What is Nahanni National Park Reserve?

Nahanni National Park Reserve is a 30,050-square-kilometre wilderness park in the southern Mackenzie Mountains of the southwestern Northwest Territories. The park was established on January 1, 1976 (formal establishment under the Canada National Parks Act in 2009) and was one of the first four places in the world inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on September 6, 1978 (alongside the Galapagos Islands, Yellowstone, and Mesa Verde). The park was vastly expanded in 2009 to include the entire South Nahanni River basin, making it the third-largest national park reserve in Canada.

The South Nahanni River is the dramatic centrepiece of the park. The river runs about 540 kilometres from its source in the Ragged Range of the Mackenzie Mountains southeast through deep canyons to its confluence with the Liard River near Nahanni Butte. The river drops about 96 metres at Naili Cho (formerly Virginia Falls), twice the height of Niagara Falls. The river also passes through three deep canyons (First, Second, and Third Canyons) with walls up to 1,000 metres high. The South Nahanni is one of Canada's premier wilderness paddling destinations.

Naats'ihch'oh National Park Reserve, established on August 22, 2014, protects 4,895 square kilometres of the South Nahanni's headwaters adjacent to Nahanni. Together the two parks protect the entire South Nahanni watershed, about 35,000 square kilometres total. The Nahanni Dene Naha Dehe (the Dehcho name for the area) is the homeland of the Dene people, particularly the Dehcho First Nations and the Naha Nene Council. Modern co-management agreements involve the Dehcho, the Sahtu Dene, and the Kaska Dena. Nahanni is the first national park to operate under a Dene impact and benefits agreement.

The park is famous for its rich Indigenous and natural history. Stories of the Headless Range and the Lost Patrol (named for the unsolved 1908 disappearance of Charlie and Frank McLeod near Deadmen Valley) lend the area an air of mystery. Wildlife in the park includes Dall's sheep, mountain goats, woodland caribou, moose, grizzly and black bears, wolves, and trumpeter swans. The Cirque of the Unclimbables, a remote group of granite spires in the Ragged Range, is a world-class climbing destination. Visitor access is by chartered air from Fort Simpson, Yellowknife, or Watson Lake (Yukon); there are no roads into either park reserve. Annual visitation is small (about 1,000 to 1,500 visitors per year) compared to most national parks because of the remoteness and cost.