There’s a magic to this place.
It’s the way a journey down a wild river gives you a glimpse at our planet in its purest form. It’s how a physical challenge provides countless spiritual rewards. In the Northwest Territories, life does not take place at some future time. It happens right now, right in front of you.
Here, you will create lifelong bonds of friendship. You will come to realize that the farther you go from home, the closer you get to who you are. You will discover that the Northwest Territories changed you.
It’s a trip that feels more necessary every day.
You want to get away from it all. To trade the daily commute down clogged throughways, passing the same big-box stores and glass skyscrapers, for the vast expanse of nature uninterrupted. To steer yourself down a river that has forever run free and wild, like when our planet was new. You close your eyes and dream of the Northwest Territories.
Here, it is still possible to push away from a riverbank with the Arctic Ocean as your destination and never pass under a bridge or even see another soul until you get there. The rivers of the Northwest Territories are age-old highways and byways into the heart of pure, rugged Canadian wilderness. And there are roads leading just about anywhere.
There’s the incomparable Nahanni, considered the greatest wilderness river on Earth, that takes you through a series of ancient and towering canyons. Or the mighty Thelon, “the place where God began,” that runs unimpeded through the Barrens until you reach saltwater. Maybe you’d rather float the bracing snowmelt of the Thomsen, the northernmost navigable river on Earth, passing muskoxen along the way. Or paddle through otherworldly landscapes on the mythical Hornaday River. Or descend the Mountain River, a whitewater paradise, and gawk at the geology that changes around you many times a day.
You decide.
On the flight in, you are awed by the river that stretches on forever below you and by the fact that this will be your home for the coming weeks. You don’t know it just then, but the dozen or so people seated around you in the plane’s cabin will soon feel like family. The plane lands and everyone gets to work unloading it. Then, in a flash, the aircraft lifts off, dips its wing to say goodbye, and disappears—first from sight, then from sound. The weight of the world lifts from your shoulders. You’re truly free.
Bonds form almost immediately with strangers you will come to know more intimately than people you’ve been close with for years. There’s a camaraderie that maybe you haven’t felt before. It’s truly all for one and one for all. When you hit a rainy patch, you find yourself encouraging on others instead of complaining about the momentary discomforts.
The selfishness and solitude you are often surrounded by in the city seem so foreign out here.
This is no pleasure cruise, but you didn’t expect that. There are stretches where you fight to battle a strong current and your muscles strain from the effort. You pump yourself up for a coming portage and put on your bug jacket and hat just in case. But the rewards of the hard work are immediate. There’s the new landscape to devour with every bend in the river. You stop for a day-hike up into an alpine meadow or for a stunning, panoramic view of the river’s valley. You take a break from the paddling with a soak in a geothermal spring or with a quick shower a small, chilly waterfall. You pull out your camera and snap photos of muskoxen or caribou that are just as curious of you as you are of them.
And there are physical rewards. Nothing has ever tasted as scrumptious as the rehydrated chili you devour at the end of the day. You can feel it begin to provide nourishment to every extremity, as the energy returns to your spent body. Maybe you have a glass of red wine around the campfire, but it’s the laughter about the day’s events that’s actually intoxicating. You are compelled all of a sudden to walk down to the river. There, the fireside stories echo up the walls of a magnificent canyon. You hear the rush of the river beside you. You stare deep into the night sky and realize this place is even more serene than you’d imagined back home. When it’s finally time to turn in, your lay back and sleep deeper than you have in years.
At the end of your voyage, after forging new friendships and witnessing the natural world in its realest form, you will return to civilization. You will dig out your cellphone, once attached to your hip, and it will look out of place in your calloused hand. It may even take you some time to turn it back on. That’s because you have just finished a spiritual pilgrimage on a wild NWT waterway. And no matter where you wound up, the river will end at one place: self-discovery.
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Red Cliff Adventures
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Nahanni River Adventures
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Blachford Lodge
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Trail Blazer Tours
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Canoe North Adventures
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B. Dene Adventures Inc.
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Łı́ı́dlı̨́ı̨́ Kų́ę́ Tourism
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Tundra North Travel
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Ji Guang Tour
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Andrew Lake and Lynx Tundra Lodges
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Ram Head Outfitters Ltd.
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Arctic Chalet Tours
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Destination NWT Ltd.
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Aylmer Lake Lodge
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Simpson Air
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Canoe North
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Yellowknife Outdoor Adventures
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Watta Lake Lodge
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Bluefish Outfitting
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Tah-Chay Adventures
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Polar Pack Arctic Adventures
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North Star Adventures
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North-Wright Airways Ltd.
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Nahanni Mountain Lodge
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Great Slave Lake Tours
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Yellowknife Tours
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Jackpine Paddle
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Dancing Skies Photo Tours
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Kasba Lake Lodge
World Class Fishing Within Reach Yet Beyond Belief For 3 generations we have been honing the Kasba experience to be like no-other. Our level of hospitality, dedication to the fishery, and a legendary passion for the experience that permeates through our entire team is undeniably contagious. No matter what you’re looking for in your fishing […]...
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Arctic Tours Canada
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North of 60 Aurora Adventures
We offer tours such as aurora viewing, dog sledding, snowmobile rides, ice fishing and more. Come experience a once in......
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K'iyeli Tourism Services
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Black Feather - The Wilderness Adventure Company
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Tukto Lodge
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NARWAL Northern Adventures
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Sparks Lake Lodge
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Yellow Dog Lodge, Inc.
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Gana River Outfitters Ltd.
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2 Seasons Adventures
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South Nahanni Outfitters Ltd.
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Peterson's Point Lake Lodge
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Aurora Village
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An Indigenous, family owned business with much history, knowledge and stories to share about the Spectacular Northwest Territories! We used......
Pehdzeh Ki First Nation is located in the community of Wrigley, Northwest Territories, Canada. We are a Designated Authority in......
Boat tours in the wildlife-rich Slave River delta and fishing at Taltson Big Pike Lodge....
Welcoming and friendly with a rustic charm and all modern conveniences, Grey Goose Lodge immediately catches your eye as you......
For 35 years, Sambaa K’e has offered world-class fishing on Trout Lake just north of the Northwest Territories-British Columbia border.......
Fishing and Barrenlands wildlife photography, including migrating caribou, at the Obstruction Rapids in the central Barrenlands north of Yellowknife....
To truly experience the Northwest Territories, take your camping gear for a highway driving adventure! Long ribbons of road without......
Remote naturalist’s lodge snuggled in the Mackenzie Mountains, in the largest mountain wilderness in North America. Located along the Canol......
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Beaufort Sea Adventures
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