Canada’s North
The Northwest Territories has access to seventeen river systems including the Great Bear, Ravens Throat, Redstone, Tischu, Keele, Mountain, Stoneknife, Mackenzie, Natla, Snake, Bonnet Plume, Wind, Arctic Red, Horton, Anderson, Hornaday and Nahanni Rivers. All of these rivers can be easily accessed through Norman Wells except for the Nahanni River that is accessed through Fort Simpson. Eleven of these rivers are situated in the Sahtu. Most of these rivers are suitable for intermediate paddlers. The Mountain, Hornaday, Snake, Lower Horton, Natla, Tischu and Bonnet Plume Rivers are more suitable for advanced paddlers. The Ravens Throat is a rafting river and at this point not clearly a canoeing river. Almost all of these rivers run through either significant mountain or tundra regions and three rivers offer an arctic coast experience. There are significant benefits to these rivers as most offer a preferable two-week trip with incredible scenery, fair and often friendly whitewater, few portages and low levels of black flies and mosquitoes. The Upper Horton offers an excellent novice paddling experience.
Many of these rivers including the Great Bear, Keele, Natla, and Upper Horton offer exceptional fishing for trout and arctic grayling. The Nahanni is certainly the most known river destination in the far north although there are some drawbacks to the river because of the yearly usage of the river takes away some of the remote feel of a wilderness experience and in some water levels, the river is not suitable for other than advanced paddlers or rafters. The Snake, Mountain and Horton Rivers are beginning to gain the interest of a broader paddler base.
The Yukon Territory has access to fourteen major river systems including the Wolf, Yukon, Nisutlin, Teslin, Big Salmon, Pelly, Snake, Bonnet Plume, Wind, Stewart, Hyland, Firth, Tatshenshini and Alsek. Many of these rivers do offer road access to and from the river. The Big Salmon, Yukon, Snake, Bonnet Plume and Tatshenshini Rivers are on avid paddlers lists of rivers to do. These Yukon rivers are primarily suitable for novice paddlers and the scenery is heavily forested with low mountains or mountainous hills and many of these rivers have either no or few portages. The Peel River Basin is the exception with two intermediate rivers, the Snake and Wind, and one advanced river, the Bonnet Plume. These three rivers offer Mackenzie Mountain experiences with lower levels of forested areas and significant mountain ranges. All three of these rivers can be easily accessed from Norman Wells. The access from Norman Wells is significantly less complicated with one air flight in and out whereas from the Yukon, the access is first with a five hour van shuttle before embarking on the air shuttles. The cost of the air shuttle from Norman Wells would be a small amount higher than the Yukon access routes. The Firth, Tatshenshini and Alsek Rivers are primarily rafting rivers with difficult whitewater sections not suitable for canoe tripping.
Nunavut has access to seven river systems including the Coppermine, Burnside, Hood, Back and Thelon, Kazan and Soper. All of these rivers are accessed from Yellowknife except for the Soper that is accessed from Iqaluit. Many of these rivers are on avid paddlers lists of rivers to do but the air shuttle costs, the remoteness, the longer length of trips (3 weeks), the level of portaging and the mosquitoes and black flies levels make these rivers less desirable to the paddling public. There is a significant interest among paddlers to have access to rivers such as the Coppermine, Burnside, Hood, Back and Soper that take them to the arctic coast.
Featured Adventures
- Tischu River
Our exploratory trip on the Tischu River, a tributary of the Keele River
News & Events
- Fall Newsletter November 2011
We have just posted our 2012 Expedition Program and you will see that we have offered two new winter trips including an ice-road adventure to Norman Wells! We are very excited to be offering a Coppermine River Adventure – this was my first ever arctic canoe trip when I was just 18 years old! Other [...]
- Celebrate Sahtu
On July 23rd, The Town of Norman Wells, North-Wright Airways and Canoe North Adventures will host a celebration that will showcase the wilderness of the Sahtu Region and recognize the collaboration of effort to brand the Sahtu Region of the Northwest Territories as a tourism destination with national and international recognition. This event will highlight the [...]
- Great Bear River Exploration
This past summer, Lin Ward, Susan Casson, Matt Casson and Karl Schiefer checked out the Great Bear River. North-Wright Airways flew them into the First Nation community of Deline on Great Bear Lake. Once canoes were loaded they only paddled a short distance out to a camp right on Great Bear Lake. Karl and Matt [...]
- The 2010 Operator of the Year Award for the Northwest Territories
The award was presented to Al and Lin by the Minister of Tourism at the Northwest Territories Tourism Gala Dinner held in Inuvik on Thursday, November 25th…
- Our Outfitting Centre
It has been a long-standing dream of Canoe North Adventures …
- The Redstone River Exploratory Expedition
The Redstone River is unique in that…
- Canol Heritage Trail Exploratory Hike, 2009
At Canoe North, we are always intrigued with the prospect of a grand adventure…
- Ice Road
The trip took eight days and the last two days …
- Exploratory Trips
In 2009, we are planning two more exploratory trips…
- New Air Services and Canoeing Base for CNA, 2009
at the North-Wright Airways float base in Norman Wells…
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