Media Centre - Spectacular North West Territories

From the paw power of dogsledding to the wind power of kite skiing, northerners are the masters of getting around in winter in ingenious ways. Being out and about despite the weather keeps us connected to the land and in synch with the wildly different seasons up here.

1. Ice Roads: Between January and March the ice roads get over a metre thick and despite the cracking and booming the ice makes, it’ll hold you no matter how many servings of moose stew you indulge in. Cruise from Yellowknife to Dettah or on the scenic Mackenzie Delta from Inuvik to Aklavik and out onto the Beaufort Sea to Tuktoyaktuk.

For those of you who haven’t seen it, “Arctic Air” is a TV series about a maverick airline based in the city of Yellowknife, NWT which airs on CBC. Three episodes have aired to date, and people are a-buzz about our spectacular scenery featured in the shows. While the plots of the episodes are revved up for dramatic purposes, the NWT has a long, colourful and close relationship with bush pilots and air travel.

You’re here on a business meeting and you have a half day or full day to spare. Here are some great things to do to make your trip memorable (and whet your appetite to return).

OK, I have to ask: when was the last time that you went to a meeting or conference and ended up sleeping aboard a barge under the midnight sun? Every June, Inuvik hosts as many as 500 delegates for the Inuvik Petroleum Show. It’s a large crowd for a town of 3,500 people, but we’re a creative bunch. When local hotels, bed & breakfasts, apartment buildings and college dorms fill up with slumbering delegates, the town of Inuvik uses a barge that has about 40 self-contained rooms.

Chef Frankie Parker was nervous about cooking for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in July at Blachford Lake Lodge. But she relaxed as soon as she arrived on what has been dubbed Honeymoon Island a few hours before the royal couple’s visit. “It just fell into place and I remembered what it is I do, which is to cook,” she says.

Trophy Catches

Plan to fish in the NWT?  You may want to bulk up.  Great Bear and Great Slave Lake are notorious for wrestling matches with trophy-sized fish.  Great Bear Lake is the largest lake completely within Canada yet fewer than 400 anglers cast a line each year.  Even those new to fishing can pull something substantial from the lake’s depth. A whopping 78.85 pound Lake Trout pulled from Great Bear Lake even set an official world record.  Plan a getaway to set your own record.

Driving North of Sixty?  Keep a tent and tackle box handy for these memorable stops and campgrounds. Book your campground online at  campingnwt.ca

Hay River Territorial Park and Campground
Spend the day fishing with Shawn Buckley of Great Slave Lake Tours. If you visit on a Saturday stop by the Fisherman’s Wharf on Vale Island afterwards for arts, crafts, produce and (in case your line comes up empty) fresh fish.

Kakisa River Territorial Park

It’s a Saturday morning and a woman stands at the end of the dock at a cabin in the bush. She and her two travel companions took a tiny bush plane from Fort Smith to get to this slice of paradise in the Northwest Territories. It’s quiet, except for a quacking duck and the loons calling to one another. There isn’t another soul around. The woman tosses a fishing line into the water and waits. She feels a tug on her line. Twice.