A Day in the Northwest Territories

I had no idea how many amazing opportunities were waiting for me in Fort Nelson, BC!! Last month I went to The Yukon, and last week I went to the Northwest Territories!! I’m pretty far north up here so it’s awesome that I was able to cross off two more provinces/territories! I only have to go to Nunavut and Newfoundland now!

The border between British Columbia and the Northwest Territories is only about two hours away from Fort Nelson. The drive is gorgeous with views of the Rocky Mountains in the distance. We went to Fort Liard which is a tiny town, or hamlet, just past the border. I went with my friend Moira and her dog Gabe!

We left while it was still dark out and crossed a big bridge just as the sun was coming up. The sunrise was incredible. I LOVE these Northern sunrises. The views on the Liard Highway are beautiful and I can only imagine how incredible it would be in the summer. The highway was snow covered and basically one lane…very narrow. There wasn’t much oncoming traffic at all so it was a very smooth drive…minus encountering a huge buffalo in the middle of the road!!! More on that later! Here are some pretty sunrise pictures!

We stopped at the border to take some pictures and I was really impressed with the huge beautiful sign. When I was looking online the night before, all I could find were pictures of a tiny little sign which wasn’t nearly as exciting and photogenic as this big one! It added to my excitement of being in a brand new place. The sign is farther away from the road of the rest stop area so it was a bit frustrating that I couldn’t stand right beside it. We made it work regardless!

Once we got to Fort Liard, we drove around a bit and saw a lot of dogs running around. We stopped in at the General Store and talked with the cashier about where the best place to see buffalo was. There was a huge Arts and Native Crafts shop that I really wanted to go to but sadly it was closed! Fort Liard is beautiful because it’s right on the bed of the Liard River. We drove up to this cliff that overlooked the river and the mountains in the distance and it was an amazing view.

We started seeing huge piles of bison poop all over the place. They had to be nearby! I thought it was hilarious that they were so close to people’s homes. Residential streets were filled with buffalo poop! What a weird concept! We found a big field and sure enough…BUFFALO! There were about 15 of them in the distance. We parked as close as we could and walked a bit closer to get some pictures. We were very nervous to get close to them so we stayed back at a safe distance. I do feel like these bison are very close to being around humans though. Other people were passing by closely on snowmobiles and the buffalo didn’t even flinch!

On our way out of town, we saw more buffalo on the side of the road. I don’t know why but I always get so excited when I see one. It’s mesmerizing to me because I’m only used to seeing things like deer, moose and bears in Northern Ontario. You really do feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere and I think I kind of like that feeling!

All of a sudden, we came down a hill and low and behold a giant buffalo was standing right in the middle of the road. Moira’s dog Gabe was barking at it in my back seat and it added to the excitement. I stopped on the road (I really had no choice) and took some pictures then I realized…it’s missing a foot! (hoof?). It must have gotten stuck in a trap or something, poor thing. It walked really slow across the road and we kept on going. It was the neatest thing.

We stopped one more time on a side road to let Gabe run out some energy and had some snacks and a beer. What an amazing day!!! It was so nice to see the sun shine and celebrate our successful buffalo finding. This was the first time that Moira ever saw buffalo so that made it even better.