19 Great Things You Will See On A Northwest Territories Road Trip

The Northwest Territories is a very, very large place. It spans from the 60th parallel all the way to the North Pole. In July, 2016, we traveled to the territory and drove through just a small portion. Yet, it was a major accomplishment and we were planning our return trip right after crossing the border back into British Columbia.

Keep in mind, early July in the Northwest Territories is a completely different world than if you visit in winter. Although, some prefer the winter in order to see the spectacular ‘Northern Lights’. In July, you will not see the Aurora Borealis. You will not even see a star. The sun doesn’t go down for long and the darkest it gets at night is a twilight. In fact, you can still read a book around the campfire well after midnight.

There are so many things to see in the Northwest Territories, regardless of when you visit. We crossed in from Alberta and did what some call ‘the loop’. We traveled north and west on highway 1 (aka The Waterfall Route) until the junction with highway 7 (aka The Liard Trail). We then traveled 7 west and south to the border with B.C. We also traveled highway 5 to Hay River and Wood Buffalo National Park, as well as highway 3 in order to see the Deh Cho Bridge. What that means is we traveled on about 90% of NWT’s highways.

Things You Will See In The Northwest Territories

Here are 19 things that you are virtually guaranteed to see on a summertime road trip into Canada’s Northwest Territories. Click on any of the images for the full sized, high definition version.

 

1. The Welcome Sign At The Border

This is a monumental achievement. The driving distance from Edmonton, Alberta is about 1,000 km with very few places to stop for gas and food along the way. You will immediately be welcomed by seemingly hundreds of ‘Bulldogs’. These are similar to deer flies and are relentless. However, they are more interested in the heat coming off you car and not so much in you. Step away from the vehicle and relish in how far your journey has taken you.

At the welcome centre, you’ll have a much friendlier greeting. Here, the great folks will give you all the information you need for time in NWT. You’ll be given the really important info like where to get gas and why you should be carrying cash, etc. Gas stations are few and far between. You can go literally hours on the highways without seeing another vehicle.

Cash? The stores are equipped with debit machines and there are ATM’s. However, if one goes down, it could be days before they’re back up as repairmen and parts have to come from a long distance away.

 

2. Wilderness Without Barriers

Alexandra Falls is just of the major waterfalls in the area that you can visit very intimately. This is not Southern Ontario with barriers and warning signs keeping you from doing something stupid. You can walk up to Mother Nature at her most furious and stand as close as you dare.

So, use common sense. Use your brains. There is no one to hear you scream when that special selfie goes horribly wrong and you’re swept to you death over a massive waterfall.

 

3. Bison

There is an abundance of wildlife in the Northwest Territories but it’s the Bison that many come to see. There are a lot and they travel in large herds. They will stand in the middle of the highway without a care in the world.

The funny thing is, we had a hard time finding any Bison on our trip. On the long road to Fort Smith and Wood Buffalo National Park, I saw one in the forest at the side of the road early in the drive. I could have and should have stopped, but didn’t. There would be so many more ahead, right? After all, we were going to a national park created to protect this animal.

Well, we didn’t see any at Wood Buffalo. We did see lots and lots of bugs, but no Bison. On our last night in the Northwest Territories, my son and I saw one right at our campground but my wife missed out on it. We were about to give up with about 20km left before the British Columbia border. That’s when, magically, we came over a rise and there was a full herd on both sides of the road and on the road itself.

They seem quite docile. But, when you’re on a road with no other vehicles within miles and these beasts are standing as high as the Honda Odyssey minivan, it’s a bit intimidating. The herd seemed to go for ever and what got me nervous is that there were several young. That meant to me that there were several concerned parents keeping a watchful eye on us.

 

4. Television Stars

At the Hay River Airport, you can look through the fence at some classic aircraft belonging to Buffalo Airways. The Douglas C-54G Skymaster pictured here is a real life television star. The plane was built in 1943 and did time in the United States Air Force.

More recently, this DC-4 starred in an episode of Ice Pilots NWT, along with an episode of Nova on PBS. The plane was also featured in the U.K. documentary Dambusters: Building the Bouncing Bomb.

 

5. Forest Fires

Well, you may very well not see an active forest fire. We didn’t. But the evidence is around you everywhere you go. It seems unfathomable the amount of burnt out forest that surrounds each and every road. Forest fires are simply a way of life in the north.

This is quite interesting because we went before the dust had even settled on the Fort McMurray fires of 2016. Fort McMurray was such a tragedy but the truth is, fires like that are an annual occurrence. It’s just that this time, it burned a rare populated area.

In the image it shows Coral Falls, just above Sambaa Deh Falls. On one side, the forest has been burnt out by fire. On the other, the forest is lush, green and seemingly untouched. This seemed to be often the case where rivers where the natural barriers for great fires.

 

6. Cross Fox

A close cousin to the Red Fox, the Cross Fox (or possibly bastard fox) is an attractive, colourful sight in the Northwest Territories wilderness. These were seen somewhere along highway 5 in Wood Buffalo National Park.

 

 

 

7. Huge Rivers and 1 Big Bridge

You will cross the Hay River, MacKenzie River and Liard River. These are big. These are Mississippi River, St. Lawrence River big. The Hay River is narrower and is crossed by bridge at more than one spot. The Liard and MacKenzie are crossed by ferry or ice bridge, depending on the season.

That is, until just a few years ago. The Deh Cho Bridge was built across the MacKenzie River at Fort Providence, giving a stable connection for the capital Yellowknife to the outside world.

 

8. Beaches

Yes, that’s right. You can spend time at the beach doing some sunning and swimming. The beach pictured is on Great Slave Lake at Hay River. The water is surprisingly warm and the beach has some beautiful sand. You do have to be careful of driftwood logs that are everywhere in the area.

