Alexandra Falls and Twin Falls Gorge

Twin Falls Gorge Territorial Park On The Hay River; Alexandra Falls Drops About 32 Metres Higher Than Niagara And Is The First Thing Most Road Travellers See After Entering The Northwest Territories · Enterprise, Northwest Territories

Just over the 60th parallel, a few minutes after the sign that says you are now in the Northwest Territories, the Hay River drops thirty-two metres over a limestone lip into a gorge. ALEXANDRA FALLS IS HIGHER THAN NIAGARA - not remotely as wide, but higher - and there is a viewing platform almost at the brink, reached by a short walk from a car park on the highway. Two kilometres downstream Louise Falls drops again, about fifteen metres, in a series of steps, and a spiral staircase takes you down to the base where you can stand in the spray and look up at the layered rock. A trail runs between the two along the rim of the gorge, which is a forty-minute walk each way through spruce and birch with the river below. For anyone driving north it is the first real stop in the territory, it costs nothing, and it is a genuinely spectacular one.

Twin Falls Gorge Territorial Park, Highway 1, near Enterprise, Enterprise, Northwest Territories, Canada

THE PARK IS SEASONAL, ROUGHLY MID-MAY TO MID-SEPTEMBER, which is when the campground, the washrooms, the day-use facilities and the STAIRCASE TO THE BASE OF LOUISE FALLS are open and maintained. THE VIEWPOINTS THEMSELVES HAVE NO GATE and the falls are there year-round, but in winter the stairs are closed, the facilities are shut and the paths are unmaintained ice. DAY USE IS FREE; camping is charged by NWT Parks and the sites are first-come or reserved depending on the season. HIGHWAY 1 IS PAVED AND MAINTAINED ALL YEAR. THE FALLS ARE AT THEIR HEAVIEST IN LATE MAY AND JUNE with the melt, and drop noticeably by August. Enterprise, the nearest community, is minutes away; Hay River is about half an hour north.

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