The next day we headed on
to Yellowknife, the capital of Northwest Territories. It is across the
Great Slave Lake from Hay River, but the only way to get there is to
drive around. - a distance of 300 miles.
Great Slave Lake is enormous, on the same scale as the Great Lakes, and is the deepest fresh water lake in North America.
Great Slave Lake is drained by the Mackenzie river, which, despite its width, has a rather strong current. The Mackenzie flows north to the Arctic Ocean. Our route to Yellowknife takes us across the Mackenzie on a ferry. A bridge is under construction, but won't be done for another three years.
After crossing the Mackenzie River, the highway enters the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary. The buffalo here are wood buffalo, which are larger than the plains buffalo we have in the states. These are females with their young; they were usually seen in herds of 15-20 cows.
A bull buffalo. The bulls can weigh as much as a ton, and are the largest land animals in North America. Fortunately, they were only interesting in eating, which they seemed to do continually.
Great Slave Lake is enormous, on the same scale as the Great Lakes, and is the deepest fresh water lake in North America.
Great Slave Lake is drained by the Mackenzie river, which, despite its width, has a rather strong current. The Mackenzie flows north to the Arctic Ocean. Our route to Yellowknife takes us across the Mackenzie on a ferry. A bridge is under construction, but won't be done for another three years.
After crossing the Mackenzie River, the highway enters the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary. The buffalo here are wood buffalo, which are larger than the plains buffalo we have in the states. These are females with their young; they were usually seen in herds of 15-20 cows.
A bull buffalo. The bulls can weigh as much as a ton, and are the largest land animals in North America. Fortunately, they were only interesting in eating, which they seemed to do continually.