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Old Posted Jul 7, 2011, 11:14 PM
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CanadianCentaur CanadianCentaur is offline
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Somba K'e/Yellowknife, NT, Canada

I'd like to show you Yellowknife in the summer.

The name "Somba K'e" in the thread title is the official alternate aboriginal name for Yellowknife - it shows up in many official maps of the Northwest Territories these days alongside the usual English name of the city. Somba K'e means "the place of money" in the Dogrib language (Tlicho Yatii). It's pretty apt, when you think about it. Yellowknife is not only NWT's capital, being a government town with many federal/territorial offices. It is also the main servicing area for a growing diamond mining and oil & gas industry. It is of course the largest transportation hub in Canada north of the 60th Parallel, especially for air transport, as many of the communities farther north do not have year-round highway access or at all due to the permafrost.

Yellowknife has a population of about 20,000, making it by far the largest community in the Northwest Territories. That’s just a little under half of the entire territory, which is about 41,464, as of the 2006 federal census. An interesting thing about Yellowknife and much of the Canadian North is that you will see a lot of bare rock sticking out of the ground all over the place. This is because Yellowknife sits on the Canadian Shield. It’s where there’s a lot of exposed ancient rocks because repeated Ice Age glaciation over the last two million years have stripped it bare of most topsoil and younger bedrock.

I was in Yellowknife from June 15th until the 20th, to attend a conference with the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association. This wasn't the first time I was up there, as I went up there on a road trip in July 2003 out of Grande Prairie, AB. But this time, I took a much faster option - by plane with WestJet out of Edmonton, and that took only 1.5 hours.

It was pretty warm up and mostly sunny while I was there, with highs ranging from 19°C to 26°C (66-79°F). This isn't unusual for this city at this time of the year, as its average daily high is 18°C in June and 21°C in July. Most years will see the highest summer temps go up into the high 20s and in some years, it can get over 30°C on the hottest days. Bugs, the bane of the North? There were lots, including huge dragonflies, but I never really got bitten by any mosquitoes while I was up there. I’ve found the skeeter problem a lot worse in Edmonton this year. Black flies are not a big concern in the city, either, as they’re usually only a problem when you go out into the wilderness, especially near rivers and streams.

If you also ask why you don’t see too many people in my pics, there are three main reasons, apart from the fact that YK isn’t terribly big. One is that my digital camera is a 2002-vintage Samsung D530, not one of those kinds with a telephotos lens and stuff. People can and do get very uncomfortable if they catch me pointing something like that at them. Number two is that there are a lot of aboriginal Canadians in this town, and that in many aboriginal Canadian cultures, direct eye contact is considered even more rude than among non-aboriginals, and I didn’t want to cause any problems. Number three is that some of them were taken on a Sunday, when nearly all businesses, even restaurants and bars, are shut down. Which means of course, not nearly as many people out and about.

On the way in

Pretty much the first decent view of the ground below I got - most of the trip saw near-complete cloud cover, esp. over northern Alberta. This is Hay River on the south shore of Great Slave Lake.


Despite Yellowknife having had warm weather for some time before I went, the sight of large ice floes were a surprise! This was by the north shore of Great Slave Lake and only a few minutes before landing in Yellowknife. It was about 23°C with a light breeze when I got out of the airport.


Apologies for the blurriness - the 737-600 was on a short final approach towards the airport, and it was a pretty fast approach at that.


The lovely view from my hotel room. I know the window was a bit dirty in places, but the crap’s on the outside of the window, unfortunately. In spite of the Explorer Hotel’s large windows and getting quite a bit of sun in the morning, it didn’t get very hot in my hotel room, thanks to central AC (this is a great thing, because I sleep best when it’s cool).


More of the view from my original hotel room. See that building with the very light pink and white exterior immediately to the left of the vertically striped one? That was the hotel (Chateau Nova) I had to stay in during the night the Explorer Hotel was full halfway through my stay. The Chateau Nova is a weird hotel. The in-hotel restaurant is actually on the 3rd floor and ironically has better cable TV! I had to transfer to another room after finding the window had a big crack in it, not to mention it had no AC and smelled weird (I don't know what the hell they were using to clean that suite). Not quite as nice overall as the Explorer, but at least my final room there was clean, didn't smell, and had a portable AC unit. The inside can get really hot in the summer wherever there’s no AC, as it wasn’t built with centralized AC. Sorry about the window frame getting in the way.


