Wapusk National Park

Wapusk National Park is a National Park at Division #23, Unorganized MB, Canada

Wapusk National Park is a vast wilderness along the shore of Hudson Bay, south and east of Churchill in northern Manitoba. It covers more than 11,000 square kilometres of sub-Arctic tundra, wetland and boreal forest. Its name comes from the Cree word for white bear, and with good reason: this is one of the largest known polar bear denning areas in the world, where pregnant females dig into the snow each winter to give birth. The park straddles the meeting of forest and tundra, a landscape of peat bogs, permafrost, meandering rivers and raised gravel beaches, left behind as the land slowly rebounds from the weight of long-gone ice sheets. Caribou, Arctic and red foxes, wolves and huge numbers of birds live here. There are no roads, and access is strictly limited, mostly by air or guided tour. That isolation makes for some of the finest aurora country anywhere. At around 58°N directly beneath the auroral oval, with clear northern skies and no artificial light at all, the northern lights blaze over the frozen tundra on a high proportion of clear nights.