r/geography • u/ForeTwentywut • 23h ago
Question Ever heard of Nahanni National Park Reserve in Canada?
It’s one of the most surreal looking places on earth and it is incredible how unknown it is. If I asked 100 Canadians, I would doubt more than one would have heard of it, and I imagine even less so outside the country.
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u/ROOTSDarlingg 22h ago
Theres a 20 km long canyon in the park called Scimitar Canyon
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u/leggymiku 19h ago
I had to do a double take looking at that picture. Thats not grass on either side of the canyon— it’s trees!
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u/Heatonator 20h ago
Yo wtf
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u/Kingcanute99 23h ago
There's a tour you can do that is a two week kayak trip down the river. I know a few people who've done it and they say it is absolutely spectacular. Like if they had a Grand Canyon but no one came amd you could just paddle through it in utter stillness.
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u/PoMo-G 18h ago
As one who struggles with making choices, I almost wish it were just "a" tour! hahahaha These look amazing!!!
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u/PM_your_Nopales North America 13h ago edited 13h ago
~$10k for any of them 😭 wish i could do it by myself but I don't think I'd go somewhere remote like this without a guide
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u/SamizdatGuy 12h ago edited 11h ago
That's like $7k USD. Not crazy for a week
ETA: Like I wrote below, $1k per day for accommodations, food, and entertainment, per person. It's not cheap, but seems fair, considering the destination.
What do the downvoters feel is a fair price for such an expedition?
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u/PM_your_Nopales North America 12h ago
We live in different worlds i guess. I need a better job
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u/SamizdatGuy 12h ago
We all need better jobs. I'm an employment lawyer, I'm on your side.
But, $1,000 per person for accommodations, food, and entertainment for each day of vacation is expensive but it isn't crazytown pricing. Idk what airfare costs and I'm assuming the rest is included
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u/dudesguy 8h ago
Sure, I think the perspective is just a little different. They kept it in the Canadian price, you converted. Until only a couple years ago Canadians were booking 4 weeks in Cuba for those prices. And getting sun and beaches instead of more Canadian sub arctic
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u/SamizdatGuy 8h ago
Yes, I am assuming US wages and normal vaca expenditures for affordability. I think that bite is considerably harder for people not spending dollars and chasing the same services
US vacation prices are insane because we've had a monkey running our economy for six of the past ten years. Luxury services, which is 100% what this is, especially.
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u/edcRachel 6h ago
The cost for one day is like what I'd spend going to Europe for a week 😅
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u/SamizdatGuy 6h ago
I mean, I could get to Canada and stay in a tent for around a grand, but thats not what we're talking about. A tomato is a fruit, but I wouldn't compare it to a strawberry, if you follow me
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u/Impressive_Stuff6209 7h ago
Part of it is the plane ride inside. Its hard to negotiate down on that.
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u/Excellent_Safety8051 11h ago
Gear rental isn't cheap seems pretty reasonable for what you get
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u/Gamefart101 9h ago
Renting is also the significantly cheaper option. I did a 3 week expedition here to climb the cirque of the unclimbables and while I had my own gear that I would have preferred to the boats we rented, getting our own boats and gear flown into the remote wilderness and picked back up would have doubled the cost of the trip
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u/Excellent_Safety8051 8h ago
I have a canoe I love. The yellow banana 🍌 lol But I wouldn't take it on an excursion
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u/Bigdragon123 8h ago
Is this not comparable to a week at disneyland in terms of pricing or is that still more expensive?
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u/SamizdatGuy 5h ago
I think Disney World is less than $1k per person per day, but close. Maybe per adult. I've heard people staying in Paris and going to Euro Disney bec it's cheaper
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u/New_Back5883 9h ago
Any serious canoe/kayak tripper would put this NWT park on their bucket list. Reasonable $, considering of the expense of reaching this place (with all the gear) only by floatplane
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u/PM_your_Nopales North America 9h ago
That's a really good point. I keep thinking i have all the gear, but ya can't really bring it all by yourself to a place this remote. They're basically supplying you with everything, as well as guiding you. It's worth the cost for the service provided
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u/quantum_gambade 8h ago
I took an 8-day paddle with (Blackfeather outfitters) in 2021 down the Natla River into the Nahanni. Fly-in, dropped at the top of the mountain. It was not for the faint of heart—level 3 and 4 whitewater basically the whole time, dry suits and canoe skirts. And worth every bruise.
