Choose wisely. Connect locally.Add your business Wood Buffalo National Park is a vast, quiet wilderness straddling northern Alberta and the southern Northwest Territories. It is bigger than Switzerland, and most of it is boreal forest, wetlands and river delta that you reach by a single paved road, a small plane or a boat. Visitors come for wood bison, salt flats, sinkhole lakes, whooping cranes and some of the darkest night skies in the country.
Salt Plains
Wood bison along the highway
Pine Lake
Sinkholes and Rainbow Lakes
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This is Canada's largest national park, covering more than 44,000 square kilometres, and the second largest in the world. It was established in 1922 to protect the world's largest free-roaming herd of wood bison, and UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in 1983 for its bison and the Peace-Athabasca Delta.
It is not a park for crowds or quick stops. You come for space, silence and wildlife, and for the feeling of being far from everything.
The story of the bison is part of the draw. Between 1925 and 1928, thousands of plains bison were brought to the park and mixed with the local wood bison, which also brought disease into the herd.
The Salt Plains Viewpoint and Day-use Area is reached from Highway 5 and gives you a broad look at the white, salt-encrusted flats.
The Salt Plains are reached from Highway 5 inside the park. Photo: Melinaguene, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The bison roam freely, so you may see them beside the road, on meadows or crossing the pavement. Slow down, keep your distance and never leave your vehicle for a closer photo.
The park was created in 1922 to protect the wood bison. Photo: Naturedata, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Pine Lake is about 60 kilometres south of Fort Smith on Pine Lake Road and has a campground and day-use area. The lake is a base for canoe trips, swimming and picnics, and guided canoe tours run on summer Saturdays.
Pine Lake is the main campground and canoe area inside the park. Photo: Ansgar Walk, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5
The north-eastern part of the park is known for its karst sinkholes, round lakes formed when the ground dissolves and collapses.
Karst sinkholes are a feature of the north-eastern part of the park. Photo: awmcphee, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Near the park entrance off Highway 5, the Angus Fire Tower and Day-use Area is a simple picnic stop that makes a gentle introduction before you go deeper.
Wood Buffalo is the only natural nesting habitat of the endangered whooping crane, and the range is a Ramsar wetland. Ground access to nesting areas is prohibited, so viewing happens by air charter.
Wood Buffalo holds the only natural nesting habitat of the whooping crane. Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
In 2013 the park was designated the world's largest dark sky preserve. On clear winter nights the northern lights can fill the sky, and summer nights bring stars with few lights nearby.
Fort Smith, just across the Northwest Territories border, is the park's main base and has restaurants, a few guest houses, a hotel and a visitor centre.
Pelicans nest on the Slave River rapids near Fort Smith in summer. Photo: Jackson, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Fort Smith's museum is the best place to learn about fur-trade routes, Indigenous cultures and the portage around the Slave River rapids.
The Northern Life Museum in Fort Smith documents the history of the region. Photo: Bell Helicopter Textron Inc, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
On the northwest shore of Lake Athabasca, Fort Chipewyan is one of the oldest European settlements in Alberta and a hamlet with a long fur-trade history.
Fort Chipewyan sits on the northwest shore of Lake Athabasca. Photo: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Food here is simple and hearty, shaped by northern Indigenous and settler traditions. Look for bannock, a pan-fried bread served with jam or stew, and bison stew, a warming dish made with local-style red meat. Saskatoon berry pie is a prairie and northern favorite made with a native purple berry. Fort Smith has restaurants and a Northern Store for groceries.
Popular dishes to try in Wood Buffalo National Park
There are no towns inside Wood Buffalo National Park, so plan your base carefully. Fort Smith has a hotel, a few guest houses and the main visitor services, and suits first-time visitors and anyone arriving by plane or on the road from Hay River.
Pine Lake offers primitive campsites and cabins at a lakeside campground, ideal for campers and canoeists who want to wake up inside the park.
Where to stay in Wood Buffalo National Park
Summer, especially July and August, is the easiest time. Temperatures average around 17 degrees Celsius in the day, tours run from mid-June to the end of August, and roads and trails are open.
Winter is cold, with temperatures that can fall to minus 50, but it offers aurora viewing and a winter road to Fort Chipewyan.
A paved road leads from Hay River through the park to Fort Smith, a journey of about three and a half hours. Northwestern Air flies from Edmonton to Fort Smith, and Fort Smith Airport also has links to Fort Chipewyan, Hay River, High Level and Yellowknife.
A car is the best way to get around the road network. Fuel is available in Fort Smith, so fill up often because distances are long.
Visit the Fort Smith visitor centre, then explore the Northern Life Museum and the river rapids.
Head to Pine Lake for a canoe trip or a walk to the sinkholes, and stay at the campground.
Fly or boat to Fort Chipewyan and the Peace-Athabasca Delta if the schedule allows, or spend the day on a guided tour.
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