Qausuittuq National Park

Canada'S 45th National Park, Established 2015, Covering About 11,008 Square Kilometres Of Northern Bathurst Island; Protects Habitat Of The Endangered Peary Caribou And Was Created At The Request Of The Community Of Resolute · Resolute, Nunavut

Qausuittuq means the place where the sun does not rise, which is the Inuktitut name for Resolute and describes the polar night at this latitude. The park was established in 2015 as CANADA'S FORTY-FIFTH NATIONAL PARK, covering about eleven thousand square kilometres of northern Bathurst Island in the High Arctic, AND IT EXISTS BECAUSE THE COMMUNITY OF RESOLUTE ASKED FOR IT - Inuit there pressed for protection of the habitat of the ENDANGERED PEARY CARIBOU, a small pale Arctic subspecies whose numbers have collapsed. The landscape is polar desert: gravel plains, low rounded hills, ice-filled valleys and almost no vegetation, with muskox and caribou somehow living on it. Archaeological sites record Thule and earlier occupation. THERE IS NOTHING HERE - no facilities, no staff, no trails - and the number of recreational visitors in a year is frequently zero or close to it.

Northern Bathurst Island, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Resolute, Nunavut, Canada

THERE IS NO GATE, NO STAFF ON SITE AND NO FACILITY OF ANY KIND. The season is ROUGHLY LATE JUNE TO EARLY AUGUST, a window of a few weeks when charter aircraft can land and the ground is walkable. ACCESS IS BY CHARTERED AIRCRAFT FROM RESOLUTE BAY, itself reached by scheduled flight from Iqaluit or Yellowknife, and THE CHARTER ALONE RUNS WELL INTO FIVE FIGURES CANADIAN. PARKS CANADA REQUIRES REGISTRATION, DE-REGISTRATION AND A MANDATORY ORIENTATION, and the park is co-managed with Inuit organisations under the Nunavut Agreement. EVERYTHING IS CARRIED IN AND OUT, including fuel and waste. Weather cancels flights routinely and parties have been stranded at Resolute for days or weeks. This is one of the least-visited national parks in Canada; confirm everything with the Nunavut field unit.

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