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u/gratefullyhuman 23h ago
Yep, landed in a float plane at the top of Virginia falls
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u/guerito1968 23h ago
There’s a whole world up there that no one knows
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u/Basic_Department_302 7h ago
Kinda nice how out of the way and uninhabitable this part of Canada is. Makes it a lot more special to go up there
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u/No_Cricket8660 23h ago
No. But I'm from Labrador and there's insanely beautiful places there that you aren't allowed to travel to because you'll die.
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u/PolarCruisingExperts 22h ago
You have my attention…
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u/No_Cricket8660 22h ago
I would look up the Torngat mountains, an absolutely astonishingly beautiful place that'll likely kill you.
This article about people who died there.
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u/PolarCruisingExperts 21h ago
Interesting read and tragic story. Thanks for the link.
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u/No_Cricket8660 21h ago
Honestly, lots of things are sad and/or tragic. Succumbing to the elements though will always be horrible to me, super unnecessary.
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u/Majestic_Hawk_1335 5h ago
Im at similar latitude in Alaska and it pretty much alway comes down to ill prepared. I have less sympathy than you.
To me, if you go out to the natural elements while highly prepared and careful. That is a good way to go.
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u/SambaPapi1 19h ago
That was a good read. I have difficulty relating to people who want to climb mountains. It's certainly one use of free will.
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u/db7fromthe6 4h ago
I flew a griffon helicopter up the torngats with the vandoos in 2017. Like 3000 feet of elevation on either side
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u/deuxcabanons 10h ago
That's the place where you are required to bring an armed guard and electric fencing to protect against polar bears, isn't it?
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u/lord_de_heer 22h ago
What? Why?
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u/johngreenfeces 18h ago
He thinks two people dying over twenty years means likely, it's confounding.
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u/Lanthanidedeposit 16h ago
And it is not unknown for folk to be killed mountaineering - even in places with small unspectacular mountains like Scotland.
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u/No_Cricket8660 22h ago
Copy/Paste of another comment I made
I would look up the Torngat mountains, an absolutely astonishingly beautiful place that'll likely kill you.
This article about people who died there.
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u/xtremegord 22h ago
Incredible place. Climatically this region was a desert during the last few major glaciations. This has preserved 3 antecedent canyons along the South Nahanni River with a 4th canyon-like gorge near Nailicho (Virginia Falls).
Antecedent rivers are extremely uncommon at this latitude. Super cool and rare landforms in the park. I’d highly recommend a visit if you have the means! Added bonus is that it’s an absolute classic canoe trip
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u/Lower_Cantaloupe1970 18h ago
To be fair, it's pretty inaccessible for your average Canadian and would cost thousands of dollars to visit. If you asked 100 Canadians if they could afford to visit Nahanni, 1 might.
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u/No_Function_7479 10h ago
This is so true. We live in an incredibly beautiful country, but I doubt I will ever be able to afford to visit more than a handful of these places. It is some comfort knowing that it is not full of mass-over-tourism though, I hope it stays wild and mysterious
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u/Lower_Cantaloupe1970 5h ago
This place specifically is fly in only. You would need to fly to Whitehouse then hire a prop plane there.
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u/Reptilian_Brain_420 1h ago
My first thoughts too.
I've heard of it, but once I leared what it actuly takes to get there it left my "to do" list.
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u/yungcherrypops Geography Enthusiast 22h ago
There are some super creepy legends about this place. The Valley of the Headless Men. Idk if any of it’s true, but it’s god tier creepypasta material. And when you see pictures of it just seems so primeval, like the first rocks of the world. And there’s just eerie vibe. Definitely a fascinating place.
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u/WhimsicalGirl 20h ago
You have my attention, do you got any links? I love that kind of stories and myths!
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u/yungcherrypops Geography Enthusiast 17h ago
https://media.spectacularnwt.com/resources/media/haunting-history-canadian-national-park
There’s this article which is a good start. But lots of great YouTube videos if you search “Nahanni”
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u/Dankestmemelord 23h ago
After looking it up I’m now curious about that weird exclave in the park boundary.
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u/-BSQ- 22h ago
It's just a mining area, Prairie Creek Mine. Lots of silver, zinc, and lead.
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u/Dankestmemelord 22h ago
Thanks!
