As many of you know, we were originally planning to relocate north via canoe up the Mackenzie River from Fort Simpson, arriving in Tulita in style. A combination of timing constraints, delays, and Maciek accidentally hitting “reply all” to the relocation company on an email intended for me made this not happen in the end. Ah well, there will be more opportunities in the future, I thought. Since getting up north though, I’ve mentioned this plan to a few people and have mostly gotten the response of “The Mackenzie? Why would you paddle the Mackenzie? It’s long and has the same scenery the whole way.” Having now flown that route a few times, I’m inclined to think that they may have a point. It’s beautiful, but in the length of time it would take to paddle, these are some of the other options in the area…
Here’s a summary from NWT Tourism
From working for Parks, I have become more familiar with the South Nahanni River and its tributaries. You can read about my adventures on the southern portion of the South Nahanni river in an earlier post. To paddle the full length of the South Nahanni River, you start at the Moose Ponds in Nááts’ihch’oh with a challenging 50km section of rapids. Even more challenging is the Little Nahanni River – the only section in the park that can be accessed by road. The least technical of the tributaries would be the ominously named Broken Skull River, starting from Divide Lake.
Starting in Nááts’ihch’oh at O’Grady Lake but heading out away from the park puts you in the reasonably challenging Natla River, which feeds into the simpler Keele River, eventually leading back to the Mackenzie River right near Tulita.
Here are some links:
- Natla-Keele River Trip Report
- Black Feather: Natla-Keele River, Keele River
- Canoe North: Natla River, Keele River, rentals for self-guided trips
- Nahanni Wild: Keele River