Nahanni National Park

Many people, including Canadians, do not realize how inaccessible many parts of Canada is. Nahanni National Park in Northwest Territories has no roads to or within it, and the only ways to enter is by floatplane or by canoe/white-water raft.

As to how I got there, I drove approximately 622 kilometres from Wood Buffalo National Park to Fort Simpson in 2017. Almost to Fort Simpson, actually, as I missed the last ferry across Liard River and had to sleep in my car until the morning. After crossing into Fort Simpson the next morning, I got on a floatplane (Simpson Air) for a day trip to Nahanni National Park. A year after my trip, a Simpson Air flight that went on the same run that I did, crashed into a lake, and three tourists died.

Nahanni National Park is a breathtakingly beautiful, vast, and wild. Most floatplane day trip visitors will stop at immense Virginia Falls and tranquil Glacier Lake. Those who are healthy, experienced in wild rivers, and adventurous (and have time and money) will, I am sure, see much more unreal scenery by canoe/raft.  

Nahanni was my last Canadian WHS and there's a good reason for it. It's not exactly tough to get in but you need to have the right timing and definitely money, not crazy amounts but let's say you spend less flying to Belize and back than getting there domestically. Moneywise we are talking a couple of thou easily and that's just for the flightseeing. You won't save money on the alternatives and it will take you heaps longer. So I finally managed to see it this year after Covid, park closures (park closed again due to wildfires this year just after I went in July) and not being in Canada in summer most years doesn't help too. The season to visit the park is only from June to September and we are talking LATE June to EARLY September if you want to have a good experience.

There are three ways to visit the park. One is to hike in...yeah well I figured I should mention it. If you are on of those (you'd have to Canadian to be crazy enough) then you still have to either get dropped in by plane or take your own car to the Nahanni Butte which is a former First Nation village and nowadays has nothing. There are some small towns nearby. Having said that, it's a looong drive to the Butte. You will have to be hardcore into this trip to drive up and then cayak around and it takes a day to …

Nahanni National Park might very well be the greatest national park in the world. That is a big statement, but anyone who has been to Nahanni (and few people have) can back it up.

Nahanni is home to one of the world's largest waterfalls (Virginia Falls) which is higher than Niagara Falls and has a flow comparable with Victoria Falls in Africa.

That alone would be enough to make it a world heritage sites. However, it is also home to the Cirque du Unclimables, which is a stunning collection of mountain peaks, and the Ram Canyon, which is one of the most impressive canyons in the world. 

Nahanni only gets about 800 visitors per year. There are no roads to the park, so the only way to enter is by hiking or float plane. There is also a very short season of about 2 months where visitors can enter. 

It has been almost twenty years since I had the awe-inspiring and quite humbling experience of sticking my (and my buddy's) canoe into the river and wending down one of the most beautiful spots one could imagine on earth.

For the first three days after the plane dropped us off, we (veterans of canoe/kayak trips much longer than this one) were like tourists -- gawking agape at the size, beauty, and power of the river, its attendant mountain peaks, and the furry/feathered creatures that called this jewel home. It was, and is, like nothing I had seen before or since.

Enjoy your trip to this wilderness paradise!