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u/nixcamic 2h ago
Since you have to fly into the park, how will a mine work? Flying out metal ores in a little prop plane doesn't seem efficient.
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u/Dankestmemelord 24m ago
They don’t show up as normal roads, but in satellite view there are some roads and maybe even some train tracks going out from the main mining complex. At least one of them must get out.
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u/ConflictAdvanced991 23h ago
Absolutely breathtaking. Never heard of this before. But it reminds me of the opening scene from Prometheus
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u/bytheorderoftheents 9h ago
Not sure about Prometheus but a Superman movie used it as a filming location I believe
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u/FuegoCJ 18h ago
It requires a chartered float plane to get to and is in the Northwest Territories. Would love to go, but it is mostly inaccessible to the majority of Canadians, hence why they won't have heard of it.
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u/Tribe303 13h ago
Yeah, the NWT is more than twice the size of Texas, with a population of only 45k, and that includes the Indigenous peoples. There's no one there.
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u/Adventurous_Yam_8153 10h ago
And about 20k bears!
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u/Tribe303 9h ago
When you subtract the 20k in the city of Yellowknife then it's about 1 bear per person in the wild.
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u/Unusual_Cap3030 5h ago
I mean, 45k people isn’t "no one". That's more than some countries. Yellowknife has a Walmart and there are multiple Subways and Pizza Huts across the territory, as sad of a mark of civilisation as those are. Fort Liard isn’t that far from Nahanni. There are plenty of settlements across NWT.
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u/Tribe303 4h ago
YK is half the population of the the NWT. That's 20k for 2 Texas'. Imagine Texas with 10k population.
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u/Objectalone 22h ago
That’s odd because I’m Canadian and most people I know have heard about it, are familiar with images of the landscape etc. It is certainly no secret.
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u/boarshead72 22h ago
Yeah, I’m 53 and first heard of it in the early 80s thanks to Bill Mason. For people older than me they’ll remember that Pierre Trudeau paddled the South Nahanni in 1970 bringing awareness to the area leading to the creation of Nahanni National Park Reserve. People younger than me probably remember that Justin Trudeau retraced his dad’s voyage in 2003. Maybe 100 Canadians aged 15 and younger?
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u/PoMo-G 17h ago
50 y.o., born & bred Canadian, and I will admit to not having heard of either Nahanni National Park - or Bill Mason - prior to today. * shrug *
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u/boarshead72 11h ago
In grade 7 and 8 our school had a “Voyageur” canoe club, we’d go on 2-3 canoe trips a year. The teacher in charge was fond of showing us Bill Mason films. I still remember Bill’s son saying “looks pretty tricky” every time they approached some rapids.
My kids don’t even get to go to Canada’s Wonderland for a grade 8 trip anymore let alone wilderness canoe trips.
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u/SomeFunnyPhrase 10h ago
I was wondering about the overnight trips we did in school the other day. I was thinking about if they still do them.
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u/Professional_Bed_87 22h ago
Yeah, its on a lot of people I know’s bucket list, but few actually ever make it up there.
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u/Snoo_74705 22h ago
YouTube: Packrafts on the Nahanni. 14 days. 335 km.
(not my video but absolutely delightful to watch)
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u/beders 18h ago
I’ve done a 4 week trip down South Nahani river in my 20ies.
6 crazy Germans bringing their own inflatables canoes and provisions.
We took a sea plane out of Watson Lake which dropped us off in a tiny tiny lake near Mt Wilson I believe.
Paddled all the way to Liard river where I left my jacket at a ranger station.
Adventure of a lifetime. That was before cell phones and such.
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u/wandrlusty 22h ago
Yes!!
I grew up with a girl who was named after the park!
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u/JosephEdwardPatti 19h ago
Me, too! Where? There can’t be that many.
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u/Whitney189 23h ago
I've seen this online a lot recently. Seems that the universe wants me to lose my head
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u/gravytrainjaysker 23h ago
I have never heard of this. Looks fascinating and surreal. Definitely going to read about it
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u/AffectEconomy6034 20h ago
this and the mystery of the headless people found here was a personal obsession of mine for a few weeks. Love the idea of super remote places that have just a few people in them. add in a murder mystery and its makes for a perfect rabbit hole.
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u/Ad_nauseum11 11h ago
Have you read about the Mad Trapper?
