top of page
Writer's pictureNele Remstedt

The Canol Trail – a real wilderness adventure in Canada's Northwest Territories


Hiking the Canol Trail - Credit: Angela Gzowski /NWTT

The Canol Trail is the longest, toughest hiking trail in North America, cutting a path through the world’s last great mountain range. It follows the footsteps of history, where hardened men performed an even harder mission.


Here are five things that make the Canol Trail so remarkable.

 

Historic structures

Starting at the Northwest Territories border, the Canol strikes out through the Mackenzie Mountains, carrying backpackers 355 foot-wearying, eye-popping, soul-stirring kilometres. The trail follows the defunct Canol Road and Pipeline – a wildly ambitious effort during the Second World War to pump gas from Norman Wells to the allied forces on the Pacific Front. Today the pipe is long gone and the “road” is an overgrown path. But all along the way, there are relics from the war like Quonset huts and old military barracks.


Old structures along the way - Credit: J.F. Bergeron

Waterfalls

Carcajou Falls is a jewel of the Canol, splashing over a stony escarpment and sending spray into the mountain air. It’s considered one of the most idyllic waterfalls in the North and certainly one of the most remote.

 

Carcajou Falls - Credit: Gerold Sigl/NWTT

Canyons

Then there’s famous Dodo Canyon. Like a bit of the Desert Southwest transported to the Arctic Circle, it’s a red-rock badlands – a deep, scenic gulch carved out by a meandering river with walls featuring spires and hoodoos that would make Arizona proud.

 

Dodo Canyon - Credit: Hans Pfaff/NWTT

Old vehicles

Army trucks and tractors from the 1940s line the Canol route. It’s like a trail that winds through an outdoor museum, memorializing the monumental efforts of the war. The machines bear messages from a bygone era.


Canol Trail - Credit: JF Bergeron

 

Wildlife

Dall’s Sheep or Alpine Caribou have likely never seen a human being living in such remote and pristine lands. The fact is, wildlife still rules the roost along the Canol Trail. This is nature at its most unperturbed, thriving much like it did 500 or 5,000 years ago.

 

Alpine Caribou - Credit: Angela Gzowski/NWTT

 

Further information on the Northwest Territories can be found at www.spectacularnwt.com.

 

Comentarios


bottom of page