World Heritage Site designation is awarded to places that have cultural, historical, scientific or other form of significance. Under consideration is the northwest Yukon corner with many indigenous archaeological sites and critical wildlife habitat.
– All photos by Carol Patterson
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Ivvavik National Park, Herschel Island Territorial Park (Qikiqtaruk) and Vuntut National Park were nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. You might not be able to pronounce the names but you should visit anyways. Yes, it’s more expensive than a trip to the tropics, but it’s a Canadian treasure and Parks Canada is making it easier than ever to visit this arctic wonderland.
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Ivvavik was the first park created from an aboriginal land claim settlement (the Inuvialuit Final Agreement). The park’s name means ‘nursery’ in Inuvialuktun, apt given lots of caribou give birth here.
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Visiting Ivvavik with Parks Canada means you can chose between catered and independent trips and whether to stop at Herschel Island. All you have to do it get yourself and your sleeping bag to Inuvik, NWT and Parks Canada will take it from there.
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Ivvavik is co-managed by Parks Canada and the Inuvialuit. A new management plan was created in 2018 to protect natural heritage while also providing visitor opportunities like the Ivvavik fly-in base camp.
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This is “glamping” at its best. Each tent has a bed, mattress, pillows, mosquito netting, and my favorite – a propane heater! There’s a flush toilet and the warmest showers northwest of civilization.
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More people climb Everest than climb Inspiration Point each year. With only 100 visitors annually, this is a place where you can get away from everything. Except the scenery. It swats you in the face at every turn.
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The Firth River is Canada’s oldest (how do scientists know these things?) and runs north to the Beaufort Sea on the Arctic Ocean. Rafters have been running the rapids for years; now more hikers are discovering the terrain surrounding them.
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Much of the park was once part of Beringia – land that was never glaciated. The ice-free area extended into Siberia and created a land bridge travelled by people and wildlife. A landmark of Beringia are the ‘tors’ (side slope rock outcrops) like those seen here.
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Grizzly bears roam the park but an electric fence keeps bears out of camp and Parks Canada bear guards keep them away from hikers. We watched this bear doing bear things on the other side of the river, the separation keeping it and us relaxed.
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Twenty-four hours of daylight mean never having to put your camera away. There are snacks in the kitchen all night if nature-inspired insomnia gives you the munchies.
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A hot breakfast, lunch and dinner are served in the dining room or you can hang out in the screened sitting area with views of the British Mountains.
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Visitors to the park get to hang out with a cultural host and learn more about the Inuvialuit. In my case it was the delightful Renie Arey, an elder who helped negotiate the land claim that resulted in the park, pictured here with daughter-in-law Arlene who made culinary magic everyday!
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At Ivvavik guests are encourage to try traditional crafts. I enjoyed embroidery and a bannock-baking contest but developed an unexpected addiction to carving (perhaps my thumbs were restless with five days of no WiFi or cellphone coverage).
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Ivvavik includes critical habitat for the Porcupine Caribou herd, one of the largest migratory barren-ground caribou herds in North America. The Porcupine Caribou herd was 218,000 strong in 2017 (www.pcmb.ca/herd)
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Normally people aren’t visiting Ivvavik at the same time as the caribou but I got lucky. On July 4 about 100,000 caribou passed by the camp and I fell in caribou love!
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How do you know when a caribou migration is headed your way? Scientists have radio collared about 100 caribou (selected randomly). So when Parks Canada staff radioed and said there were lots of caribou headed our way, we started looking.
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For more than twelve hours, tens of thousands of caribou poured past camp. It’s hard to describe this ungulate river but you can see it live here on YouTube.
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It was heartbreaking to see caribou battle the Firth River; only a month old, some of the calves were not strong enough to fight the current and drowned in front of me. Only 55% of calves survive their first month. But reading that statistic is a lot easier than seeing the fight for survival up close.
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This is a place where you can hike for days and not see another person. On the day after the caribou migration passed we were on high alert for predators feeding on caribou carcasses.
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No trip to a national park is complete without a chance to #ShareTheChair and at base camp, the deck is a great place to enjoy the gobsmackingly beautiful view and search for wildlife.
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Herschel Island is the Yukon’s only offshore island. Located about five kilometres off the mainland, this 116-km2 point of land is now a territorial park.
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Herschel Island is often shrouded in fog so a trip here is never taken for granted. Fortunately the weather was clear the day I visited and the pilot landed the Twin Otter on the beach. After unloading us to explore, the pilots used a shovel to fix some of the runway divots!
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The island has been an Inuvialuit gathering place for thousands of years. Now Park Rangers welcome foreign tourists, scientists, and Inuvialuit families still using the area for traditional activities.
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Bowhead and beluga whales migrate past the island although the commercial whaling that was so popular in the late 1800s no longer occurs. The most common marine animal is the ringed seal but I saw none amongst the whitecaps.
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In winter muskox walk onto the island, in summer, they swim. Muskoxen have a reputation of being aggressive towards humans but these weren’t giving me any attitude. This isn’t a climate where you can grow a garden so surviving here means hunting and it’s permitted in the park.
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Scientists from around the world are investigating the effect of climate change on the island and northern landscapes. On the day I visited a researcher from Edinburgh was studying the effects of shrubification – the prolific growth of shrubs – and how it affects the rare birds that show up here.
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The wind coming off the ocean is cold but this snow bunting finds food. There have been 121 bird species (46 breeding) recorded on the island, and one of the western Arctic’s largest Black Guillemot breeding colonies.
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Mother Nature and your pilot dictate how long you stay on Herschel Island. With bad weather closing in after two hours, it was time to leave. As we lifted off, I hoped this destination would became a UNESCO World Heritage Site – validation that it is truly outstanding!
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