Some Highlights
The Canol Heritage Trail starts on the west bank of the
Mackenzie River 5km across from Norman Wells, NT, Canada. It then winds its
way through the Mackenzie Plain (for ~27 km), traverses the
Mackenzie Mountains (for ~275 km) and finally into the Selwyn
Mountains (for ~35 km) ending in Macmillan Pass and the Yukon
for a total distance of 372 km/231 mi.
The
route was selected by Shúhtagot’ine guides who were familiar
with the routes used for millennia as they lived off the
land's resources. The
Trail traverses a captivating area of global significance. No backcountry trail
in the world will take you through this combination of
landscapes and ecosystems:
- 65 million-year-old
(Cretaceous) to 1600 million-year-old (Mesoproterozoic)
bedrock;
- glaciated (<10
thousand-year-old [ka]) to unglaciated (>200ka)
landscapes;
- closed and open-canopied
subarctic forests to treeless tundra vistas;
- terrain where permafrost
underlies everything to permafrost-free areas;
- nine mountain
passes/plateaus, many above treeline;
- lowlands with moose and
beaver to alpine tundra with caribou, Dall’s sheep and
arctic ground-squirrels;
- ancient historical routes
used by people for thousands of years;
- historical artifacts left
behind after the abandonment of the WWII CANOL Project
which, at the time (1942-1945), was considered integral to
the defence of North America.
We will be updating
the content as time permits and as new material becomes
available.
Contact/Correspondence to: CANOLhiker@gmail.com
Updated: 20210329