Yes, this is a pedway! Handy when it’s -40 outside! This is probably the only one I know of in this city, though. Most locals are used to dealing with Yellowknife’s winters, anyway.


The Explorer Hotel, where I stayed at and also where the conference took place, except for one night. The Explorer is the largest hotel in this city. This place was booked full halfway during my stay on the night of the 17th. As I mentioned earlier, I had to stay at the nearby Chateau Nova for one night and then recheck in the next day! I got funny looks and questions from fellow conference attendees while I was checking out that hotel that Friday, because this happened halfway through the conference event.


Downtown Yellowknife and the Old Town

Yes, it felt THAT warm! This was on the day I arrived.


Yellowknife does have quite a few highrise buildings for a city of its size. Many of those hold government offices, as the Northwest Territories is largely governed directly out of Ottawa and thus having fewer rights than a province. Some of the federal government business is also administered out of Edmonton.


The largest communication tower in YK (I think) and just another one of those federal government buildings. I was watching the Stanley Cup final between the Bruins and the Canucks at a bar called Surly Bob’s in the basement of the building seen below the comm tower.


Down 50th Street. The large building in the middle with the false front is the Gold Range, a hotel and probably one of the roughest bars in Yellowknife. It’s sometimes referred to as the Strange Range. It earned a notorious reputation across the North and is featured in one of the novels by the late Canadian author Mordecai Richler.


A couple more highrises downtown.


Even the suburbs have highrises!


There really *is* a road with this name! It's in the Old Town, the original main part of Yellowknife until just after WWII, when the modern-day downtown and central part of the city was built. This bear statue is at a gift shop, or something like that.


You will come across some Aboriginal Canadian artwork, both modern and traditional, in parts of the city. I like this one.


Closeup of the same artwork above:


More of the Old Town

Walking into the Old Town.


Bullocks Bistro - inside its ragged exterior was some of the BEST - and the most EXPENSIVE (about a little over CDN$40!) - fish dinner I've ever had in my life, which was a grilled filet of Arctic char with fries and a salad (both were very good as well). This isn't some snooty place where you have to dress nicer than you normally would - the food's cooked more or less by a mature lady quickly as a short-order cook with a couple of other female staff members as servers. But the cook does her job very, very well.


Modern housing architecture in Old Town.


Farther out in the Old Town from downtown.


I tried to see if another famed Yellowknife restaurant, the Wildcat Cafe, was still up, even though I knew it would be closed for the summer for renos. I asked a local walking by eating some fish and chips, and he told me that the Wildcat Cafe building was too unsound structurally, so they’d have to rebuild the whole thing. The Wildcat Cafe is perhaps the oldest restaurant in Yellowknife, having been started in 1937 and run as one until the early 1950s, when it was used as a storage building until the late 1970s. It had been operating as a restaurant once again since 1979 after some renovations. I did eat there once in 2003, and the caribou stew I ate wasn’t half bad.


The largest boat I saw in Yellowknife.


This red building looks like it’s floating on the water, but it’s probably on a really tiny island.


Some more pics...

This was taken about 2:00 am. It was actually a bit brighter than what's shown in this pic - my digicam wasn't set to take pics in light conditions this low! The bright nights didn't really bother me as much as I thought it would, probably because I grew up part of my life just north of the 55th Parallel in Grande Prairie, Alberta (you can play golf there until just after 11 pm in mid to late June – I’ve done this before). Yellowknife is only 458 km south of the Arctic Circle, or at a latitude of 62.44°N.


The view out of my hotel room, this time to the southwest, after having rechecked in on the 18th. I actually had to change hotel rooms in this same hotel a couple of times after the rechecking in – the first time was due to a badly functioning toilet and the second time because somebody didn’t bother to check out when he should have (I would’ve loved to see the look on his face when he got his hotel bill, as this is one of YK’s most expensive hotels and like most hotels, you’ll be charged an extra night if you don’t bother to check out by a certain time!). The building with the round roofs in the background is the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. It's a museum worth seeing. The other one in the foreground is the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre.


