A Guide to Yellowknife's Natural Escapes 🌿

Yellowknife stands on bare Precambrian rock at the edge of Great Slave Lake — the deepest lake in North America, reaching over 600 metres — where the boreal forest begins to thin towards the tundra. The bedrock here is among the oldest on the planet, and the city is built directly on it, houseboats floating in the bay below. Sitting under the auroral oval, it is also one of the most reliable places on Earth to watch the northern lights.

🪨 Bush Pilot's Monument & Old Town – The Rock in the Middle

A staircase climbs the outcrop known simply as The Rock in Old Town to a monument honouring the bush pilots who opened the North. From the top you get the whole geography at once: Great Slave Lake stretching to the horizon, the houseboat colony in Yellowknife Bay, float planes coming and going, and the Canadian Shield running out in every direction. It takes ten minutes and explains the city better than anything else here.

• Old Town Outcrop
• Great Slave Lake View
• Houseboat Bay
• Float Planes

Source: City of Yellowknife

🚶 Frame Lake Trail – The Loop Through the City

A trail of roughly six kilometres circles Frame Lake in the middle of Yellowknife, connecting the Legislative Assembly, the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre and several neighbourhoods. Half of it is boardwalk and groomed path; the other half runs over open Shield rock and through stands of spruce and birch, and feels considerably more remote than a walk that never leaves the city has any right to. Skied and fat-biked through the winter.

• ~6 km Loop
• Boardwalk and Bare Rock
• Heritage Centre
• Winter Ski Route

Source: City of Yellowknife

💧 Cameron Falls & the Ingraham Trail

The Ingraham Trail runs about 70 kilometres east of the city past a string of lakes, and the walk to Cameron Falls is the best-known stop on it — roughly two kilometres over rock and boardwalk to where the Cameron River drops through a cleft in the Shield. A lookout stands above the falls, and the rocks below are a swimming spot in the short, hot northern summer. Prelude Lake and Reid Lake further along have campgrounds and paddling.

• ~2 km Trail
• Shield Waterfall
• 70 km Ingraham Trail
• Summer Swimming

Source: NWT Parks

🌌 Aurora Country – Under the Auroral Oval

Yellowknife sits almost directly beneath the band of sky where auroral activity concentrates, and the flat land, dry air and long dark winters make it one of the most dependable viewing places anywhere. The season runs roughly from mid-August to early April, and displays are visible on a large majority of clear nights through it. You do not need a tour: driving fifteen minutes out the Ingraham Trail away from the town lights is enough.

• Under the Auroral Oval
• Aug to April Season
• Dry Clear Air
• Dark Skies Nearby

Source: Spectacular NWT