Nahanni National Park: The Crown Jewel of the NWT

Nahanni National Park is the crown jewel of the NWT — 30,000 square kilometres of wilderness centred on the South Nahanni River, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the great wild rivers of the world. Virginia Falls (Náiltcho), twice the height of Niagara, is its icon. It's a bucket-list park, and almost no one goes. Here's the guide.

The river The South Nahanni — a wild, braided, turquoise river through four great canyons (the 'Niagara of the North' canyon walls rise 1,200 metres). The 2-week river trip is one of the great wilderness expeditions on earth; the flight in to the river (Virginia Falls or Rabbitkettle) is the way most visitors access it.

Virginia Falls (Náiltcho) The park's icon — a 90-metre falls (twice Niagara) on the South Nahanni, with a portage trail around it and the Sunblood Mountain viewpoint. The floatplane lands here. It's the single most dramatic sight in the territory.

The hot springs and the cirques Rabbitkettle Hot Springs (the naturally warm pools and the tufa mounds) and the Cirque of the Unclimbables — the dramatic granite cirque in the Ram Headlands, a climbers' and photographers' pilgrimage. The Nahanni karst — the caves, sinkholes, and the glacier-carved valleys — is a geological wonder.

When to go June to September for the river season and flightseeing; July–August for the peak; the river trips run June to August. Winter is inaccessible.

Good to know The park is fly-in only — the floatplanes go from Fort Simpson (or Muncho Lake). There are no roads. Plan with a licensed outfitter for the river; the day flightseeing from Fort Simpson is the easier option. And this is serious wilderness — backcountry registration and bear awareness required. It's the trip of a lifetime.