Northwest Passage

Named after Frederick William Beechey, an explorer with the Royal Navy, this is one of Canada’s most important Arctic sites and has been deemed a Canadian National Historic Site. During the Franklin expedition of 1845–46, two of Franklin’s ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, anchored here with perilous results. Three of Franklin’s crew died here and are buried at marked gravesites.

On the south coast of Devon Island is Croker Bay. A glacier here actively calves off chunks of ice, creating a birthplace for icebergs. The bay was a popular stop during the 1800s, when a path to the Pacific (the Northwest Passage) was at the forefront of Arctic exploration.

Located on Devon Island, there are the remains of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police post, dating back to 1924. The RCMP cemetery is tended annually by a contingent of Mounties, who arrive especially for that purpose. Other evidence of human habitation found nearby is centuries older.

A Thule site here provides insight into how the pre-Inuit people survived and lived in the Arctic. A small polar bear observatory used by scientists in 1978 is also located on top of a rise.

Erik the Red discovered a rich hunting ground in Disko Bay, far north from the Norse settlements in the south below the Arctic Circle. But long before Erik arrived, a paleo-Eskimo culture known as the Saqqaq, inhabited and thrived in this rich and stunning landscape.

With an ice front of just under 2.5 miles (4 km), Eqip Sermia is a truly massive glacier, with huge chunks of ice seen— and heard—calving into the water below. Navigating the narrow sound on the way to the glacier requires traversing ice-clogged water, which produces an ethereal feeling as bergs grind against the ship’s hull.

An abandoned settlement on the shores of Foulk Fjord, Etah was a starting point of discovery expeditions to the North Pole. It was also the landing site of the last migration of the Inuit from the Canadian Arctic. The huts of the former village, once the most-northerly populated settlement in the world, still stand today.

Ilulissat (formerly Jakobshaven) lies approximately 350 km north of the Arctic Circle. With a population of over 4500, it is the third-largest city in Greenland, after Nuuk and Sisimiut. The city is home to more sledge-dogs than residents! Founded by Danish trader Jacob Saverin as a trading post in 1741, Ilulissat today is a center for shrimp-fishing in the region. Directly translated, “Ilulissat” is the Kalaallisut word for “icebergs.” The town is situated 2 km north of the legendary Ice Fjord, through which colossal icebergs travel out to sea. Ilulissat is also the birthplace of noted polar explorer and anthropologist Knud Rasmussen, Greenland’s revered native son. You’ll be able to enter the house where he was born in 1879 as it’s now a small museum dedicated to his achievements. From 1906 until the early 1930s, Kununnguaq, or “Little Knud,” devoted his life to Arctic studies. His greatest achievements included the Danish Ethnographical Expedition to Arctic North America, also known as the Fifth Thule Expedition, which enabled Rasmussen and his team to take archaeological, geographical and natural history data from Greenland right across the North American Arctic.

Itilleq in Greenlandic means “a hollow,” which is where this village is situated, on an island without any freshwater. The village has approximately 130 inhabitants and offers picturesque views of colorful Greenlandic houses dotted along the rocky landscape. It’s also known as a welcoming community, where you might experience “kaffemik,” a Greenlandic tradition of inviting visitors in for coffee, cakes and conversation.

Kangerlussuaq sits at the head of a 118- mile (190 km) long fjord. The tiny town has Greenland’s largest airport and a unique history. Although Inuit and their predecessors occupied or visited the area, Kangerlussuaq’s modern incarnation dates back to the U.S. occupation of Greenland as an air force base beginning in World War II.