Out and About Camping in Yellowknife (Part 1)

Even though I’m Canadian, I really like to travel across Canada (apparently most people seem to think you need to get out of your own country to “really” travel). Especially when I get to travel Yellowknife and do some Northwest Territories camping!

Before I start, I also have to admit that although Yellowknife has a population of less than 20,000 people, I spent the whole time calling it a city opposed to the town it really should be. It seems all my skyscraper clad Singapore travel is getting slightly washed away already, I saw a 4 storey building and gaped at how much of a high rise it was..!

Anyways, getting from Fred Henne Territorial Park to downtown Yellowknife in itself is quite the adventure. There’s a 45mintute hiking trail you can take that takes you between Jackfish and Frame Lakes, offering panoramic-ly awesome views of the water and the city and a giant airplaine

… And obligatory photo-ops with the Yellowknife sign

 

It’s a knife and it’s yellow. So, Yellowknife!

The route takes you right to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre and although my job in the Northwest Territories already involves me spending the majority of my time in a museum, I couldn’t resist the temptation to visit this one, which definitely did NOT disappoint. It was full of crazy-cool old surveying equipment:

The survey transit was used in the 40s. Love the intricacy of the design!

And a badass scanography exhibit:

Basically, you scan a bunch of stuff and photoshop it into hyper-realism 

I was about to admit that it put my museum to shame, when I was informed that it literally shamed my museum by displaying OUR artifacts without so much as a “thanks for making us that much better than you, NLMCC!”

THIEVES!!

Right next door is the Northwest Territories government building, which is actually a sweet place to visit for 2 reasons: (1) the assembly room has a polar bear rug and (2) you used to get beaten with a ceremonial mace if you spoke out of turn.

Definitely not intimidating at all..!

Next up, it was off to old town (hooray for calling Yellowknife a town, not a city). First stop was the iconic Bullock’s Bistro. What the joint lacks in menu selection (Whitefish, Whitefish soup and Whitefish stew were our options), it more than makes up for in personality. The walls are covered in funny stickers and graffiti and when a buddy of mine asked for no salad with his meal, the waitstaff literally scolded him for not eating his veggies (they gave him a salad in the end anyways).

Because stickers just make everything so much more awesome

When our food finally arrived (which took quite some time and we also got scolded for waiting for our server to come around instead of barking our order right at her), it was absolutely delicious! I’m a huge fan of Whitefish, but Bullock’s adds a delicious seasoning to their pan-fried selection. In addition, the kitchen first thought we had ordered the deep-fried and ended up giving us both for the price of one. The deep fried didn’t live up to the pan fried though, or even the salad, which came with a yummy dressing of balsamic vinegar, maple syrup and soya sauce – sounds strange, but it was delicious!

Droooooool…. Whitefish… Drooooool…

Eating a Bollock’s is more of an experience than just a meal and even the questionable service fit the atmosphere perfectly. Altogether, it made for a perfect way to recharge my batteries before continuing on across Yellowknife.