Parc national des Pingualuit
Quebec National Park In Nunavik Built Around A 1.4 Million Year Old Meteorite Crater Whose Lake Is Among The Clearest Fresh Water On Earth, With Recorded Transparency To Roughly 35 Metres · Kangiqsujuaq, Quebec
About one and a half million years ago a meteorite struck the Ungava Peninsula and left a crater three and a quarter kilometres across with a rim standing a hundred and sixty metres above the tundra. It has no inlet and no outlet; it fills with snow and rain alone, and the result is water of almost unbelievable purity - TRANSPARENCY HAS BEEN MEASURED TO ROUGHLY THIRTY-FIVE METRES, among the clearest fresh water anywhere on earth, in a lake around two hundred and sixty metres deep. Inuit have known it for a very long time as the CRYSTAL EYE OF NUNAVIK, and it was not documented by outsiders until a pilot spotted it in 1943. The park around it, run by the Kativik Regional Government and Nunavik Parks with Inuit staff, opened in 2004. There is no road within seven hundred kilometres. You fly to Kangiqsujuaq, then travel by snowmobile in spring or all-terrain vehicle in summer, with Inuit guides, and sleep in the park's cabins on the shore of another lake nearby.
Nunavik, northern Quebec, near Kangiqsujuaq, Kangiqsujuaq, Quebec, Canada
SEASONAL AND GUIDED ONLY. NUNAVIK PARKS RUNS THE PARK FROM KANGIQSUJUAQ and there are two practical windows: LATE WINTER AND SPRING, roughly MARCH TO MAY, when travel is by snowmobile over snow and the light is brilliant; and SUMMER, roughly LATE JULY TO EARLY SEPTEMBER, when the tundra is clear and travel is by all-terrain vehicle and on foot. OUTSIDE THOSE WINDOWS THE PARK IS NOT OPERATING. EVERY VISIT IS A PACKAGED, GUIDED TRIP booked in advance through Nunavik Parks - there is no independent access, no self-drive and no walk-in. Getting to Kangiqsujuaq means scheduled flights from Montreal via Kuujjuaq with Air Inuit, which are long and expensive. WEATHER GOVERNS EVERYTHING; trips are delayed and cancelled routinely and spare days are essential.
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