Page 66 - 2025-2026 Travel Guide to Canada

QC
64
To polar bears, muskox and
caribou, the tundra, tumbling
waterways and craggy shores
are their home.
TORNGAT MOUNTAINS IN KUURURJUAC NATIONAL PARK • PATRICK GRAILLON (ABOVE); PINGUALUIT
CRATER • HEIKO WITTENBORN (TOP RIGHT); POLAR BEARS • NUNAVIK TOURISM (BOTTOM RIGHT)
Nunavik: “The Great
Land” Delivers Great Adventure
BY JOSEPHINE MATYAS
The Nunavik region of Québec’s Far North
is a nature lover’s dream come true. This
Arctic landscape sits above the 55th parallel: a
backcountry wilderness of alpine tundra,
gravity-defying mountains, remote coast-
lines, friendly Inuit communities and four
Québec national parks.
The Inuit people have journeyed and
settled on this land for more than four
millennia. Today, they guide excursions into
the inviolable grandeur of the Nunavik
Parks, marrying unspoiled adventure with
rich cultural experiences and the magical
northern lights.
PINGUALUIT NATIONAL PARK
A backcountry trip to Pingualuit goes to the
park’s signature feature—the almost
perfectly round crater filled with clear blue
rainwater, formed when a meteorite
slammed into the tundra 1.4 million years
ago. The nearby base camp at Lake
Manarsulik is the jumping-off point for
explorations into the surreal beauty of the
parklands. Winter and summer, visitors
arrive at the Inuit community of Kangiqsu-
juaq, nearby the Hudson Strait, to meet their
Inuit guides before travelling 120 km (75 mi.)
to the crater site, either by panoramic flight
or on snowmobile. In summer, adventurers
paddle Lake Manarsulik and hike the crater
rim with vistas over the treeless Arctic
tundra. In winter, there is backcountry
skiing, ice fishing, kiteskiing, fat biking,
alpine snowshoeing and a once-in-a-lifetime
chance to embrace the snow-covered tundra
by returning to Kangiqsujuaq on a multi-day,
hut-to-hut ski trek (www.nunavikparks.ca/
en/parks/pingualuit).
KUURURJUAQ NATIONAL PARK
Climb Québec’s highest summit, Mont
D’Iberville (1,646 m), and hike the foothills
of the Torngat Mountains, Canada’s tallest
peaks east of the Rockies. Its superlatives
include spellbinding vistas of rolling
tundra, spiritual summertime treks, winter
snowshoe adventures through ancient
boreal spruce forests, and camping in
traditional Inuit tents while the northern
lights play overhead. The headwaters of the
Koroc River flow from the Torngats, a place
the Inuit call “The Land of Spirits,” a nav-
igable waterway in summer for whitewater
paddling and a frozen pathway in winter
for exploring by Nordic skis. The welcoming
community of Kangiqsualujjuaq is home
base for expeditions where experienced
Inuit guides share the love of their Arctic
homeland and the richness of their culture
and history (www.nunavikparks.ca/
en/parks/Kuururjuaq).
HUDSON CUESTAS IN TURSUJUQ NATIONAL PARK • STEVE DESCHÊNES