Her grandfathers felled trees, split logs and laid them down flat in marshy areas to provide a path to portage around Náįlįcho (Virginia Falls) and a viewpoint at the top. Years later, her father and uncle toiled through the spring and summer months to build an elaborate boardwalk along the path their father set. Today, over that very boardwalk, Pauline Campbell guides visitors up to the iconic Nahanni National Park Reserve waterfall, twice as high as Niagara.
Her family history is written all over this breathtaking place, flowing through the park like the Nahɂą Dehé (South Nahanni River), which has carved the deepest canyons in the country along its course. At age 7, Campbell flew to Náįlįcho with her father, mother and younger sister to spend two weeks at Sunblood Cabin (also built by her grandfathers and uncle). “Every day we’d take the boat down towards the falls and then my dad would work on the boardwalk. My mom would take us for a walk over to the falls and just hang out around there,” she says. “I was always playing in the trees there, so I was very familiar with that place.”
