Page 13 - Breath of the Bear

The North Slave lies atop Great Slave Lake. ferment. Add to that its setting – perched
It’s a place of stone and water: waves of shield- on pink outcrops above the waves of Great
rock, urgent streams, innumerable lakes, and Slave Lake – and you’ve got the ideal place to
spruce-trees that dwindle to nothing where experience the modern north.
the Barrenlands begin. This is the home of the
Tlicho people, part of the Athapaskan-speaking Tuktoyaktuk
Dene, one of the most populous groups of This is the place for dog sledding,
Indigenous nations. snowmobiling, ice fishing, snowshoeing and
viewing polar bears. If that is not enough you
The Dehcho has big rivers and big mountains. can always take an afternoon drive across one
Tucked in the territory’s southwest, it houses the frozen lakes! In the dead of winter the lakes
Nahanni National Park Reserve – Canada’s freeze four feet thick and that is time for an ice
most storied adventure destination. It’s also the road adventure!
home of the mighty Liard and the even mightier
Mackenzie, along with a half-dozen idyllic Dene Yukon, Canada
villages, among the most traditional in the “Where the silences are spawned, and
territory. the light of hell-fire flows into the bowl of the
midnight sky, violet, amber and rose ... ”
The Sahtu is the back-of-beyond. The from the Spell of the Yukon by Robert Service
trackless core of the territory, it’s remote even
by Northern standards. Traditional life-ways Some say the Yukon is country that God
rule on the shores of Great Bear, Canada’s forgot, others believe that it is the embodiment
biggest lake; along the flanks of the three- of His handiwork. To whatever side you lean,
mile-wide Mackenzie; and up in the Mackenzie it will be a uniquely Yukon experience when
Mountains, thronging with moose, grizzlies and you visit the home of the midnight sun and the
nameless peaks. place where wildlife is truly wild.

The Western Arctic is a storybook landscape Dempster Highway, Atlin Road and Haines
of tundra, ice, mountains, reindeer, polar bears Road
and muskox. It includes the rich delta of the These are some of the best roads to see
Mackenzie as well as the historic Northwest wildlife right from your window. Travelers can
Passage and the rugged islands that reach spot bear, moose, elk, bison and sheep all in a
toward the pole. This is the country of the day’s journey and this is the place where moose
Gwich’in and Inuvialuit – Canada’s northernmost outnumber people two to one!
people.
Alberta
Yellowknife is the wild metropolis, capital Black bears and grizzlies abound in this
of the territory and the “little big city.” With just province through Banff National Park, Lake
20,000 folks, you might think it’s laid back, but Louise and Jasper National Park. For more
the city buzzes with frontier spirit and cultural information visit the Travel Bear Directory.

Rob Daugherty

Joe Desjardins

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