Greetings from the Far North!

We are very excited with our new caribou & northern lights viewing camp that we will be operating in a new area for the first time in 2012: it will be a fantastic adventure! Last summer we again discovered an active white wolf 'traditional' den site with two adults and three pups on the eastern barrenlands, and operated a very successful 'Dance with Wolves' wildlife camp in July, which has led into a major documentary film contract underway for 2012! Read below to learn more about our upcoming 2012 expeditions and projects to the remote Arctic regions of northern Canada.

Join us in the Far North next summer, and come see the caribou - while you still can!

Great Canadian Wildlife Adventures was proud to host Wendy Broekx, who traveled from Australia to the far north of Canada to join two weeks of our 'Caribou, Autumn Colours & Aurora' autumn trips...

Wendy writes: "The trip was my second to Canada but my first to the 'Barren Lands' - and it certainly won’t be my last! Having never seen landscape like this was certainly an experience I will not forget. The wildlife was amazing and I felt lucky to see such variety."

Click here or on photo to see Wendy's photo essay about her trip!

Tundra wolf pups near the den on a 'Dance with Wolves' Tour

The January 'Story of the Month'

Great Canadian Wildlife Adventures was proud to host Canadian pro photography team Horst & Shirley Baender, who traveled from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to the far north of Canada to join two weeks of our 'Caribou, Autumn Colours & Aurora' trips in late August and early September. Horst has been involved in photography since the start of high school, taking photos of birds & bees and things that please. They have photographed the grizzly bears of the Khutzeymateen, the Kermodi bear of the west coast as well as polar bears in the Chuchill & Wapusk National Park areas. 

Horst & Shirley's complete photo essay is currently our December's 'Story of the Month' - click on photo to check out their northern trip with us - or to see a enlargment of the Baender's special 'Photo of the Month' of red-tinged aurora borealis & caribou antlers.

Click on photo to read Martin's Winnipeg Free Press article!

Article in the Winnipeg Free Press
Saturday, May 8, 2010

'Dancing with Caribou on the Treeless Plain'
Experience great Canadian wildlife at Baker Lake

In 2006, Canadian freelance writer Martin Zeilig joined our Clarke-Thelon River Expedition. Even though the canoe trip was delayed due to forest fire smoke, Martin still had a life-changing experience - and wrote a feature article in the Edmonton Journal about it in October 2006. He returned again to the barrens in 2009 and joined our 'Caribou, Autumn Colours & Aurora' trip, and has written a article that was published in the Winnipeg Free Press on May 8, 2010. Martin writes this:

"I was out for dinner this evening with some friends, and I was describing, in part, my trip to Baker Lake at the end of August. In fact, I've told quite a few people about it.  It was the totality of the Caribou trip that was wonderful: encountering caribou and muskox and some other wildlife as well as the arctic flora during our exhilerating hikes across the seemingly endless tundra, our good group dynamics, the awesome Aurora Borealis at night, exploring the Hamlet of Baker Lake, the plentiful and wholesome food prepared by the two Steves, your camp library, conversations, and more. This was my third trip North of 60, and I hope to do more. In fact, I'd like to make a documentary film about the North. My article on our trip will be published in the Travel section of the Winnipeg Free Press."

New Webpage:
Our Camp Mascots!

During our four decades of remote Northern operations, we have had the privilege to work with - and be owned by - several wonderful camp mascots, whose jobs ranged from grizzly 'alarms' to 'wooing' the wild wolves into the camps to check out & play with the new 'kin buddies'.

Click here or on photo to visit our new mascot's webpage!

Butter & Tango joined us in Nunavut in 2010

On-line Magazine Article:

'Good Spirit Guide'

Check out the on-line article about caribou, musk-oxen & northern lights in the March 2010 issue of written by Lynn Nicolson.

Click here or on photo to read article!

In 1999, Barry Girard from Chicago, Illinois joined our two-week canoe expedition down the Clarke & Thelon Rivers when we were based out of Yellowknife. This past 2009 autumn, he returned back north again for two-weeks of our 'Caribou, Autumn Colours & Northern Lights' trips in the Far North of Canada. Click photo to read what Barry had to say about his two Arctic adventures with us, and check out some of his awesome photography!

Book Release:
"Caribou and the North: a Shared Future"

In the fall of 2008 a wonderful new book about caribou was released. Co-written by Monty Hummel - President Emeritus of the World Wildlife Fund Canada & Dr. Justina Ray, this high-profile book includes a forward by Robert Redford and sketches by renowned artist Robert Bateman. Well, imagine our surprise to discover that 26 of the quality photos (including the cover photo) in this new book were taken by our Great Canadian Wildlife Adventures clients during various wildlife trips that we "facilitated" to remote regions of the Northwest Territories & Nunavut over the past two decades!

