Wood Buffalo National Park

Wood Buffalo National Park straddles the borders of the province of Alberta and Northwest Territories. I travelled to the park from Yellowknife, which is the unpolished but charming capital of Northwest Territories. My understanding is that while most of Wood Buffalo National Park lies in Alberta, the park and its trails are more accessible by car if you enter from the north, that is to say, from Northwest Territories.

On the long drive from Yellowknife to the park, I saw many bisons by - and on - the road. Although the bisons that I encountered were calm and unbothered by me, please keep your distance from these large beasts as they could seriously injure you if they feel harassed by you. Also, please be aware of bears in the park. I spent time admiring the bear tracks I found during a hike. Or at least I did, until I started to wonder about the freshness of the bear tracks.

Wood Buffalo National Park lacks the grandeur of Northwest Territories' other UNESCO world heritage site, i.e., Nahanni National Park. There are no majestic mountains or valleys in Wood Buffalo. However, everything is wild here, the rivers, the animals, and the experience. I wouldn't recommend visiting Canada, or even Northwest Territories, for Wood Buffalo, but it is definitely a worthwhile place to explore if you are in northern Alberta or southern Northwest Territories.

I visited Wood Buffalo in 2017.

Not one of the more remote places in Canada but still quite a lengthy drive from Edmonton unless you want to fork out the high sum to fly directly to Fort Smith (FS) and rent a car from there (I assume that is possible). It takes around 13-14h of mainly boring straight roads from Edmonton with only a few things to do on the way (60th parallel border crossing into NWT, Twin Falls, maybe Hay River if you want a longer stopover). Expect to spend at least two days here to see various parts of nature offered, more of you want to kayak.

As soon as you drive in from the West, now all paved as of summer 2018, you should come across the wood buffaloes, black bears if you have some luck but judging from other's experience it is quite common, and there was also a fox. This all from just passing along the main road. On the way to Fort Smith you can also have a nice stop at the salt plains (see picture) with a big UNESCO sign. If you get in too late on the day then don’t forget to have a look on your way out of the park.

Gravel roads lead southwest from FS to the karst areas, which was unfortunately mainly closed this summer due to bridge constructions or something. This would normally be an almost 20km hike to fill the day but even the mini loop holes were off limits. …

We visited Wood Buffalo Park in July 2018.

It is an achievement just to get there. A long drive about 1400 km from Jasper to Fort Smith. The roads are good and paved all the way to Fort Smith. It’s a small airport in Fort Smith if you want to skip the drive, but you will need a vehicle to see the park. It’s a 120 km gravel road into the park center from Fort Smith.

We stopped on night in Hay River by the Great Slave Lake and two nights in Fort Smith. The drive from Hay river to Fort Smith goes the northern part of the park.

The park entrance is free. The visitor center is in Fort Smith. It was small, but informativ with helpful staff. We saw a great film about the park, 20 minutes, which explained its outstanding values.

The landscape is not as spectacular or scenic as for instance Rocky Mountains, but it still has some uniqueness to it. It varies from boreal forest, karst landforms, salt plains to one of the world’s largest fresh water delta. The park is huge, Canada’s largest, 44807 km2 larger than Switzerland.

We chartered a float plane for an hour to see the salt plains and the waterfalls in Slave River (just outside the park, but very scenic). Unfortunately it was too far to go down to the freshwater delta within the hour. The trip was great, fantastic views of the salt plains …

Wood Buffalo National Park is the second largest national park in the world (the first being in Greenland) and it just boggles my mind that the park only receives 9,000 visitors a year. I know that it is an effort to get there. We drove for 17 hours from Jasper National Park in Alberta to Wood Buffalo's entrance in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. We were greeted by friendly Parks Canada staff at the visitor centre and watched an informative video on the park's scenic and varied landscape. Due to time restrictions, we only visited the Salt Plains, where the World Heritage site plaque is located. This unique ecosystem supports a variety of wildlife, including bison, moose, bears, wolves, and waterfowl.

Wood Buffalo National Park is also known to have the largest population of roaming bison, as well as the largest population of whooping cranes in the world. The entrance to the park is free, which is another reason to visit! When you go, make sure to go around the town of Fort Smith, where the indigenous people like the Metis will provide you with any information about the park and surrounding areas. Also, be careful driving on the gravel roads on Canadian Highway 5, which leads you to the entrance to the park. I was sad to learn from a local that the park only receives $70,000-$80,000 a year from Parks Canada to help with the maintenance of the park. This is absolutely not enough, considering the size of the …