Aulavik National Park

Aulavik National Park

Parks Directory of the United States / Canadian National Parks

Address: PO Box 29
Sachs Harbour, NT X0E0Z0
Phone: 867-690-3904;
Fax: 867-690-4808;
Web: www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/nt/aulavik
Size: 12,200 sq. km.
Established: 1992.
Location: On northern Banks Island, the most western island of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Access is by air charter from Inuvik, which has daily air service from southern Canada. Sachs Harbour, the only community on Banks Island, is located 250 km southwest of the park.
Facilities: None.
Activities: Backcountry camping, hiking, rafting, canoeing, wildlife viewing, bird-watching.
Special Features: Park features pristine Arctic wilderness, including broad river valleys, sheer cliffs, and rugged desert-like badlands. The Thomsen River, Canada's most northerly navigable river, provides more than 150 km for wilderness rafting and canoeing. Park includes a variety of wildlife, including a thriving population of more than 68,000 muskoxen and a stable population of the endangered Peary caribou that pass through each year as they migrate between their wintering grounds and summer calving grounds. The Banks Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary protects Brant and lesser snow geese sedge meadow molting habitat, and more than 40 other species of birds have been observed. Within the park boundaries there are more than 230 archeological sites that suggest the presence of human life in this part of the Arctic dates back more than 4,000 years.

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See other parks in Northwest Territories.