Searching for the remote in Nunavut

Baffin Island

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

Baffin Island is a prime destination for the traveler seeking solace in a pristine wilderness. This is the largest island in Canada, and few other places on Earth offer up such a unique vacation experience. It's the obvious choice for anyone setting off to explore the rest of Nunavut, given that the territory's capital, Iqaluit, is located here.

Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

Iqaluit boasts two cultural institutions certainly worth investigation. The Unikkaarvik Visitor Centre is where to gather information about the community and Nunavut in general. The excellent Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, meanwhile, includes exhibits that exemplify Inuit art and culture including elaborate figurative art typically of birds, bears, seals, and the human form.

Auyuittuq National Park

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

Top of Baffin's to-do list is exploring Auyuittuq National Park. Located on the island's Cumberland Peninsula, this is one of the most remote national parks in the world. Its Inuktitut name translates literally as "the land where it never thaws," though Nunavut's brief summers are warm enough to defrost the low valleys that accommodate the stunning Akshayuk Pass.

Mount Asgard

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

Also looming over the pass is Mount Asgard. The 2,015-m (6,611-ft) twin cylindrical rock towers are named after Asgard, the realm of the gods in Norse mythology.

Winter challenge

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

Hiking the Akshayuk Pass in winter is a challenge. Frozen under snow, the zig-zag skyline of craggy granite peaks and glittering glaciers lures only the fittest and most experienced backcountry skiers.

Gyrfalcon

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

The park's birdlife numbers several raptors, including the gyrfalcon (the largest of the falcon species), snowy owl, peregrine falcon, and rough-legged buzzard. Canada geese flock here in vast numbers during summer.

Adventure destination

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

Ellesmere Island is a land of deep fjords, precipitous mountains, and gleaming ice sheets. This isolated, glaciated destination attracts only the hardiest of backpackers and adventure seekers.

In the company of bears

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

The population of Ellesmere Island is about 200. These hardy inhabitants live in three settlements: Grise Fiord, Eureka, and Canadian Forces Station Alert—the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world. Their only neighbors are polar bears.

Coastal wildlife

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

In the waters off the park's coastline dwell narwhals (the unicorns of the sea), several species of seal, and polar bears.

Sirmilik National Park

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

Enchanting Sirmilik National Park is known in Inuktitut as the "place of glaciers," and the description is apt. Much of uninhabited Sirmilik is bordered by water, the ice floes providing a glass-like platform for adventurers to admire glistening ice fields and snow-capped mountains.

Bylot Island

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

Sirmilik's boundaries encompass Bylot Island. Anchored off the northern tip of Baffin Island, Bylot incorporates areas classified as Canadian Important Bird Areas. Among the 70 or so species of birds recorded here, around 300,000 thick-billed murre (pictured) and 80,000 black-legged kittiwake congregate along the island's rocky shores. The greater snow goose also has a summer home here.

Naujaat

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

Naujaat, once known as Repulse Bay, is a Inuit hamlet tucked away on the shores of Hudson Bay. Travelers wishing to investigate this out-of-the-way community have to fly in by plane for the privilege, but will be greeted warmly by the locals, many of whom serve as tour guides eager to impart a better understanding of Inuit culture and heritage.

Monarch of the islands

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

Few people are available to welcome you to Belcher. But wildlife abounds. The monarch of the islands is the mighty walrus.

Devon Island

Baffin Island, Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Auyuittuq National Park, Mount Asgard, Winter challenge, Gyrfalcon, Adventure destination, In the company of bears, Coastal wildlife, Sirmilik National Park, Bylot Island, Monarch of the islands, Devon Island

Just for your information, because it's out of bounds to the public, Devon Island is the site of the Haughton Impact Crater, one of the world's northernmost impact craters. The devastation left by the huge rock that crashed into this part of the world 23 million years ago turned the landscape into that resembling the surface of Mars. During the summer months, the island is occupied by researchers from FMARS (Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station).

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