There is a campground here, as well. Hay River Territorial Park is further up the shore from the municipal beach shown in the picture. There are 35 sites in the campground, all powered and all spacious.

It’s interesting to know that Great Slave Lake is the second largest that is fully within Canada – remember that the Great Lakes share borders with the United States. Great Slave Lake is the deepest in North America with a maximum depth of 616 metres or 2,027 feet.

 

9. Rainbows

An interesting side effect of very long daylight hours and fast, frequent developing storms. In the image, the rainbow remained on the other side of Hay River for some time. The storm that produced it never crossed the river and we stayed dry the whole evening.

The waterfall below the rainbow is Louise Falls. Louise Falls and Alexandra Falls combine to be the highlights of the Twin Falls Territorial Park on Hay River.

 

 

10. Helicopters

In Ontario, seeing a helicopter more often than not spells trouble. In the south, this means that someone is being hunted down or someone has been injured so bad that they need to be flown to a proper facility.

In the north, helicopters are simply a necessary form of transportation. Keeping an eye on forest fires or transporting workers to and from natural resources extraction projects, helicopters are nearly as popular as cars.

 

 

11. River Ferries

As mentioned, to cross the MacKenzie or Liard River, often a ferry is your only choice. We took a ferry across the Liard to Fort Simpson for the day. There is no charge and the ferry crosses often. These boats are connected to a cable on the fast moving river. Just days before, this boat was out of service because of high water.

Ferry service was discontinued on the MacKenzie at Fort Providence with the completion of the Deh Cho Bridge. The ferry was still parked along the shore as a reminder of different times.

 

12. Mountains

In the east, coming in from Alberta, the land is pretty flat. As you get on the Liard Trail and head further west, the Nahanni Mountains start to appear on the horizon. There are scenic flights out of Fort Simpson that will take you over the mountains on sightseeing tours.

The Liard Trail (Highway 7) turns south and does not go into the mountains. However, you perpetually have the mountain scenery to look at for the rest of your journey south.

The image was taken across from the campground on the Liard River. If you click on the photo to see the full sized version, you will see that the river is littered with full grown trees that have been eroded from the shores upstream.

 

13. Bright Nights

The image here of Louise Falls was taken at midnight. The sun had gone down about 45 minutes before but I still need just a four second exposure to get the water blur effect without overexposing.

At Louise Falls, there is a spiral staircase that takes you down the shear cliff to the edge of the waterfall. Even with the tree colour and the shade of the cliff, it was bright enough that there was trouble navigating the trail.

This, of course, wreaks havoc on your sleeping. Unless there’s a clock beside your bed, you really have no clue what time it might be. With a four year old and an eight month old baby, this can especially hard.

 

14. Gravel Highways

We were told by a representative of the Northwest Territories at the Toronto Outdoor Adventure Show that the roads were, for the most part, paved. This is not entirely true. There are several hundred kilometres of unpaved highways still in Northwest Territories.

For the most part, highway 1 is entirely paved. Highway 5 is paved about half of the distance on the drive to Fort Smith. Highway 7 from the Highway 1 junction is not at all paved until about 10 kilometres from the British Columbia border.

However, that doesn’t mean the roads are not well maintained. Gravel or not, the roads are quite smooth. Dust is an issue but in places they’ve started working with some sort of dust control spray that does a great job.

 

15. Endless Sunsets

The sun will turn red and be just a short distance from the horizon. You will run for the camera and try to find a nice spot to take a picture or two. After ten minutes, the sun will seemingly not have moved. 20 minutes later, the same thing. That’s when you realize, it’s more than just up and down. The sun is moving left to right.

In the image, we’re actually not in the Northwest Territories. This is Pine Lake at the bug ridden campground in Wood Buffalo. The national park is both in NWT and Alberta. This campground happens to be in Alberta although it can only be accessed by road from the north and not from anywhere else in the province of Alberta. There was just one other site in use at this campground – a beautiful spot but nothing less than a constant invasion of mosquitos.

 

16. More Dirt Roads and Forest Fires

No, this is not a main highway. This is a side road leading to the Salt Plains in Wood Buffalo National Park. On both sides of the road, the forest had not too many years ago been burnt.

Just a note on the solitude you will find in the Northwest Territories. This road traveled about 10 kilometres in from Highway 5, just outside of Fort Smith. We did not see another human being during the drive in and out or during any of our time at the Salt Plains.

 

 

17. Canyons

You will see more if you head up the Dempster Highway but the canyon created by Sambaa Deh Falls on the Trout River is very impressive. You can explore both sides of the waterfall/canyon and dare to get as close as you believe you can.

Be careful, though. The cross shown in the image is testament to the dangers involved here. My best description is that it is not a waterfall but a ‘gauntlet to hell’.

These falls, Coral Falls and the Trout River are all within walking distance of the Sambaa Deh Falls Territorial Park. This is an excellent campground run by excellent people.

 

18. Black Bear

Don’t worry, you will see bears. There was a bounty of black bear throughout. Without the large human population and the garbage that goes with it, these bears didn’t seem to particularly care if we were there or not. The one place we never saw a bear was in any of the campgrounds.

When you get further south to the camping cities that are Jasper and Banff, try not to laugh when the registration people ask with their deathly serious tones if you know you are in ‘bear country’!

 

 

19. Cracks in the Windshield

The nasty crack shown here occurred somewhere on highway 7. I saw it coming and it was big. When it hit the windshield, I was sure it was going to come right through and leave us without a windshield.

Talking with locals on the Fort Simpson Ferry, I found this was normal. People from the Northwest Territories don’t get windshield cracks fixed because it’ll just broken again, if not the next day then shortly after.