crackingshot

The week before last I was in Yellowknife, Canada's most northern city. I was only there a short time but had 4 hours free on friday morning before my return flight so I took a stroll through the old part of town in what was probably -20 degrees. I had reached a hill with a view point on which was an ice Inukshuk It was magnificent in the sun and I was squating down to take a photo when I heard a snort or a sniff, it was a fox just sitting enjoying the view beside me. I have photos of him close up but he is squinting into the bitterely cold wind and looks a bit of a shifty character. So this view shows him in a more noble pose and also shows some of the scene.

The shining road in the distance is a highway constructed on ice. I had no idea that mobility would be greater in winter than in the brief summer months when the only real method of transiting the actic region is by plane. The ice roads are used to supply the various industries exploring and mining the great variety of mineral wealth in this part of Canada but less formal or elaborate routes have been used in this region by the local people for as long as they have been here.

Yellowknife was a modern city with a small town charm, with a bit of a wild west feel as there were diamond prospectors, miners, hunters and law men (and quite a lot of government officials and administrators but that doesn't sound quite so exciting) So this week is a bit of a travelblog more about the place than just the photographs.

Posted by Keith McGowan on Monday, 13 March, 2006
Archived under: All, Animal, Landscape, Colour