About our Wilderness Camps
& Field Accommodations

Placing your cursor over many of the photos will bring up a pop-up box that tells more of the story!

 

The caribou herds of mainland Nunavut are migratory animals. Their varied and often inconsistent movements across the tundra plains from season to season are critical for most other wildlife as well: wolves, fox and even birds-of-prey follow suit to the caribou.

Caribou cows & calves of the Ahiak herd crossing a tundra river in Nunavut during teh summer caribou migration / photo copyright Chris Crowley
Caribou cows & calves of the Ahiak herd crossing a tundra river in Nunavut during the summer caribou migration / copyright Chris Crowley

The key to our success with unique and often close-up wildlife encounters for photographers & film crews is our ability for efficent & quick mobility... thus our first-rate mobile tent camps - combined with aircraft and watercraft - often allow us the flexibility to move to where the animals are.

A Great Canadian wildilfe camp freshly moved to a active caribou crossing in southern Nunavut / photo copyright Robert Taylor

A Great Canadian wildilfe camp set up at an active caribou crossing in southern Nunavut / copyright Robert Taylor

 

Our unique mobile wilderness camps are designed to offer quality fishing, photographic & wildlife-viewing opportunities while encountering animals in their natural habitat in the true wilderness. 

Circleing a Great Canadian wildilfe camp before landing

One of our primary basecamps is located on a beautiful sand beach on a large lake system along the central Back River in Nunavut, Canada - strategically positioned between the Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary and Queen Maud Gulf Sanctary - our primary areas of operation. These two wilderness Sanctuaries are the largest and most remote wildlife refuges in Canada. 

Landing in a Dehaviland Beaver along the camp esker at one of the wildlife camps
Landing at the camp - Photo copyright Martin Zeilig

Getting here required a 1.2 hour /150-225 airmile charter flight from the traditional Inuit settlement of Baker Lake, Nunavut: the cost of which is included in our packages. 

To learn more about how to get to our remote camp - click here

A bull caribou grazing in autumn amidst the tents in the camp yard - we call these fearless characters 'yardboo!
A bull caribou grazing in autumn amidst the tents in the camp yard - we call these fearless characters 'yardboo! / copyright Larry Bowman

Our special camps are often situated on active wildlife water crossings where - depending on the time of season - is important range for tundra wolves during the den cycle, musk-oxen, migrating caribou herds, nesting raptors & waterfowl. Often caribou, musk-oxen and wild wolves venture right into the camp yards! 

 

Weatherport Quonset sleeping unit / Photo copyright Galen Rowell / Mountain Light Photography

 

Evening Quonsets along the still-frozen lake during the wolves trips in June / photo copyright Allicia Kelly

 

A 40 lb lake trout

 

Here we offer services & facilities that make these first-rate tent camps to be sure!  Healthy and abundant campfire-style meals are served daily. .

Dining at one of the widlife camps

We offer only small group camps: we usually only accommodate 8-12 on most wildlife & fishing trips, and up to 16 for special functions.

A Great Canadian wildlife spike camp set up for the autumn caribou / photo copyright Dr. Wayne Lynch

At the most of the camps we offer a central wash house with a hot shower & sinks; with drying racks.  Due the permafrost (permanently frozen ground) and for obvious minimum-impact reasons, toilets are of the outdoor latrine (outhouse) variety. 

We whip up some great food in our camp kitchens!
Spike camp along the Thelon River in Nunavut

Scoping for willdife in Nunavut

Many times in the past, caribou or musk-oxen are visible from the dining room while you sit and eat - and attending photographers are recommended to keep their tripods sitting close by to be ready all the time for photo opportunities!

 

A Great Canadian kitchen tent 'with a view' in Nunavut

Wildife photo opportunities abound on our Great Canadian Wildlife trips

 

At most camps we provide a central 'gathering room & library' - a comfortable relaxing area for waiting out the weather, meeting & chatting with fellow clients, or for just sitting and reading from our rich northern library on comfortable chairs.  

