IN THIS EMAIL:
- Learn about the Liard River Hot Springs, an oasis in northern B.C. - Read an excerpt from The Bee Mother, a beautifully illustrated book about the essential role of the bumblebee, honeybee and yellow jacket wasp in the Xsan ecosystem - Our biweekly wildlife roundup is back and this time it's all about whales
- We launched a travel podcast! Listen to the latest episode of Here & There featuring culinary icon Michael Bonacini - Looking for your next adventure? Take a look at Nahanni River Adventures rafting trip down the Nahanni River in Nahanni National Park, N.W.T. |
| | | Nature’s bathtub: British Columbia’s Liard River Hot Springs Once a stopping point for workers carving out the Alaska Highway, these warm thermal waters are an oasis in northern B.C. By Mark Stachiew |
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| | | The Liard River Hot Springs are known to the Kaska Dena as Tū Tīkōn, meaning “hot water.” (Photo: Liza Curtis) |
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For the soldiers and civilians who battled the elements to build the Alaska Highway at a breakneck pace during the Second World War, creature comforts were few and far between. When they reached the warm and inviting waters of the Liard River Hot Springs in northeastern British Columbia after months of hard labour, they must have thought they were in heaven. Recognizing the value of the hot springs as a place for its personnel to rest and relax, in 1942 the U.S. military set up a rough boardwalk and changing huts near the area’s largest thermal pool. |
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A New QueenWinter’s chill recedes, and the spring salmon return to the fishing holes. It is an exciting time for the Gitxsan as life returns to the lax yip, the territory, and soon the majagalee, flowers, will bloom. March is the time of Wihlaxs, Black Bear’s Walking Moon. Nox Ap, the bee mother, awakens from her winter slumber along the realm of Xsan, the River of Mists. Nox Ap seems to appear from the great beyond as the bumblebee queen crawls out of her warm hiding space. Nox Ap is looking for a new home. She searches for a small underground burrow or a hollow decaying tree. Like Nox Ap, a yellow jacket wasp also seeks a new home. The yellow jacket queen needs space to hang her paper hive. Honeybees, more recently introduced to Gitxsan lands by settlers, have found their way into the wild. A swarm of honeybees and their queen have left an overcrowded hive to start a new one. |
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| (Photo: Brian Gratwicke/Flickr [CC BY 2.0 DEED]} |
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Belugas — those stocky, dome-headed, all-white, Arctic (and sub-Arctic) whales with a perpetual smile that juxtaposes their worry-lined brows — just got even goofier. Researchers at the University of Rhode Island in the U.S. have observed belugas changing the shape of their melon — the fatty bulb atop their head used for communication and echolocation — during social interactions. By watching different pairs of beluga whales at aquariums in the U.S. and Canada, they identified five major shapes and labeled them as ‘shake’, ‘push’, ‘press’, ‘lift’ and ‘flat.’ |
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| Toronto's Kensington Market is well-known for its wide array of food shops and international restaurants. (Photo: Destination Toronto) |
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Jamaica is known for its ackee and saltfish, Thailand for its pad thai, India for khichdi… But what the heck is Canadian cuisine? Listen in as we drop award-winning American journalist Scott Gurian into Toronto’s Kensington Market, one of Canada’s most lively and diverse urban neighbourhoods, to tackle this big question.
A self-described foodie, Gurian takes up the challenge with an open mind and hearty appetite. Along the way, Canadian culinary icon Michael Bonacini and other rising kitchen stars, help Gurian explore the coming of age of Canada’s vibrant gastronomy scene.
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Canadian Geographic Adventures
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| | Join Nahanni River Adventures on an incredible journey down the Nahanni River – truly the icon of Canadian wilderness rivers. The Nahanni flows through a mountainous landscape, over Virginia Falls – nearly twice the height of Niagara Falls – through Canada’s deepest river canyons, past hot springs and geological features. |
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These sights are so unique that the Nahanni River was declared the first World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1978. The Nahanni River’s reputation as a land of mystery and romance is supported by names like Deadmen’s Valley, Headless Creek, Funeral Range, Burial Range, Hells Gate and Painted Canyon. Inhabited by moose, caribou, Dall sheep, grizzly and black bears and a host of others, the Nahanni River is also rich in human history with legends and lore that are inseparable from its physical beauty. Each of Nahanni River Adventures' canoeing and rafting expeditions include Virginia Falls, the canyons and the small and isolated First Nation community of Nahanni Butte. All of the Nahanni River canoeing and rafting trips depart from Fort Simpson and include opportunities for hiking. The enthusiastic guides predict that you too, will fall in love with this regal river with such a beautiful name. |
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