Canada's National Parks in the Arctic

Aulavik National Park

Aulavik, meaning “ place where people travel ” in Inuvialuktun, protects more than 12,000 square kilometres of arctic lowlands on the north end of Banks Island. The park encompasses a variety of landscapes from fertile river valleys to polar deserts, buttes and badlands, rolling hills, and bold seacoasts.

Nááts'ihch'oh National Park Reserve

Nááts'įhch'oh National Park Reserve is named after Nááts'įhch'oh the mountain – a powerful place for the people of the Sahtu. Near the Yukon-Northwest Territories border, the park is in the traditional lands of the Shúhtaot'ine (Mountain Dene), and home to grizzly bear, Dall’s sheep, mountain goats, and woodland caribou.

Nahanni National Park Reserve

The Cirque of the Unclimbables’ granite spires rise out of the lush alpine meadow, at Náįlįcho (Virginia Falls) the South Nahanni River surges over a drop twice the height of Niagara Falls. Nahanni National Park Reserve, encompassing 30,000 square kilometers, is a designated UNESCO world heritage site. The Dehcho First Nations welcome adventurers to Nahʔą Dehé, land of peaks, plateaus and wild rivers.

Thaidene Nene National Park Reserve

Thaidene Nëné - “The Land of the Ancestors” in Dënesųłiné Yati – is an Indigenous Protected Area of more than 26 000 km2 in the Northwest Territories. At its core is Thaidene Nene National Park Reserve, Canada’s newest national park. Here is the place where the barrens and subarctic boreal forest converge on the shore of one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes in a stunning display of rugged, northern beauty.

Tuktut Nogait National Park

The landscape and wildlife of the 18,890 sq km national park is seen by those privileged few willing to travel 170 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. Tuktut Nogait National Park features rolling hills, three major rivers, steep canyons, waterfalls, barren-ground caribou and the continent’s fiercest predators.

Wood Buffalo National Park

Spanning the Alberta-Northwest Territories border, the largest national park in Canada protects a large swath of the Northern Boreal Plains ecosystem, the largest herds of wood bison in the world, vital whooping crane habitat, extraordinary examples of karst and caves, and the Peace-Athabasca Delta. This is the traditional territory of the Dene, Cree, and Métis and is home to many spectacular species, including whooping cranes, bison, wolves, and more.

Auyuittuq National Park

On southeastern Baffin Island in Nunavut, the towering peaks of the Akshayuk Pass overlook a natural corridor through a landscape of sprawling glaciers, steep fiords and winding river valleys. Rich in Inuit culture and history, Auyuittuq is “the land that never melts” in Inuktitut.

Qausuittuq National Park

Qausuittuq, Inuktitut for “place where the sun doesn't rise”, is an area rich in natural and cultural heritage in Nunavut's High Arctic. Jointly managed by Inuit and Parks Canada, the park protects key habitat for Peary caribou.

Quttinirpaaq National Park

Inuktitut for “land at the top of the world”, Quttinirpaaq is Canada’s northernmost national park. Its sprawling tundra is enriched by jagged black peaks and massive glaciers. Herds of muskoxen and Peary caribou roam this vast landscape where archaeological sites date back thousands of years.

Sirmilik National Park

Amid an expansive landscape of glaciers, valleys and red-rock hoodoo spires, nesting seabirds crowd the cliffs of Bylot Island, high above icy waters teeming with narhwal and beluga whales. Sirmilik is an area rich in wildlife that has sustained Inuit for thousands of years.

Ukkusiksalik National Park

Along the shores of Wager Bay in Nunavut, Ukkusiksalik’s rolling tundra is abundant with wildlife. Polar bears, arctic wolves and caribou roam a landscape where hundreds of archaeological sites tell the story of Inuit who have lived and travelled here for thousands of years.

Links of interest

Ivvavik National Park

Ivvavik, meaning ‘a place for giving birth, a nursery,' in Inuvialuktun, the language of the Inuvialuit, is the first national park in Canada to be created as a result of an Indigenous land claim agreement – the Inuvialuit Final Agreement (1984). The park protects a portion of the calving grounds of the Porcupine caribou herd and represents the Northern Yukon and Mackenzie Delta natural regions.

Kluane National Park and Reserve

 

Kluane National Park & Reserve protects a spectacular Canadian landscape in the southwest Yukon, where visitors can explore a world of high mountain peaks and massive valley glaciers, boreal forests, sparkling lakes, iconic northern wildlife, and Southern Tutchone cultural heritage.

 

Vuntut National Park

Remote and unspoiled Arctic wilderness, a First Nations history dating back millennia and the setting for one of the planet’s great animal migrations await the few who make the trek to Vuntut National Park.