Destination Review: Fort Simpson, NWT

Thoughts and Opinions:

The Northwest Territories was a interesting place to visit.  Fort Simpson is at the junction of the Liard and Mackenzie rivers and is a fairly small town.  The rivers were massive up there.  Very very wide rivers especially at where the two rivers met.  The river banks were the largest I’ve seen personally.  

I was there in the beginning of July and it was nice weather.  Not many bugs however there were very large flies, none of them bit me however they just followed you around.  More annoying than anything else.  Some stray dogs but I have seen worse.  Nice community.  

 The day length up there was fairly remarkable because the sun was already quite high by the time I rolled out of bed at between 7-8:00am and set around 11.  Once the sun set, it stayed relatively bright outside for being in the middle of the night.  It was a really long sunset to dusk.  And then probably stayed fairly light till the sun popped back up over the horizon.

There was a 6-8 hour gravel road form the Alaskan Highway up to Fort Simpson.  When I drove up it was right after almost 2 weeks of solid rain I was told.  So the condition of that road was the worst I have ever seen for a gravel road.  It was quite the nightmare.  The potholes were massive in areas and there was plenty of washboard gravel.  So you may or may not run into that if you choose to drive up to Fort Simpson but I am assuming it is usually better than what I experienced.

The lodging there where I was wasn’t the Rtiz but it wasn’t too terrible.  It is definitely remote so its slim pickings for most things up there.  The grocery store was fine but expensive.  

Photo Opportunities:

While I was there I mostly took photos of the sunsets and the rivers.  There was fireweed was well that blew around lots in the wind.  I am sure you could find wildlife on the way up to take pictures of for sure.  I saw some Bison and a moose on the gravel road.  The forests up there are small due to the small growing season however they are very dense and they are undisturbed which I like in photos.   

Pros:

Remote

Great rivers

Long sunsets in the summer

Always have light in summer

Some wildlife

Cons:

Isolated by distance

Small town so some things are limited like lodging 

Doesn’t get dark could make it hard to sleep for some people

Sample Images:

Junction of Liard and Mackenzie Rivers,  Fort Simpson, NWT - 18-105mm

Fireweed, Fort Simpson, NWT - 18-105mm

Sunset, Fort Simpson, NWT -18-105mm

Conclusions: 

Personally I would not drive all the way up there for kicks and giggles.  I was there for work which makes it easy for a reason to be there however it was nice taking pictures of the rivers.  Also just seeing the vastness of the Liard and Mackenzie Rivers was a good experience.  As well, it was interesting to see the day length be that long.  I don’t know if a very long drive to somewhere is worth seeing a long day length but it was neat to witness.  During the winter, they would have very cold days, however they would have the northern lights.  The locals I talked to up there didn’t think the lights were all that special however I personally would love to see them again.

I know of many people who have canoed up in the territories and have loved it so if that is what you are planning it would be cool to some how mange to go through Fort Simpson.  

So Fort Simpson for me personally, I would not go up there solely to take photos.  I think it was a cool place to see however you need other reasons to go up there to make the trip worthwhile.