Fort Smith and the Slave River Rapids

Four Sets Of Major Rapids On The Slave River At Fort Smith, Carrying The Most Northerly Nesting Colony Of American White Pelicans In The World; The Town Was The Administrative Capital Of The Northwest Territories Until 1967 And Is The Gateway To Wood Buffalo National Park · Fort Smith, Northwest Territories

For about twenty-five kilometres above Fort Smith the Slave River drops through FOUR SETS OF MAJOR RAPIDS - Cassette, Pelican, Mountain and the Rapids of the Drowned - which is why the town is where it is: this was the one unavoidable portage on the route north, and everything and everyone coming down to the Mackenzie had to be carried around it. On the rocky islands in the middle of that whitewater nests THE MOST NORTHERLY COLONY OF AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS IN THE WORLD - large, improbable, prehistoric-looking birds that fly the rapids at Fort Smith every summer and that nobody expects to find at sixty degrees north. The whitewater itself is world class and kayakers come a long way for it. Fort Smith was the ADMINISTRATIVE CAPITAL OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES UNTIL 1967, when Yellowknife took over, and it remains the gateway to Wood Buffalo National Park.

Slave River at Fort Smith, South Slave Region, Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, Canada

THE RAPIDS AND THE VIEWPOINTS ARE OPEN AT ALL TIMES AND ARE FREE - there is no gate. THE PELICANS ARE PRESENT ROUGHLY MAY TO EARLY SEPTEMBER and the best viewing is from the signed lookouts above the rapids; they are a protected colony and THE NESTING ISLANDS MUST NOT BE APPROACHED. THE WHITEWATER SEASON runs roughly June to September and THE RAPIDS ARE EXPERT-GRADE - people have died on them, and they are not a place to learn. Local paddlers and a small number of operators know the lines. FORT SMITH ITSELF is a working town of about two and a half thousand with year-round services, a visitor centre and the Northern Life Museum. IT IS THE GATEWAY TO WOOD BUFFALO NATIONAL PARK and the Parks Canada office here is where you arrange that. Highway 5 is maintained year-round from Hay River.

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