Northwest Territories

Yes, it gets cold in the Northwest Territories. How cold? January temperatures in the territorial capital of Yellowknife, located along the shores of the Great Slave Lake and located, relatively speaking, in the south of the north, range from -32C (-24F) to a high of -24C (-6F). And, in the winter, it's dark with very short periods of sun or none at all in the farthest north. But the aurora borealis – the Northern Lights – put on a spectacular show in the sky (particularly from late August until January), which puts the best fireworks to shame. Meanwhile, in the summer, above the Arctic Circle, the sun can be out 24 hours a day.

The Northwest Territories are small on human population – 37,360, of which 50% are Aboriginal – but big on space. About 1,171,918 square kilometers (728,195 square miles – about the size of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany combined) of rugged mountains, boreal forests, and rolling tundra, containing rushing rivers, and pristine lakes. NT is also big on wildlife: wolves, foxes, bison, bears, moose, caribou, muskox, lynx, seals, whales. The territory is the home of the Nahanni National Park, one of the premier wilderness parks in the world, which in 1978 was one of the first locations in the world to be declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO (even before the Grand Canyon, which was put on the list in 1979).

With such a wealth of nature, it's no surprise that the area is great for camping, eco-tours, hiking, backpacking, boating, hunting, and fishing. During warmer months, golfing and water-skiing are also popular.

The main travel hubs for flights to the Territories' capital, Yellowknife, and the town of Inuvik are Ottawa, Ontario, and Edmonton, Alberta. There are small connector flights to other communities. Little of the vast land area of the Northwest Territories is accessible by road, with the major roads being the Dempster Highway (connecting the Yukon with Inuvik), the Mackenzie Highway (linking Alberta to Yellowknife), and the Liard Highway (which is out of northern British Columbia and meets the Mackenzie highway). You can also travel by waterway, and, of course, in the winter, there's always snowmobile and dogsled.

Beautiful, powerful, and immense – in the north, nature rules.

See our 36 Jobs in Northwest Territories