Click on photo to see our review about this book - and where to purchase it!

Click to enlarge photo

About the February 'Photo of the Month'...

It has been a decade since the late, great photographer Galen Rowell and his wife Barbara last attended our 'Caribou, Autumn Colours & Aurora' trips to the barrenlands of Northern Canada - and eight years since their unfortnate deaths in a tragic aircraft crash near their Calfornia home. However, Galen's immortal photography continues to appear in publications & calendars, and this is what has inspired us to present a 'flash from the past' for our Feburary 2010 'Photo of the Month'. Galen once wrote this in his journal:

"Tundra Tom doesn't promise more than he can deliver, but he does deliver more than he promises.  He never said I'd see a wolverine, or step outside my tent beside a lake reflecting the northern lights and a crescent moon as wolf howls pierced the night.. "

About the February 'Story of the Month'

Dr. Ron Burmeister

Ron Burmeister worked for thirty-five years as a medical doctor in the USA. During that time he came North with us five times starting in 1988; and most recently in 2009 on our 'Caribou, Musk-oxen & Northern Lights' trip to the Canadian Far North. Click photo to visit Ron's recent write-up he submitted to our site. Ron''s deep Christian values has also enticed him to write some inspirational articles about the spiritual element of his northern Arctic adventures: see links from his photo essay page.

Ron Burmeister flyfishes in serenity in Nunavut

About the January Story & Photo of the Month:

In August 2009, professional nature photographer David C. Olson attended our 'Caribou, Musk-oxen & Northern Lights' expeditions. David got some wonderful photos - including the northern lights & caribou shot that was used for our season's greeting e-card. Click on photo to check out David's awesome photo essay about his trip to the Far North!

See wild wolves on the tundra!

This photo of tundra wolf pups at the densite was taken by client George Nagel during a 'Dance with Wolves' trip to the central eastern barrenlands in northern Canada. A third pup was in the den while this photo was taken, and emerged shortly after. Tundra wolves and fox favor digging dens under the tree-root systems in the scattered clumps of white spruce trees that grow in sand esker systems found on mainland tundra regions of northern Canada. Den activity links directly to the northbound seasonal caribou migratory routes.

'Caribou & Wolves - 'The Endless Dance'

Great Canadian Wildlife Adventures was proud to facilitate cinematographer Jeff Turner and crew of River Road Films to several wild wolf den sites, and to the Great Summer Caribou migration. Jeff got some awesome footage - with several grizzlies coming in to a remote water crossing to feed in several caribou that were stuck in the boulders of a creek crossing. During the spring of 2004, Jeff also got some quality wolf pup footage on the upper Thelon.  This has resulted in an excellent wildlife documentary that was aired in the UK on BBC2 "The Natural World", and on Discovery Channels' Animal Planet in 2006.   Jeff had this to say about his trips with us: 

"I have filmed wolves, caribou and grizzly bears in many areas of the Canadian Arctic over the past 15 years and I have to say that the Thelon area is without a doubt the most beautiful piece of Arctic tundra I have ever experienced. It is a world class wilderness with some of the planets most spectacular scenery and wildlife that is hard if not impossible to see anywhere else. I know of no other place where you can go and watch wild wolves around their den. Wolves are one of the most difficult animals to get close to in the wild and Tom and his crew have been doing it here for years. That says a lot about their sensitivity and success as wildlife guides. Tom and his crew at Great Canadian Wildlife Adventures are ideally placed to give access to this wonderful landscape. There is no-one with more experience and knowledge of the area and they have setup a comfortable, warm and homey camp with good food and facilities in the middle of this wilderness. They live lightly on the land here trying always to keep the imprint of man to a minimum in this pristine place. I admire and appreciate the work they do and wish them much success in the future."

Jeff Turner
River Road Films
Princeton, BC, Canada

Maybe there is hope for us after all - the Environmental Review Board recommends protective status for the Upper Thelon Basin!

As the on-going development of diamonds & uranium spread across the Canadian Northern mainland, so does encroachment upon some of our very last critical North American wilderness areas. The Thelon basin is indeed such a critical place. Acknowledged in importance by some of the world's leading nature photographers and travelers, the upper Thelon is a magic land of aboriginal history & power, wildlife and raw nature.

Following a lifetime of guiding & flying photographers to this remote region, in January 2007, 'Tundra Tom' was one of many who gave presentations about the critical biological importance of this unique wilderness region at a special meeting held in Lutsel K'e, NWT by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board (MVEIRB) to discuss an application about diamond drilling for uranium on the upper Thelon basin... and we WON (for the time being)!! Click here or on photo to read the CBC News article about the MVEIRB conclusions and results of that meeting.