Polar Bear Provincial Park

The Largest Provincial Park In Ontario At About 23,552 Square Kilometres; A Roadless Wilderness Park On The Hudson Bay Lowlands With No Facilities, No Trails And No Services Of Any Kind · Peawanuck, Ontario

Polar Bear Provincial Park is THE LARGEST PARK IN ONTARIO by an enormous margin - about twenty-three thousand five hundred square kilometres on the Hudson Bay and James Bay lowlands, which is larger than Israel and roughly fifteen times the size of Algonquin. It is also the least visited: THERE ARE NO ROADS, NO TRAILS, NO CAMPGROUNDS, NO FACILITIES AND NO STAFF, and the number of recreational visitors in a typical year is measured in dozens. The landscape is continuous permafrost peatland and tundra, flat to the horizon, crossed by rivers running north to the bay, and it is one of the largest wetlands on earth. POLAR BEARS COME ASHORE HERE when the bay ice breaks up and spend the summer on land. Woodland caribou, seals and enormous numbers of nesting birds use it. Access is by chartered aircraft from Moosonee or Peawanuck, and Ontario Parks requires permission before you go.

Hudson Bay and James Bay lowlands, far northern Ontario, Peawanuck, Ontario, Canada

THERE IS NO GATE, NO STAFF, NO FACILITIES AND NO SERVICES OF ANY KIND. ONTARIO PARKS REQUIRES VISITORS TO OBTAIN PERMISSION AND REGISTER BEFORE ENTERING, and this is a genuine requirement rather than a formality - the park is roadless, unstaffed and thousands of square kilometres from help. THE PRACTICAL SEASON IS SHORT: roughly JULY TO EARLY SEPTEMBER for summer travel, and a winter season for those travelling with local guides. ACCESS IS BY CHARTERED AIRCRAFT from Moosonee or from the Cree community of Peawanuck, which is itself reached by scheduled flight. TRAVELLING WITH EXPERIENCED LOCAL GUIDES IS EFFECTIVELY ESSENTIAL given the polar bears. Everything is carried in and out. Costs run into the thousands. Contact Ontario Parks well before planning anything.

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