6/10 Leaving the campground, in the morning, we drove a short distance to the other twin falls, Alexandra Falls; again, no Niagra but worth the visit, and a bonus for Arlyne – no spiral stairway. Driving north along Hwy 1, the forests kept changing from mixed to stunted spruce and back again. Stopped for gas in Hay River and I asked the gas attendant what the winters were like. He said that historically there was lots of snow in November into January and then it became too cold ( -40 to -50° C) for snow, but that recently the winters have been getting warmer. Last winter was unusually warm, only getting down to -20 or so, and even then only for short periods; then the temperature would rise to around +10°C, for a day or two – just enough to ruin things for snow mobiling.
Leaving Hay River we drove along Rt 5, about 50 mi of which was hard packed gravel in good condition but quite dusty. Entered Wood Buffalo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which is larger than Switzerland. The Park protects the world’s largest (over 5000) free roaming herd of wood buffalo and is also the world’s only natural whooping crane nesting site. We didn’t see any buffalo or cranes – perhaps on the way out.
Camped at Queen Elizabeth Territorial Park, Fort Smith, NWT.
