visit the Northwest Territories

My only regret about my visit to the Northwest Territories six years ago is that I only stayed in Yellowknife and that I was very naive and got mixed up in a bit of trouble with some of the natives. You will get a much different experience in Yellowknife than you would get staying in any other Canadian city. It was summer when I was there and it almost never got dark. There were thick curtains in my hotel room but I still awoke at 4 am as the sun blared through my window. The weather was much hotter than I expected… If you’re near any sort of vegetation, you must wear your insect repellant liberally as the air is thick with mosquitoes… One thing that struck me was how short all the trees were, and the landscape is dominated by ancient stone formations… There’s a significant native population (mostly Cree or Dene) there, and they are very poor and you see a lot of men drunk and destitute near the bars or in the streets. You really have to be careful who you trust up there, I learned the hard way. It’s so depressing…

I was much poorer back then and couldn’t afford to go out into the more remote, exciting areas. I would love to go back and fish for some Arctic char in the not too distant future…