The Northwest Territories are part of Canada’s vast, remote north. Most of the Territory’s population and commercial activity is based in Yellowknife and around the Great Slave Lake. The Territories consist largely of wilderness, punctuated in places by human settlements, mainly of native peoples but also intrepid adventurers. The Inuit and Dene communities comprise almost 50 per cent of the Territories’ population and have existed for hundreds or thousands of years. In terms of topography, the Territories are not as barren as one might anticipate. Thick evergreen forests and verdant mountains are a recurrent feature of the landscape.

Sparsely populated, you are more likely to spot a herd of bison or come across a grizzly bear than you are to encounter a human. The sheer sum of wildlife in the Northwest Territories is superb. Venturing further north, it is easy to forget that the Territories extend far above the Arctic Circle – something you might remember when you spot some polar bears! Don't forget to look up at the skies too: the Northwest Territories' skies contain some of the rarest species of birds worldwide.

The Northwest Territories are, admittedly, stark in places, but it is an austerity that is tinged with beauty. Surrounded by wildlife, pretty flowers on rolling tundra and the sound of running water through a crystal-clear river, it would be understandable to think that you had stepped back in time.

Geography
The Northwest Territories stretch from the Mackenzie Mountains on the Yukon border to the open barrenlands to the east, from the shores and islands of the Arctic Ocean to the woodlands in the south. Canada’s longest river, the Mackenzie, flows 1800km (1125 miles) from Great Slave Lake to its delta on the Beaufort Sea.