I was recently invited to visit Ivvavik National Park in northern Yukon, a sure-fire chapter in my Great Northern Canada Bucket List book. More people visit the top of Mount Everest than visit Ivvavik, the calving grounds for 100,000+ porcupine caribou. Canada has several parks that are very difficult to get to, with remoteness that either attracts or terrifies you (depending on your love for the truly great outdoors). Even though I’d have to fly to Whitehorse, hop on Air North’s old school and totally cool Hawker Siddely prop plane to fly to Inuvik, NWT via Dawson City and Old Crow and then catch the prop plane into the park, Ivvavik does offer a base camp with hot showers, flush toilets, and an on-site cook to whip up much-appreciate post hike meals. For this is all about the hikes, high up into the peaks, down into the ridges, surrounded by scenery you only ever see in tourist brochures. I’m going to be writing all about it for the book, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share some of the photos from the week. Joining me were folks from Alberta and Whitehorse and Inuvik, and as always, the people that surrounded me played a huge part in making the experience as memorable as it was.
Check out the gallery above.
Inuvik, the capital of the Western Arctic, was fascinating. I had no idea the Mackenzie Delta is the one of the world’s largest deltas, teeming with beavers and a true wonder to behold, especially flying above it. The wonderful folks at Tundra North Tours took me on a midnight sun boat ride into the maze of channels,
