Peel on Highway 8. Over five years the ice crossing has opened on average on 24 November.
Nataiinlaii Territorial Park, 1 km past the ferry, has campsites by self-registration, drinking water, showers and an information centre on Gwich'in life; its page showed it shut for the year at the time of our check.
Fort McPherson grew from a Hudson's Bay Company post. According to NWT Parks, the RCMP's ill-fated "Lost Patrol" of 1910–11 set out from the settlement and its four members lie in the churchyard of St. Matthew's Anglican Church there.
The Peel is one of four ferries the Department of Infrastructure runs, all free. On Highway 1 the Liard River ferry at Fort Simpson follows a similar season, closing on average at the start of November; in the Yukon, the territory's own free river crossing is the George Black ferry at Dawson City, which also stops each autumn ahead of the ice.
Further south, in northern Alberta, the Shaftesbury ferry on the Peace River follows the same kind of calendar: free, worked through the summer and autumn, and taken off the river around mid-November ahead of the ice.
Yes when we checked: DriveNWT showed the Peel River crossing as Route Open on 2 October 2026. The closing date for 2026 has not been announced.
Around 2 November on the five-year average kept by the GNWT; in 2024 it closed on 5 November.
On five-year averages, about three weeks: the ferry closes around 2 November and the ice crossing opens around 24 November. During that time there is no crossing on Highway 8.
9:15 a.m. to 12:45 a.m., with no fixed departure list. It crosses as traffic arrives.
The GNWT lists its maximum weight as 66,000 kg, and there is no overhead restriction.
The territorial parks service places Nataiinlaii Territorial Park 1 km north of the crossing and 9 km south of the hamlet.