Blogs from Northwest Territories, Canada, North America - page 4

When: 28th Sept - 3rd Oct Where: Yellowknife, Hay River & the drive back to Calgary. Highlights: Aurora, starlit nights, city of Yellowknife & Galaxyland at WEM P.S: Feel free to click on the photos to enlarge them to see the aurora clearly Click url=http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Northwest-Territories/Yellowknife/blog-535086.htmlhere for the first few days of this trip. 28th September Shower forecast. We hit the Legislative Assembly for the 10.30 am tour. An intern gave us the 40 minute tour of the Legislative assembly. I learnt so much about the NWT & their way of dealing with things. The building looked very modern(definitely not even close to the one at Edmonton, AB) & took 5 years to build. It incorporates every single detail that NWT is al... read more

Ok..........Phew that was tough! Quite possibly the toughest ride I've ever had to do on a motorcycle. 380 kilometres of mud. It seems so easy to just type the word out....mud.....but it posed quite a few problems. Basicallly, Adam and I were the only 2 idiots on the Dempster over the last 2 days riding bikes north. In fact, we only counted a dozen cars or so over the entire 380 kms. But we made it after 81/2 hours of battling the elements to a hotel room and a hot shower. We had to stop at one point to unclog Adam's radiator. Basically his bike was no longer being cooled efficiently and so we used a camelbak bladder as a "pressure washer" (Nevil squeezing the bladder and Adam squirting water into the radiator) to clean everything ... read more

although it was very muddy and wet i would highly recommend this run into the northwest territories. gas is ridiculously overpriced but still worth the trip. a gallon of milk is $11.50. all the waterfalls were kind of a bonus i didn't know about. the weather is not helping me decide where to go next, one day 86 followed by one night at 30. don't want to get caught in any deep mountain snow up here which i'm told can hit at any time. heading south thru alberta and will take the icefield parkway which is right at my all time favorite highway. next stop the "lower 48"... read more

Another beautiful day! High in the late 20's! Finally it feels like summer on my trip! We all had a lazy morning, drinking coffee, working on pictures (see Nigel's flickr site for more northern lights: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelfearon/ and click on Julie in Yellowknife). Waiting to hear from Nigel's friend to go rock climbing. Unfortunately, we never heard during the day from Nigel's friend (he was out on the lake fishing on this beautiful day!). We played cards, did grocery shopping and had homemade pizza for supper, ymmmm! After supper Nigel, Otis and I went for a walk up Tin Can Hill (an abandoned gold mine). Nigel, Dave (a friend of Nigel and a photographer) and I went out chasing the Northern Lights for my last time! We went out to Vee Lake. The lights were quiet, but ... read more

How did Yellowknife get it's name? The yellow knife is based on a copper powder knife used in the mining industry. The dynamite suppliers used a copper knife to open the powder cases. If they used a steel knife it might cause a spark! The yellow knife is a symbol for Yellowknife...to symbolize gold mining. There are still 2 active gold mines in the city! Did you know Yellowknife is one of the best places to watch, see and experience Aurora Borealis (northern lights)? And they are amazing here! Here is a little fact from Astronomy North website: "Almost every dark night above the Northwest Territories there is at least one bright display of aurora. Imagine that for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, a calm East-West arc of aurora gently glows in the ... read more