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The Parks / Northwest Territories / Aulavik National Park

Much of the park is sparsely vegetated upland plateau blending with the wetlands of the valley floors covered in summer sedge, cottongrass, mosses and saxifrage. Dwarf tundra shrubs, willow and alder do not grow more than a few centimetres above the thin soil. More than 150 species of flowering plants carry out their entire growing cycle in the ten weeks of sunlight, covering the greening valleys and slopes with the delicate blossoms of purple oxytrope and saxifrage, pink lousewort, creamy mountain avens and Jacob’s Ladder. In early August, the arctic willows turn colour briefly before the return of winter. Around the Eames River, fossilized wood has been found - a legacy from a time, 40 million years ago, when forests of juniper, spruce and pine covered a much warmer Banks Island.