Great Bear Lake and Deline

The Largest Lake Entirely Within Canada And The Eighth Largest In The World; A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Designated In 2016, And The Birthplace Of The Sahtu Dene Prophet Ayah · Deline, Northwest Territories

Great Bear Lake is the largest lake lying entirely within Canada and the eighth largest in the world - thirty-one thousand square kilometres of extraordinarily clear, extraordinarily cold water, frozen for eight months of the year and never really warm in the other four. On its western arm sits DELINE, a Sahtu Dene community of about five hundred people, whose name means where the water flows. In 2016 the whole lake and its watershed were designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve - the largest in North America - on a plan written by the community itself. Deline is also where AYAH, the Sahtu Dene prophet, lived and taught, and the community carries that seriously. There is a darker history in the same water: at Port Radium on the eastern shore, uranium was mined from the 1930s and Dene men carried the ore in sacks, with consequences the community has spent decades addressing. The lake holds the world record lake trout, and the fishing lodges here are legendary among anglers.

Delıne, Keith Arm, Great Bear Lake, Sahtu Region, Deline, Northwest Territories, Canada

A COMMUNITY AND A LAKE, NOT A TIMED ATTRACTION - no gate, no admission. WHAT GOVERNS A VISIT IS ACCESS AND SEASON. DELINE IS REACHED BY SCHEDULED FLIGHT FROM NORMAN WELLS OR YELLOWKNIFE YEAR-ROUND, and by a WINTER ICE ROAD for a few weeks in roughly February and March - there is no all-season road. FISHING LODGES ON GREAT BEAR LAKE OPERATE A VERY SHORT SEASON, roughly LATE JUNE OR EARLY JULY TO EARLY SEPTEMBER, because the lake is frozen either side of it; they are fly-in, packaged by the week and expensive. THE LAKE IS TYPICALLY ICE-COVERED FROM NOVEMBER OR DECEMBER INTO JUNE, and ice has been recorded on it into July. NWT fishing licences are required and Great Bear has its own conservation rules. Weather cancels flights regularly; build spare days into any plan.

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