# Yellowknife NWT (Canada) - Photos from my trip!



## hellospank25 (Feb 5, 2008)

Those are the photos i took when i went to Yellowknife this January. I happened to arrive during an intense period of below average temperatures and ice fog so during my 3 days there the temperature went from -39C to -43C
Unfortunately i couldn't take heaps of photos as my camera died every 5 minutes with those temperatures and it would take one hour in the warmth of my room before it would start working again

Yellowknife Airport




























Sunset at 3pm










Old Town



















Downtown


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## hellospank25 (Feb 5, 2008)

More downtown photos


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## hellospank25 (Feb 5, 2008)

More old town


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## Brisbaner21 (Jul 17, 2007)

COLD! Great shots too.


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## algonquin (Sep 24, 2004)

Awesome photos! I've had my camera fail on me a few times in Edmonton because of the cold.

Did you enjoy Yellowknife?


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## Mishevy (Sep 4, 2007)

Jeez!! So you've experienced the worst cold in your life and tons of snow... and came to a conclusion that you're staying in sunny Australia?


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## Svartmetall (Aug 5, 2007)

I'd like to say that I like the city, but I'm not sure I do. -40C is FAR too cold for me!

Nice shots though, mate!


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## hellospank25 (Feb 5, 2008)

algonquin said:


> Awesome photos! I've had my camera fail on me a few times in Edmonton because of the cold.
> 
> Did you enjoy Yellowknife?


I didn't particularly enjoy it to be honest. Even though i adore extreme cold, my ideal temperature is between -10 and -20. I happened to be there on new year day so everything was closed, there was ice fog so i couldnt take many pictures and i was almost mauled to death by an unleashed dog. On the good side i got to see the aurora borealis


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Very nice photo-tour kay:


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## Mishevy (Sep 4, 2007)

Well it seems some people are not bothered by the cold and chose to live there... can't say I understand them! :nuts:


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## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

I didn't understand the allure of places like that until I spent a few winter months in northern Ontario. It was -30 on the warm days. It took a while to get used to, but there definitely is something very captivating about isolated regions with extreme weather. Driving through a blizzard and finding refuge at some cozy lodge, the night 18 hours long, the silence of the endless dark forest, and winter white postcard vistas are some of the fond memories I have of it. 

It's far milder in Canada's south, but we still get fairly harsh winters with the exception of southwestern BC. I wouldn't trade the typical Canadian climate for a Mediterranean one for all the tea in China. Winter is a magical time that I've come to appreciate. Not only can it be stunningly pretty, but the cycle we go through each year creates a healthy ecosystem free of many of the diseases and infestations that hot regions of the world are afflicted with. The change of seasons is refreshing and breaks up the monotony of endless days of heat and humidity.


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## xzmattzx (Dec 24, 2004)

Great pictures! There have been few Yellowknife photothreads on here, and I don't think that any of the previous ones were in Winter. I can't believe that you were able to get pictures in such cold weather. My camera won't work after 10 minutes of being outside in 20s F weather (negative single digits in Celsius).

So there is an Old Town and Downtown in Yellowknife? I guess it makes sense that there is a Downtown, with the skyscrapers and commercial buildings, but I wouldn't have guessed that such a small town would have distinct residential neighborhoods.


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## monkeyronin (May 18, 2006)

hellospank25 said:


> I didn't particularly enjoy it to be honest. Even though i adore extreme cold, my ideal temperature is between -10 and -20.


You might want to consider Whitehorse then. The average temperatures in January are between -13 and -22C, compared to -23 to -31 for Yellowknife. It also has milder summers, actually, as well. 

And while I've never been to either, from what I've seen, it looks to be a nicer town (and slightly more populous) with nicer surroundings.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Its really cold btw


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## MNiemann (Sep 5, 2007)

wow those pictures just look like some place out of this world, compared to where i live. those houses were huge though! awesome pics, i can see the allure. 

why were you in yellowknife?


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## Aaron W (Jul 19, 2004)

MNiemann said:


> why were you in yellowknife?


I was going to ask the same thing. :lol: What brings a Melburnian all the way to Yellowknife in the middle of winter? I don't like it when temperatures drop to -10C here, let alone -42C. When I visited Halifax in January '07, the temperature was -20C when I arrived. I wanted to cry, haha. 

Interesting photos nonetheless.  

(It looks like in the -39C photo your eye lashes are frozen)


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## Substructure (Sep 10, 2004)

Excellent photo tour, with lots of great pictures. Too bad you didn't shoot any aurora, but I guess it was mighty cold during the night. Here are a few shots of them (it's all Yellowknife):


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## raggedy13 (Jan 25, 2007)

Interesting stuff. Thanks for the Yellowknife tour. I've always wanted to go up north and hopefully will one of these days. I must echo a few of the other posters and ask, being from Melbourne why did you go to Yellowknife of all places?


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## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

^^ I imagine for the same reasons why someone from Yellowknife would go to Melbourne. Yellowknife in winter is going to be exotic to someone from Melbourne, and vice versa. People who hate the cold will gravitate to places that are hot. People who hate the heat, will gravitate to places that are cold.


