I went on exchange to the Western Arctic Field Unit to run an environmental monitoring canoe trip down the Hornaday River in Tuktut Nogait National Park. Tuktut Nogait is generally the least visited National Park in the country, even including those ones way up the the Arctic Archipelago. The first stop was the small community of Paulatuk on the Arctic ocean to pick up our canoes from the Parks office there.
The landscape on the trip was a mixture of wide open tundra…
…and sand dunes, which looked like they could have been located anywhere in the world.
We hit a few sections of whitewater on the river.
Here are some more photos for flavour:
There are lots of pretty flowers in Arctic.
We saw a number of critters on the trip, including muskoxen!
And also including plenty of mosquitoes.
We were out on the trip over Canada Day – I figure canoeing in a National Park in the Arctic is probably the most Canadian way possible to spend Canada Day.
Here are some panorama shots from the trip:
The trip ended at Uyarsivik Lake, which had a nice cabin. Luxury!
Of course a mid-summer canoe trip in the Arctic means that the sun didn’t set for the entire trip. This was as close as it got.