 

A Great Canadian wildlife camp from the air

A screened gathering tent along the central Thelon River in Nunavut

Sleeping quarters are often in versatile Hansen Weatherport insulated vinyl Quonset huts on floor platforms complete with beds, rugs, catalytic heaters, and gas lighting. These huts can weather and keep you warm in even the most extreme Arctic storms.  The amazing thing about them is that they can be taken down and re-set up in just a few hours - so the Quonsets can be moved to different areas for animal exposure should the situation arise.

The sleeping quonset huts with a sunset backdrop on the esker / photo copyright Don Nord
The sleeping quonsets along the waterfront - photo copyright Don Nord

Each 14' x 16' Quonset is separated with a divider, creating two 8' x 12' rooms. Each room has its own outside entrance, and contains two beds with thick foamie mattresses, rug, nightstand, propane catalytic heater and a gas lamp. There is room by each bed to hang clothing on hangers from the framework.

 

Lots of fresh air lead to a good nights sleeping!

Inside the sleeping tents:  thick foamie matresses, rugs, gas lights &  heaters are inside each unit / photo copyright Michael H. Francis

Comfort in the Quonsets

Communications with the 'outside world' are kept by satellite telephones - several of which are kept at the camps the outposts, in the boats on longer lake trips, and always in the aircraft. 

With portable generators, solar panels & wind generators, our primary camps have power available for a 24-hour camera battery & satellite phone charging station, video / DVD viewing capabilities, and at some camps; satellite internet capabilities.

Several motor boats, canoes and rafts are at the camps, and also placed on the field in strategic locations for fishing and wildlife encounters - and provide access to other wildlife areas.

Beaver C-FZVR at the camp / photo copyright Michael H. Francis One of several powerboats at the camps for fishing, and wildlife cruising along the lakeshore / photo copyright Terry Elliott

 

pontoon boat

 

Touring kayaks The most favorite meeting place in camp - the evening campfire during northern llghts watch!  Crusing the tundra lake in the pontoon boat

A variety of other quality expedition equipment is kept on site at most camps, including zodiac boats for fly-outs, North Face expedition tents, canoes, touring kayaks, and cooking kits /equipment for 'spike camp' use.

An overnight spike camp set up for the Great Summer Caribou Migration in Nunavut - photo copyright Eric Peterson
An overnight spike camp set up for the Great Summer Caribou Migration in Nunavut - photo copyright Eric Peterson


 

Great Canadian Wilderness Adventures

Click here to download our current trip calendar in PDF

 

 

Still undecided? Click on any of the faces below, and let our past clients & trips leaders tell you about their trips with us to the Canadian Far North!

Steve Lybeck

Tundra Tom

Andy Kammer
Martin Haefele


Dr. Ella Trussell


Brad Armstrong

Rita Marett

George Archibald

Chris Crowley
Andrew Macrae
Andrew Macrae
Bill Mullins a-smiling on the tundra - photo courtesy Beverley & Allan Morris
Bill Mullins

Julie Yamaguchi

Glen Grambo

Courtney Milne

Adele Curtis

Eric Peterson
Photo copyright Art Wolfe Inc.
Alan Weisman
Photo copyright Mountain Light Photography
Galen Rowel
Scott Schrader
Scott Schrader
Photo copyright Annika Brodén
Annika Brodén
Photo copyright Art Wolfe Inc.
Christian Heeb
Photo copyright of Bill Silliker, Jr.
Bill Silliker Jr.

Lonnie Brock

Dr. David Mech - photo copyright IWC
 Dave Mech
Lee Mann - photo copyright Annika Broden
Lee Mann

Jay Dickman

Steve Barger
Photo copyright Art Wolfe Inc.
Dennis Fast
Photo copyright Art Wolfe Inc.
Art Wolfe
Photo copyright Charlotte Richardson
Steve Maka

 

Come warm yourself by our fire.
Great Canadian Wilderness Adventures
Phone: 1-800-667-9453 (Canada & USA)
Overseas Phone: +807-662-4512
North American toll-free Fax: 866-416-5548
Email:
tundra@thelon.com
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