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## schmidt (Dec 5, 2002)

Thank god I like both cold and heat. But to be honest -42 looks freaking scary :runaway:

I was amazed to see that a city with no more than 20.000 inhabitants has even buildings and KFC! :lol:


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## schmidt (Dec 5, 2002)

^^ By the way, how much does it cost a cruise to Antarctica from there? I'd love to do something like that once in my life heh.


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## annman (Aug 9, 2007)

the only place they have tourist Antarctic expeditions that I know of via ship is from Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego in Argentina. Not sure how much, but remember seeing in the vicinity of US$3000, but I could very well be wrong. Many many expeditions and ships head to the Sub-Antarctic Islands of Gough, Tristan da Cunha and Marion from Cape Town and many to Antarctica itself, especially to the South African base in Queen Maud Land called SANAE, but think most are all private or scientific expeditions and aren't catered for the casual tourist.


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## Inconfidente (Oct 5, 2006)

Nice pics. I was so curious about this town because of its name and its location. Thanks for sharing it! kay:


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## xlchris (Jun 23, 2006)

Wow, very nice pictures. Why do people even go and live there :nuts:

What I know is that it takes a 24hour ride to go to another big city (Edmonton).
And what's funny, is that in the winter it can be like -40C but in the summer it can be 25C


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## girlicious_likeme (Jun 12, 2008)

xlchris said:


> Wow, very nice pictures. Why do people even go and live there :nuts:
> 
> What I know is that it takes a 24hour ride to go to another big city (Edmonton).
> And what's funny, is that in the winter it can be like -40C but in the summer it can be 25C


Firstly, to make money!!! The GDP of the Northwest Territories (in which Yellowknife is the capital) is almost $100,000 per capita. This is higher than Luxembourg's $97,000 GDP per capita. YK is dubbed as the "Diamond Capital of North America" and it has so-called "blood-free diamonds".

Secondly, Yellowknife the hub of Northern Canada. In fact, Yellowknife Airport is the busiest airport in Northern Canada, beating some international airports of Canada. There are a lot of government jobs in Yellowknife.

Thirdly, Yellowknife is in the middle of the aurora oval. Yellowknife is one of the few places in the world where you can get a high chance of seeing the northern lights. Yellowknife shows the clearest view of northern lights in Canada. There is a news that a webcam will be installed in Yellowknife to show the aurora to the rest of the world.

It depends on the speed of your car. But I went down there in 18 hrs. With a stopover in Hay River.

Yes, Yellowknife dips down to -45C during winter. And yet, it occasionally goes over 30C during summer. Thus, there are forest fires that pollute the city's air. It's quite weird because the temp is so extreme despite the huge lake (Great Slave) that is beside us. 

Without that lake, we would've been like Yakutsk, Russia. Up to 35C during summer, goes below -60C during winter.


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## CanadianCentaur (Jun 6, 2003)

^^ No wonder the name given to Yellowknife by the Dogrib First Nation is Sombak'e, which means "Money Place"!


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## RomanB (Feb 5, 2007)

girlicious_likeme said:


> Without that lake, we would've been like Yakutsk, Russia. Up to 35C during summer, goes below -60C during winter.


My friend visited Yakutsk last october. It was about -30 C


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## girlicious_likeme (Jun 12, 2008)

-30C is lower than the record low here for the month of October, which is -28.9C.

BTW...

Yakutsk and Yellowknife are sister cities. (notice they both have YK?)


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## RomanB (Feb 5, 2007)

girlicious_likeme said:


> BTW...
> 
> Yakutsk and Yellowknife are sister cities. (notice they both have YK?)


:lol: And my City to - YeKaterinburg. But without sister city in Canada


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## StevenW (Sep 12, 2002)

Looks very cold...... But the Northern lights looks so awesome. :yes:


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

-30 C is extremely cold


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## hellospank25 (Feb 5, 2008)

annman said:


> just bloody expensive!


Not that expensive if you buy a round the world ticket
they r very cheap and you can go to places which would
cost a fortune if you had a regular ticket


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## hellospank25 (Feb 5, 2008)

Just one more photo i forgot to post


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## corredor06 (Oct 13, 2008)

nice town


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## Chadoh25 (Dec 28, 2007)

Great photos!


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## Johnny Blade (Feb 8, 2009)

Typical summer day in Yellowknife huh? 

Just kidding! :lol:


hellospank25 said:


> Just one more photo i forgot to post


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## MarkusErikssen (Oct 4, 2005)

Great pictures, and wow, so cold!


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## hellospank25 (Feb 5, 2008)

xzmattzx said:


> So there is an Old Town and Downtown in Yellowknife? I guess it makes sense that there is a Downtown, with the skyscrapers and commercial buildings, but I wouldn't have guessed that such a small town would have distinct residential neighborhoods.


Yeah, there is an old town area indeed as you can see from the map below


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## MarkHerz (Oct 6, 2009)

Wow, now this is one place I've got to see! But my T.O. winter jackets would not suffice, I gotta get Canada Goose parkas haha. Very cool photos, literally too!! 

On a side note: New York Fries was named as such because the Canadian brothers who found the company purchased a fries establishment in NYC, which, served as their first store, thus the name. I was puzzled before too since when I was in NYC, I was looking for one because I was craving for poutine!!!


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## StoneRose (Sep 13, 2004)

Wow, I love winter and cold temperatures but that's just crazy.

Great photos though.


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