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Welcome to the Spectacular Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories (NWT) is a federal territory of Canada. The NWT is Canada's middle territory, flanked by Yukon and Nunavut, and sitting above Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. The NWT is vast, with a land area of just under 1.2 million kilometres. While climate does vary between regions of the NWT, in general summers feature midnight sun and very mild temperatures while winters tend to be dry, crisp and cold, generally with very little snowfall.

The Northwest Territories is a place full of superlatives. Here are a few to pique your interest:

  • A highway to the Arctic Ocean: The Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway is the only public road in North America that will get you to the edge of the Arctic Ocean.
  • The Largest Lake: Great Bear Lake is the largest freshwater body entirely within Canada, and you can find it in the Sahtu Region of the NWT - near the centre of the territory. Bonus fact: an angler pulled the current world sportfishing record Lake Trout from Great Bear Lake.
  • The best chances of seeing the Aurora (Northern Lights) of anywhere on Earth: Data gathered through the AuroraMax project shows that in the NWT during a period of eight years on "observation nights" (nights that were partly cloudy or clear, and dark enough to see stars) the Aurora was visible on all but four nights.
  • The largest land animal in the Western Hemisphere: Wood bison. Herds of wood bison regularly block traffic as they amble across our highways, particularly in the summer months.
  • The deepest lake in North America: Great Slave Lake.
  • Two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Wood Buffalo National Park, Nahanni National Park Reserve.
  • The biggest diamond in North America: Canada's first diamonds were discovered in the NWT in the 1990s, and are still mined in the territory. in 2018, a 552-carat yellow diamond was found at Diavik Diamond Mine in the NWT.

Be sure to check out the fast facts on this site for much more information on the Northwest Territories.