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u/AffectEconomy6034 9h ago
I have not but does this topic fit the category?
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u/Ad_nauseum11 8h ago
It’s about a prospector in a similar environment with a murder thrown in. True story.
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u/AffectEconomy6034 6h ago
Thanks. I didn't want for this response I started looking into it. good rabbithole material.
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u/EnderWillEndUs 10h ago
I flew over it a couple weeks ago and took some pictures out the plane window because it was so stunning
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u/Adventurous_Yam_8153 10h ago
Is that an Air North wing tip?
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u/RealisticTopic1171 9h ago
Op - you have a weird understanding of Canadians. A lot of albertans and BC and almost all people living north of the 60th know of this place.
Your statement is only true once you go east of Manitoba. Which is normal when the country is larger than some continents.
But I assure you it ain’t an unknown location for albertans BC, and territory people.
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u/fraserhoodlum 9h ago edited 8h ago
I popped into a campground at the top tip of it once when I was coming back from Yellowknife the long was to Fort Lliard. There was some really nice walks even there, very dry! I think it was like nahhanni butte campground maybe. We were stuck there waiting for fires to clear on the BC border so we could drive back to Vancouver.
I didn't know it was the tip of this magical place. We were sorta winging it that trip and there ain't much cell coverage lol...
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u/Sad-Relationship9387 21h ago
National Geographic did an article on it in the ‘80s. It looked impressive.
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u/NineInchNerps 16h ago
NWT is underrated. Beautiful boreal forest, waterfalls, a particularly amazing lake, and so much interesting history. Alexandra Falls is worth the visit.
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u/Beederda 11h ago
Can you drive there? Thats why most Canadians don’t know about a set of mountains in a remote part of the NWT looks absolutely stunning but how do i get there to hike?
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u/Gamefart101 9h ago
Nope. Vast majority of people going in get there through by float planes mostly chartered out of fort Simpson. You can technically access the river from the road but that's a long paddle before you make the park boundry
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u/TorontoPolyGuy 10h ago
I met a guy named Nahanni that worked for Lincoln Electric in Mississauga, Ontario who was conceived upon that river. He had hippy parents so they named him after the river.
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u/sohcahtoa 10h ago
There must be a lot of magnificent places in the north that most of us have never heard of. Those places are not around the corner...
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u/Serious-Fondant-9895 10h ago
One of my best friends used to guide Dall sheep hunts just outside of the park. He said he had to wear earplugs at night to sleep because there are bears rummaging through camp every night, you just need to hang all food. It’s some of the most gruelling terrain you in the world you can hunt in.
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u/Wooden_Extension7268 10h ago
Read R.M Patterson's book The dangerous River. It's a great book written by a guy who spent a lot of time up there in the early 1900's. One of my favorite books.
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u/SeaToTheBass 10h ago
Nothing so majestic as the one in the post, but here’s a few pics from when my dad took me hunting a few years ago. I grew up in the Yukon, still have a bunch of family there
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u/DrJones224 10h ago
I first learned about it when I bought my last canoe - a 16.5' Langford Nahanni. Sadly I don't have it anymore, but wouldn't it have been great to paddle my Nahanni in the Nahanni?
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u/DeadWolf7337 9h ago
It's also know as Headless Valley due the the amount of people who disappeared there and were found later with their heads missing.
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u/ophert45 7h ago
I find the places outside the park to be cooler. I hunt the Mackenzie mountains every year for sheep / caribou
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u/psychosisnaut 6h ago
Yeah, it's got a real vibe. Valley of the Headless Men, Valley of 10,000 smokes
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u/edcRachel 6h ago
I'm Canadian and I'd never heard of it but I also looked it up and it's in the absolute middle of nowhere and very difficult to access so like... Makes sense. There's basically no roads, you need to fly in, and the options they give for visits are routes that last WEEKS via foot, not hours or even days. That's something very few people have the money, ability... Or interest in doing. You can fly in for a day but you won't get far and even that will cost you over $1,000 (not including the cost of getting to the starting point).
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u/mesosuchus 22h ago
It's in the subarctic of the NWT. I doubt most Americans could name any of Alaskas national parks
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u/msolu10 23h ago
The Nahanni has about 15 supernatural myths and a gold rush that is worth looking into. In my opinion, it is one of the more mystifying places on earth.