Nahanni National Park

Nahanni National Park

Administrative unit: Northwest Territories

By air: From Fort Simpson (NT), Fort Liard (NT) and Fort Nelson (BC).

By road: Access by canoe or expedition from Nahanni Butte, about 30 km (20 mi.) west off the Liard Highway connecting Fort Nelson and Fort Simpson.

Situated in the Mackenzie Mountains, Nahanni National Park covers a large portion of the lovely valley carved out by the South Nahanni River. The magnificent scenery is of a wild beauty which the Canadian authorities have deliberately kept unspoilt, allowing neither roads nor tourist accommodation within the conservation area. Designated a National Park in 1974, Nahanni was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1978.

The labyrinthine karst ridges of the South Mackenzie Mountains are full of caves and gorges, hollowed out by water as softer minerals were dissolved from the limestone. The region's complex landforms are the result of its having been free from ice cover for some 250,000 years.

Nahanni means "people from over there" and is supposed to refer to a vanished Indian tribe.

Stories about the region began with the gold prospectors who traveled up the Liard River on their way to the Klondike. They were also drawn to the valley early this century when the three McLeod brothers came here and word got around that gold nuggets the size of grapes had been found. Three years later the headless bodies of two McLeods were found in the valley where their cabins stood, henceforth to be known as Headless Valley. The vein of gold was sought long but in vain. Albert Faille spent a lifetime trying to find out about the brothers, but what exactly befell them remains a mystery. Other people also disappeared, by 1969 as many as 44 of them. Tall tales and legends grew up and South Nahanni became somewhere to be avoided.

There are unusual plants to be found there such as orchids, and the wildlife includes bear, moose and caribou.