Looking south/southeast out of my hotel room.


The Northwest Territories Legislative Building, the seat of the territorial government, taken from my hotel room to the northwest.


This sign for an eye clinic reflects the diverse Aboriginal cultures in the Northwest Territories. Eleven different languages, including both English and French, are officially recognized by the Northwest Territories – more than anywhere else in North America.


Yes, this was on a Sunday. I couldn’t even get a coffee, so I had to grab a couple of Red Bulls from the local Shoppers Drug Mart, which was pretty much the only big thing open.


Around the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre and the Legislature Building

This last set of pics were taken the day before I left. It was quite hazy with smoke from forest fires, probably the one burning near Fort McMurray, Alberta at the time. It was also quite warm - up to 26°C that day.

The Northern Frontiers Visitors Centre close up. The blue-grey sidings on the exterior is made of zinc, a common metal in the Canadian North.


The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre (a museum) close up.


Downtown highrises from the wetlands near the museum.


Trees around Yellowknife tend to be quite stunted due to the long, harsh winters - usually no more than 20-30 feet (about 6-9 m) tall. The glass slab to the right of the trail (part of a miners' memorial) is a little over 6 ft (2 m) tall, so that should give you a sense of scale.


Why so many flags? Each one of these represents the 33 communities of the Northwest Territories. Given the NWT’s very sparse population, that’s how many there really is!


Inuktituk graffiti! I saw this kind writing written on the sidewalk in several places across downtown. Inuktituk is the language spoken by the Inuit (formerly known as Eskimo, but the Canadian Inuit now consider this term derogatory).


The main entrance of the Northwest Territories Legislative Building, the seat of NWT's territorial government. It was completed in 1993, and is quite nice inside. They even have a polar bear rug (complete with its head baring fangs) on the floor of the government chamber under the dome.


This cute little hut is found to the left of the Legislative Building’s main entrance. It’s only a little more than a metre, or three and a half feet tall, or about the height of a 3-4 year old child.


Unlike other provincial/territorial legislature buildings across Canada, the Legislative Building's profile is so low that you can't really see it very well from ground level, save for the entrance (hidden behind the trees in this pic) and the dome.
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Last edited by CanadianCentaur; Jul 24, 2011 at 7:48 PM.
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Old Posted Jul 7, 2011, 11:48 PM
toyota74 toyota74 is offline
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Interesting looking place,like all the exposed rock.
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Old Posted Jul 7, 2011, 11:50 PM
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This thread is very interesting and informative. I have never seen this place before.
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Old Posted Jul 8, 2011, 3:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CanadianCentaur View Post
I
Yes, it felt THAT warm! This was on the day I arrived.
What a big difference


Yellowknife -40 by Piero Damiani, on Flickr
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Old Posted Jul 8, 2011, 3:18 AM
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Thanks for that!
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Old Posted Jul 8, 2011, 3:32 AM
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Nice pictures. It's always great to see an exotic location like in one of Canada's territories. Your coverage of some everyday stuff like the sunset and languages helps to show what Yellowknife is like.
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Old Posted Jul 8, 2011, 6:05 AM
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I like the topography of the city. Nice shots, thanks!
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Old Posted Jul 8, 2011, 2:29 PM
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Thank you very much for your pictures!

Yellowknife has been always a city I´d like to visit. It must be amazing, by winter or summer.

Nature there must be wonderful.

Congratulations and greetings from Madrid, Spain!
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Old Posted Jul 22, 2011, 7:03 AM
yerfdog yerfdog is offline
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thorough tour. i've seen pics of yellowknife before, but this gave a more complete view of the geography. i like all that exposed rock.
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Old Posted Jul 22, 2011, 8:13 PM
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Great tour Mike.
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Old Posted Jul 23, 2011, 12:56 AM
Dr Nevergold Dr Nevergold is offline
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I love this thread, thanks for posting!
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Old Posted Jul 23, 2011, 1:18 AM
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very thorough, great thread. Heard of Yellowknife before but don't recall seeing pictures of it. Reminds me a bit of Fairbanks in Alaska. Hot temperatures in the summer, but can get down to -40, -50(F) in the winter.
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